VICKSBURG BATTLEFIELD TOUR STOP 6: THAYER’S APPROACH
The Thayer’s Approach stop offers another excellent opportunity to see what the Union army was up against in trying to break through Confederate lines. Just imagine trying to scale the steep hill while the 26th Louisiana Infantry fired down on you. This is what was attempted during the Union attack on May 22, 1863. As would be expected, the Union soldiers were sent scurrying back down the hill. If you have the gumption, feel free to run across the field and up the hill to really see what it was like to attack the well dug-in Confederates who were in a superior position.
While the general strategy of a siege is to simply wait it out until the enemy runs out of food and ammunition, nobody could predict how long that would take. Thus, Union troops did not just sit around and wait. Various trench projects and other fighting took place throughout the area. Every Confederate fort was under constant bombardment. At this spot, Union troops under the command of General John Thayer began digging trenches up the hill towards the Confederate earthworks at the top. The plan was to get up under the Confederate position, dig a mine underneath it and pack it with gunpowder, and then blow the place up.
Confederate soldiers had a birds-eye view into any trenches being dug and could easily pick off the sappers, the military term for the engineers who built bridges, laid mines, or in this case, dug trenches and tunnels. To avoid this, Union soldiers covered the trench with small bails of river cane shafts (of the bamboo family) called fascines to form a roof. Not only did this block the Confederates’ view into the trenches, the cane shafts could help stop any bullets.
If you notice, the tour road sits on a ridge. The Union camp was to the back of the ridge while the trenches lay in front. In order to get to the trenches from their camp, the soldiers had to climb up the ridge and then run down the other side, all the while getting shot at. To avoid being target practice every time they scaled the hill, they dug a tunnel through the ridge. The tunnel is still there, though now it is reinforced with brick, and you can walk through it.
An interesting information panel with a model of the trench system clearly relates Thayer’s plan.
The terrain between the Union and Confederate lines is marked with tablets that denote how far Union troops progressed up the hill (the trench outlines can still be seen). No attack was ever carried out, for the Confederates surrendered before the trench and mine project were completed.
There is no tour stop at the top of the hill at the Confederate position, but there is a parking area where you can get out of your car and look back down onto Tour Stop 6 and get a Confederate point of view. This parking area is located between Tour Stops 9 and 10.
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Last updated on January 18, 2022