Winston Groom, novelist and author of Forrest Gump, has also written a number of well received histories, including Vicksburg, 1863. This narrative history of the Civil War’s most strategically important campaign describes the bloody two-year grind that started when Ulysses S. Grant began taking a series of Confederate strongholds in 1861, climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg two years later. For Grant and the Union it was a crucial success that captured the Mississippi River, divided the South in half, and set the stage for eventual victory.
Groom talks with Dr. Edgar about the siege of Vicksburg in a presentation that is part of the series “Conversations on the Civil War, 1863,” held at USC, Columbia, in January and February, 2013. The series was sponsored by the USC College of Arts and Sciences.
