Vicksburg Campaign 1863 Numbers

[smirnoff]

Hi, I’m looking to run Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign 1863.
Finding the various OOBs is proving fairly fruitful but not the troop numbers. Can anyone point me at some sources that can give me Brigade strengths please?
Looking for McClernand’s XIII Corps, Sherman’s XV Corps, McPherson’s XVII Corps, Pemberton’s Army of the Mississippi and Johnson’s relief force.
Cheers.

[Jemima Fawr]

I don't have anything to hand, sorry, but I think that should read as McClernand's XIII Corps, rather than XII?

[smirnoff]

I don't have anything to hand, sorry, but I think that should read as McClernand's XIII Corps, rather than XII?

Ty

[Jemima Fawr]

Ty

You're welcome.  If it's any help, the 1st & 2nd Edition Fire & Fury 'Western Battles' scenario books include the Battle of Champion Hill, which involves most of the formations you're looking at.

[smirnoff]

I have those scenario books somewhere, ty.

[vtsaogames]

Don't know if this is pertinent to your style of campaign, but there was much friction between Grant and McClernand. Sherman and McPherson were Grant's buddies.

McClernand had arranged his corps to be an independent force. Grant rushed them into the campaign as each unit arrived. McClernand arrived and discovered he was a subordinate. And the odd man out. While he was more competent than usually portrayed, he was not a team player.

[smirnoff]

Very pertinent
Right up my campaign road
Ty

[smirnoff]

I stumbled on this:

The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Civil War
A COMPILATION OF THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES

https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/038

This covers the Vicksburg Campaign; buried in it are muster numbers, I'm up to Union stregth in Feb 1863.

But it's worth having a good read as it brings everything to life, these are the word of the people that were there; the McClernand/Grant exchanges are acid

[vtsaogames]

At Champion Hill, McClernand had been ordered not to bring on a major action. Aware he was unwelcome in the high command, he carefully avoided making a serious attack. Then the courier Grant sent to get him moving managed to take 2 hours getting through the woods. I did visit the battlefield in 2017. The terrain is mighty rugged and the guy wasn't a local. But McClernand waited for orders even though he must have heard the racket of the fighting around the hill. He did get moving quickly once the orders reached him and his lead units got pretty far through Confederate lines.

I'm away from home right now. Next week I'll check my bookshelves for an excellent book on the campaign and Champion Hill in particular. can't recall the title right now.

[vtsaogames]

The Union high command didn't have a monopoly on internal strife. The morning of the battle, Pemberton and Loring had a heated, profane, loud public argument, just what the waiting troops needed to hear. Loring declined to retreat with the rest of the army after the battle, instead heading south, around the Union left and joining Johnston instead.