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Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana (1806–1864) whose West Point classmate, Jefferson Davis, urged him to accept an appointment as a Confederate general despite a lack of combat experience. Dubbed the 'Fighting Bishop,' Polk was killed in action during the Atlanta Campaign. Unique Civil War-dated hand-drawn manuscript map of the of the Vicksburg Campaign, accomplished in ink and watercolor on an off-white 8.25 x 10 sheet, signed and inscribed on the reverse, "Lt. Col. Fremantle, with compliments of Lieut. Genl. Polk, May 29, 1863." The map, executed in an unknown hand—presumably that of a mapmaker attached to Polk's Corps in the Army of the Tennessee—details the area's various rivers, dominated by the Mississippi River along the left side, and denotes the locations of Grant's headquarters at Vicksburg, the Confederate-held Fort Pemberton, and Yazoo City in between. A mapmaker's note reads: "The red lines represent the different routes taken by the Enemy's gunboats cooperating for possession of Yazoo River. Where the red lines terminate are the points at which the expeditions have reached, and repulsed. March 30th 1863." The red line shows the Union's route upriver from Grant's headquarters to Rolling Fork, where the rebel forces halted their advance. In fine condition. The recipient of the map, Arthur Lyon Fremantle, was a British Army officer and war tourist; he spent three months (April 2–July 16, 1863) in North America, traveling through parts of the Confederate States of America and the Union, and famously witnessing the Battle of Gettysburg. While touring the South, he met several prominent Confederate officers including Dabney H. Maury, William J. Hardee, Leonidas Polk, and Braxton Bragg.
In March 1863, during the Vicksburg Campaign, General Ulysses S. Grant launched the Steele's Bayou Expedition to bypass Confederate defenses and move Union forces upstream of Gen. John C. Pemberton's defenses. The expedition, led by Admiral David Dixon Porter and supported by Union troops, navigated through a maze of bayous, including Steele's Bayou, Deer Creek, and Rolling Fork—narrow, twisting waterways that slowed their advance to a snail's pace.
Confederate forces further impeded their progress by felling trees across the river at Rolling Fork, then trapped the flotilla by doing the same across Deer Creek. Porter sent an urgent appeal for help to the Army, and then issued orders to his captains to prepare to destroy their ships rather than let them fall into enemy hands. On March 22, 1863, reinforcements arrived to fend off the Confederate patrols that were blocking the retreat, allowing Porter and his vessels to return to the Mississippi through Steele's Bayou.
The Steele's Bayou expedition was Grant's last attempt to attack Pemberton's right flank. Frustrated by the challenges of waging war in the Mississippi Delta’s swampy terrain, but determined to defeat Pemberton, he turned his attention to the enemy left flank, and soon began the movement that led to the capture of Vicksburg.
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