Following his failure to take Vicksburg in the final months of 1862. Major General Ulysses S. Grant decides to pivot his Army of the Tennessee to the Mississippi River. Grant hopes that, with his cooperation with Rear Admiral David D. Porter's Mississippi Squadron, he can find a way to bypass the stubborn Confederate defenses that are preventing him from reaching Vicksburg's rear. To do this, Grant sets his subordinates to work on different projects, from building canals, blowing up dams, to finding hidden bayous to outflank the rebel earthworks. If his schemes ultimately do not pan out, Grant's last option is to outflank the city altogether and march upon it from the south. But before he can do this, he will need federal ships in the Confederate wedge between Vicksburg and its sister, Port Hudson. However, that will require the risky venture of running the daunting guns that infest the bluffs of Vicksburg....