Tour Stop #11 - Great Redoubt

The Louisiana Monument on top of the Great Redoubt.

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Amenities

2 listed

Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV

The Great Redoubt is the largest forts on the Confederate line and guarded the Jackson Road. The Federal attack here on May 22 was repulsed with heavy Union losses. The low granite markers on the slope below the tour road mark the farthest advance that day the Federal regiments in this sector of the battlefield. On the right side of the road, markers show the point reached by the 7^th Missouri (Union) Infantry Regiment.

• Tour Stop #11 - The Great Redoubt

  
  

  This track discusses the efforts to capture the largest Confederate fortification, the Great Redoubt.

  Date created:

  12/31/2021

  Audio Transcript

  Located just south of the Jackson Road, the Great Redoubt was the largest of the Confederate fortifications guarding the roads to Vicksburg. With openings for five guns, it was also among the strongest too. Occupied by the 21st Louisiana Infantry, the defenders counted Abraham Lincoln's brother-in-law as an officer in their ranks.

  On May 22nd, Union General John D. Stevenson's brigade had the responsibility of taking the position. Staging just 200 yards from the fort in a ravine, his men brought scaling ladders to mount the fort's steep walls.

  After running through a deadly wall of artillery fire, and suffering terrible casualties, including the loss of six color bearers, the 7th Missouri Infantry managed to reach the base of the fort, only to make the heartbreaking discovery that their ladders were too short.

  Unable to scale the walls and break into the Great Redoubt, Stevenson's brigade had to brave the artillery and rifle fire again as they retreated from the position they had fought so hard to gain.

  Although lasting just 30 minutes, the attack cost the brigade 272 casualties. Any Confederate celebrations, however, were short lived, for three days later on the 25th of May, Union artillerymen established a massed battery just 700 yards away to pound on them day and night for the remainder of the siege.