Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg

On May 16, 1863, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant engaged Confederate troops commanded by Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton near Champion Hill, Mississippi, approximately twenty miles east of Vicksburg. The battle involved intense fighting that shifted between the two sides until superior Union leadership fractured the Confederate line, forcing Pemberton's army to retreat. This victory determined the outcome of both Vicksburg and its field army, elevated Grant to national prominence, and led to his appointment as commander of all US armed forces. Timothy B. Smith, a historian with the National Park Service, provides a comprehensive account of this previously understudied engagement. Drawing on extensive primary research, the work examines the strategic and tactical dimensions of the battle. The book received a nonfiction prize from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.