Fort Pemberton (Mississippi)
Fort Pemberton is a historic artillery battery located at Leflore County, Greenwood, Mississippi. It was built in early 1863 during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. The fort was located on the route of the Yazoo Pass, near the confluence of the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha Rivers. Fort Pemberton was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 19, 1973.
Background
In the winter of 1862–1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant commanding the Army of the Tennessee conducted a series of operations to approach and capture the fortified city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, known as "The Gibraltar of the Confederacy". Since the city's fortifications on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River were formidable, Grant tried other alternatives that wouldn't require a direct approach under the Confederate guns.In the opening engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign, an advance on Vicksburg from the north by troops under the command of Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman was repulsed by Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton at the December 26–29, 1862 Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. There the Union troops also encountered formidable bluff top fortifications. Following this setback, Grant tried several waterborne alternatives. Termed "Grant's bayou operations", the idea was to find or construct alternative water routes so that troops could be brought within striking distance of Vicksburg. One of these operations was the Yazoo Pass expedition, a joint operation with Rear Admiral David D. Porter's Mississippi River Squadron.
The Yazoo Pass was an old water route from Memphis to Yazoo City, which had been closed off by Mississippi River levee construction in 1856 that sealed the Pass. Winding through a series of backwaters of the Mississippi Delta, the Pass had run from the Mississippi River into Moon Lake, to the Coldwater River, then to the Tallahatchie River, and finally into the Yazoo River at Greenwood, Mississippi. From there the Yazoo River continued south to Yazoo City and Vicksburg. Once on the Yazoo north of the defenses of Vicksburg, the Navy could disrupt Confederate shipping at Yazoo City, and the Army would be able to cross the river with scant opposition and secure a bridgehead and supply line.