Presented by John V. Quarstein, Director Emeritus, USS Monitor Center. Civil War lectures are
free with Museum admission, but reserving a seat is suggested as seating is limited. Reserve
seats online. By late 1862, Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the
Mississippi River. U.S. Grant had been given the mission of capturing this link between the
western and eastern sections of the Confederacy. Grant, with the support of fleets commanded by
David Glasgow Farragut and David Dixon Porter, were finally able to trap Confederate John C.
Pemberton into Vicksburg. The brutal siege lasted for 47 days. Grant’s victory on July 4, 1863,
enabled, according to Abraham Lincoln, ‘The Father of the Rivers now flows unvexed to the
sea.’