Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode 284 of our Civil War Podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Welcome to the show.

We're back from our trip to Pennsylvania, including a few days at Gettysburg.

We had a fantastic visit to the battlefield, and we especially enjoyed the time we spent

with you folks who came out to meet us and walk pickets charged with us.

And we just want to thank everyone who came out for that.

It was an amazing experience with a great group of listeners.

But now we're back and ready to get back to Gettysburg.

As y'all will recall, when we left off last time, it was with a bit of a cliffhanger, with

German soldiers at the lower end of the DeSoto point canal watching in amazement as a massive

warship steamed up the Mississippi and dropped anchor just out of range of the Vicksburg

batteries.

It was a union warship, of course, and its arrival meant that David Farragut had returned

to Vicksburg.

To understand what was behind Farragut's return to Vicksburg, we need to backtrack a bit.

To the time when Abraham Lincoln had accepted McClearneds' proposal to raise an army of

Midwesterners and lead it against Vicksburg.

Well shortly after Lincoln approved that plan, he selected Major General Nathaniel P. Banks

to replace Benjamin Butler as Commander of the Federal's Department of the Gulf.

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