General Ulysses S. Grant had been trying to take the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi, since December of 1862. Finally, after the disastrous Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, months of miserable camping in rain soaked and river flooded bottom lands, a brilliant encirclement campaign through the interior of Mississippi in April and May, two failed attempts at direct assault on the city and nearly seven weeks of siege, the beleaguered Confederates under General Joseph Pemberton surrendered the city to General Grant and the Union.