page_title: Battle of Coffeeville
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Coffeeville / Background
caption_attribution_description: Map of the Vicksburg Campaign December 62 - March 63 of the American Civil War. Drawn in Adobe Illustrator CS5 by Hal Jespersen. Some graphic elements copied from http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/american_civil_war/index.htm, a public domain resource of the U.S. government. Graphic source file is available at http://www.posix.com/CWmaps/
context_page_description: The Battle of Coffeeville, fought December 5, 1862, was a military engagement of the American Civil War fought near Coffeeville, Mississippi.
context_section_description: By November 1862, Northern Mississippi was securely in the hands of the Union army after key, yet costly, wins at Shiloh, Iuka, and Corinth. General Ulysses S. Grant began the Mississippi Central Railroad Campaign, an overland push (following the main rail line through the heart of Mississippi, capturing the towns and rail along the way) into Mississippi with the goal of capturing Vicksburg in conjunction with General William Tecumseh Sherman, who would follow the river route South.
  After being defeated at the Battle of Corinth, Major General Earl Van Dorn's Confederate Army of West Tennessee was on the retreat. At the battle of Hatchie's Bridge, Van Dorn successfully evaded the army's capture by the Union. The Confederate army kept falling back through Oxford and then Coffeeville, constantly skirmishing with pursuing Union cavalry, who were ahead of Grant's column.
caption: Operations against Vicksburg and Grant's Bayou Operations.   Confederate   Union
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