The print is entitled: "Siege and Capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 4th, 1863. Blowing up one of the enemy"s forts and desperate charge of the Union Volunteers through the breach, June 26, 1863." The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 - July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of General John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Two major assaults (May 19 and May 22, 1863) against the Confederate fortifications were repulsed with heavy casualties. Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no re-enforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the garrison finally surrendered on July 4.