"Grant at Vicksburg provides a thoughtful overview of Grant's military mindset during the operation, as well as a series of astutely analyzed micro-examinations of incidents, policies, and command relationships associated with the general and the siege. There's certainly more than enough material challenging conventional wisdom to make the study worthy of recommendation."—Civil War Books and Authors
"Grant at Vicksburg is much more than a biography or campaign study. The depth of Michael Ballard's research into Grant's correspondence and routine make it a study in command, control, communications, and intelligence."—Samuel Watson, Civil War Monitor
"Ballard's impressive research effort and adept analysis of events dispel many accepted notions about Grant's conduct of the Vicksburg Campaign, while also exposing the commander's human qualities."—Alan Gauthreaux, Civil War Times
"Grant at Vicksburg is a thoroughly researched and well-written account that digs a little deeper than those before it. . . . This volume brings the study of Vicksburg and Ulysses S. Grant together, creating a unique new narrative and demonstrating that Civil War scholarship will continue to offer new avenues of research for the foreseeable future."—James Sandy, H-Net
"In Grant at Vicksburg, Michael Ballard argues convincingly that the siege of Vicksburg became the essential stepping stone that molded Ulysses S. Grant militarily, administratively, and politically. These traits would ultimately lead him to success against Robert E. Lee in Virginia. Quite simply, Ballard has established himself as America's leading authority on the Civil War in Mississippi."—Larry J. Daniel, author of Days of Glory: The Army of the Cumberland, 1861–1865
"Ballard's enjoyable new book illuminates the missing gap in the story of the crucial Vicksburg Campaign in the Western Theater. A distinguished historian of Civil War Mississippi and Vicksburg, Ballard turns his expertise to a searching examination of the forty-seven-day siege that preceded the surrender of the 'Gibraltar of the Confederacy' from the perspective of Major General U. S. Grant. In this highly readable, superbly researched account, the reader learns of the challenges, pitfalls, and mistakes made by the Union commander directing the massive operation of June and July 1863. Grant at Vicksburg is an essential volume to add to any Civil War bookshelf."—Joan Waugh, author of U.S. Grant, American Hero, American Myth
"No one knows more about the titanic struggle for Vicksburg than Ballard, and no one has ever penned a better account of U. S. Grant's role in that struggle. Perceptive, balanced, and thoroughly researched, this is a model 'campaign biography' of an emerging military leader."—William L. Shea, coauthor of Vicksburg Is the Key