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During the second attempt to capture Vicksburg, Grant made a series of unsuccessful and highly criticized movements along bayou and canal water routes.
Finally, in April 1863, Grant marched Union troops down the west side of the Mississippi River and crossed east over at Bruinsburg using Adm. David Porter's naval ships.
Grant previously had implemented two diversion battles that confused Pemberton and allowed the Union Army to cross the Mississippi River.
After a series of battles and having taken a railroad junction near Jackson, Grant went on to defeat Confederate General John C. Pemberton at the Battle of Champion Hill.
Grant then made two assaults on the Vickburg fortress, and suffered gruesome losses.
This battle and one other at Cold Harbor were prominent in his memory as the distinctly regrettable ones of the war.
After the failed assault, Grant decided to settle for a siege lasting seven weeks.
According to biographer McFeely, as the siege began, Grant lapsed into a two day drinking episode.
Pemberton, who was in charge of the fortress, surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863.
During the Vicksburg campaign, Grant assumed responsibility for refugee-contraband slaves who were dislodged by the war and vulnerable to Confederate marauders ; President Lincoln had also authorized their recruitment into the Union Army.
Grant put the refugees under the protection of Chaplain John Eaton who authorized them to work on abandoned Confederate plantations harvesting cotton and cutting wood to fuel Union steamers.
The effort was the precursor to the Freedman's Bureau during later Reconstruction.

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