Vicksburg is arguably Grant's most brilliant campaign of the war. The city's formidable defenses under Gen. John Pemberton were mostly facing west and north. After several failed attempts to breach them, Grant withdrew to the southwest away from the city. That's when Porter's fleet made its legendary run on April 27, 1863 to meet up with Grant and transport his army across the Mississippi River.

Once he was across and in Mississippi itself, Grant immediately headed due east and seized the state capital at Jackson, then pivoted westward and approached Vicksburg from the east. Pemberton and the defending Confederates were caught completely by surprise, and after a desperate attempt to halt the Union Army at the Battle Champion's Hill, they fell back to Vicksburg where Grant quickly bottled them up and besieged them.

The city fell to Grant on July 4, 1863. On that same day in Pennsylvania, Gen. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia withdrew from Gettysburg and began retreating back to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. The war's tide had turned against the Confederacy, and it never again regained the military initiative.

(Trivia: Gen. John C. Pemberton, the Confederate commander who surrendered Vicksburg to Grant, was actually from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a career U.S. Army officer who had married into a prominent Virginia family after his return from the Mexican-American War in 1848. When Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861, he chose to remain loyal to his in-laws rather than his country, and resigned his commission to join the Confederate cause.)

Given that some people have failed to heed the lessons of 150 years ago, perhaps we need to lay siege to Vicksburg again and starve them out, just for old time's sake.