“From April 12, 1861 to June 2, 1865, the light of the great experiment in democracy burned but dimly as more than 8,700 battles and skirmishes swept the country and extinguished more than 620,000 people. lives in the North and the South. For all Americans, it was the longest night. As David Eicher writes in his book The Longest Night, the American Civil War tore the nation apart and devastated the lives of millions. The Civil War determined whether the United States of America would remain a nation or split, becoming the Union States and the Confederate States of America. Lasting a total of five years, the war was longer than expected; it was a brutal fight and the losses were horrific: more than six hundred thousand Union and Confederate soldiers lost their lives during the war. There were sieges, battles, and skirmishes that tipped the scales from Union to Confederate domination, and back again, with each conflict slowly determining which side would win the war. During the Civil War, the year that ultimately decided the course of the remainder of the war was 1863. That year, the war witnessed the forty-seven day siege of Vicksburg, and the Battle of Gettysburg, lasting a total of three days. These conflicts were bloody and casualties were high on both sides, but without these conflicts the American Civil War would have ended differently. The Siege of Vicksburg and the Battle of Gettysburg were the turning points of the war, but the Siege of Vicksburg was the most important turning point of both conflicts. The Siege of Vicksburg was part of Ulysses S. Grant's campaign to capture the city; this lasted at least a year, and the siege of the city came at the end of this year-long struggle. The first assault on Vicksburg took place on July 1...... middle of paper ......federation. Scott understood that taking the Mississippi River meant more than dividing the South, it meant leaving three states without any way to get supplies: food and manpower to the rest of the Confederate states. This Northern Strategy focused on the city of Vicksburg as key to implementing the plan. Furthermore, it was thought to be a viable plan to bring the South "to accept with less bloodshed than any other plan." Although the plan did not lessen the bloodshed, the capture of Vicksburg gave the Union full control of the Mississippi River; Scott's plan succeeded to the last point. The Anaconda Plan "closed" the Western theater of war, shifting the focus of the war to Lee and the Eastern theater. Lee was a formidable opponent, and the fall of Vicksburg and a crushing defeat at Gettysburg devastated Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia...