"A comprehensive, eminently readable, lavishly illustrated, and historically accurate account" of this important yet overlooked Civil War battle (Civil War News). Jackson, Mississippi, was the third Confederate state capital to fall to Union forces. When Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant captured the important rail junction in May 1863, however, he did so almost as an afterthought. Drawing on dozens of primary sources, contextualized by the latest scholarship on Grant's Vicksburg campaign, historian Chris Mackowski offers a comprehensive account of this important battle. General Grant had his eyes set not on Jackson but on Vicksburg, the "Gibraltar of the Confederacy". As he drove through Mississippi, a chance encounter with Confederates at Raymond alerted him to a potential threat massing farther east in Jackson under the leadership of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, one of the Confederacy's most respected field officers. Grant turned on a dime and made for Jackson to confront the growing danger. Yet Johnston, for reasons that have long puzzled historians, was already planning to abandon the vital state capital.

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University in New York, where he also serves as the associate dean for undergraduate programs. He is also the historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield in Virginia. Chris, an award-winning author, has written or edited more than two dozen books, including The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863. He is the editor-in-chief of the digital history platform Emerging Civil War and managing editor of the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series published by Savas Beatie.