"Covers the final, decisive campaigns for control of the Mississippi River Valley from May to July 1863, [arguing] that events west of the Mississippi were as important as those occurring on the eastern shore. Culminating in the sieges of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Union efforts also included a determination to liberate--and arm--as many slaves in the region as they could. The Confederates, desperate to avoid the calamity of losing both their forts and what they considered their chattel property, fought back with determination and imagination, hoping to somehow affect the outcome of these campaigns despite long odds"--