Port Gibson Claiborne Mississippi United States

Grant, moving his army of forty thousand troops to the west bank of the Mississippi, marches south along its length for a considerable distance until he can recross the river at Bruinsburg, which lies about thirty miles (forty-eight kilometers) south of Vicksburg.

His army recrosses to the east bank of the river by means of a Union fleet, which, under the command of Admiral David D. Porter, had run south past the batteries at Vicksburg.

Once across the river, Grant quickly begins moving northeast, though this means abandoning his already tenuous supply lines and feeding his troops off the surrounding enemy countryside.

He advances, with twenty thousand men, northeastward on the rear of Vicksburg.

He fights the victorious battle of Port Gibson on May 1 and 2, reaches Grand Gulf on May 3, and prevents the small Confederate army of General Joseph E. Johnston near Jackson from linking up with the Vicksburg forces under Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton.