On this episode of Dave Does History, we’re headed down to the bluffs of Mississippi, where, on July 4th, 1863, the city of Vicksburg surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant.

While the cannons still cooled in Gettysburg, Grant’s army delivered the blow that split the Confederacy in two and gave President Lincoln reason to declare that “the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.”

It wasn’t just a military victory, it was the moment the Union took hold of the Mississippi River and, with it, the momentum of the entire war.

We’ll explore the campaign, the siege, the suffering, and the human drama that unfolded in those trenches and caves. This wasn’t a day of fireworks for the South. It was a day of reckoning.

Stick around as we dig into the surrender of Vicksburg and why it changed everything.