"If there is debate on some of the finer points of Ulysses S. Grant's inland campaign, few dispute its brilliance and no one can argue with the results: Grant arrived victorious at the exact place he sought: the high ground east of Vicksburg where he had access to both the city and an open and unchallenged supply route via the Yazoo River to the north. It was the very ground Grant had wanted for months. He could finally begin the process of actually capturing Vicksburg. In the entire nine-month-long campaign, there was no more tension and drama than in these seventeen days when Grant's Army of the Tennessee marched through the wilds of Mississippi to victory after victory, tearing the heart out of the State of Mississippi and the Confederacy. This is the fifth and final of Tim's Vicksburg volumes to launch, but chronologically not the last in the five-volume series. It falls between Bayou Battles for Vicksburg (January 1 to April 30, 1863) and The Siege of Vicksburg (May 23 to July 4, 1863)"