History Is Lunch: Chris Mackowski, “The Civil War Battle of Jackson”

In late spring of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was focused on capturing Vicksburg, the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy.” A chance encounter with a small Confederate force at Raymond alerted Grant to a potential threat massing in Jackson under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. “Jackson was a vital transportation and communications hub and a major industrial center,” said Mackowski, author of the new book The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863. “Its fall would remove vital logistical support for the southern army holding Vicksburg and block future reinforcement attempts.” Grant turned and made for the capital, unaware that Johnston was already planning to abandon the city. “The loss of Jackson isolated Vicksburg and set the stage for a major confrontation a few days later at Champion Hill, one of the most decisive battles of the entire war,” said Mackowski. “The capital’s fall demonstrated that Grant could march into Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s home state and move about with impunity.”

Chris Mackowski is editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Emerging Civil War website and editor of the Emerging Civil War Series published by Savas Beatie. He earned his BA in communication from the University of Pittsburgh, his MA in English from the University of Maine, his MFA in creative writing from Goddard College, and his PhD in English and Creative Writing from Binghamton University. Mackowski is professor of communication and associate dean for undergraduate programs at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY. He serves as historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia, and has worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The author or co-author of nearly two dozen books and editor of a half-dozen essay collections on the Civil War, Mackowski serves as vice president on the board of directors for the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and on the advisory board of the Civil War Roundtable Congress.

This program is co-sponsored by the Jackson Civil War Roundtable. Signed copies of the book will be for sale.

History Is Lunch is sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi. The weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History explores different aspects of the state’s past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson, and are livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.