Finally, Vicksburg was important because both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis decided it was Lincoln emphasized why it must be taken and Davis why it must be saved. Midwesterners felt the river was as much theirs as the Confederates. Psychologically and politically, it was vital to the Union war effort to open the Mississippi. The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.” Let us get Vicksburg and all that country is ours. Then there is that great depot of supplies on the Yazoo. From Vicksburg these supplies can be distributed by rail all over the Confederacy. There are the Arkansas and White Rivers, which can supply cattle and hogs by the thousand. Here is the Red River which will supply the Confederates with cattle and corn to fee their armies. Abraham Lincoln commented, “See what a lot of land these fellows hold, of which Vicksburg is the key. Supplies from the Trans-Mississippi (west Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas) could be taken across the river at Vicksburg and shipped east. Vicksburg was also important because a rail line ran east to Meridian and beyond connecting the western theater of the war to the eastern. Confederate artillery planted along the Vicksburg riverfront made passage perilous for boats going in either direction. Just north of Vicksburg, the Mississippi made a sharp hairpin turn, meaning riverboats had to slow down if they were traveling south, and pick up speed if traveling north. The river, starting in Minnesota, ran south though the Midwest into the South and on into the Gulf of Mexico. For the Confederates, it was the most defensible spot on the river against Union gunboats. During the Civil War, however, the river flowed directly in front of the town and was very significant depending on who controlled it-the Union or the Confederacy. The river has moved southwest away from the front of the town now, having been replaced by a canal that connects the Yazoo River with the Mississippi. Vicksburg, Mississippi sits on high bluffs overlooking what was once the course of the Mississippi River.
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