Vicksburg was the campaign that made Lincoln say "Grant is my man." Through the winter of 1862–63 Grant had failed in four separate attempts to take the Confederate fortress city perched on bluffs above the Mississippi — bayou expeditions that bogged down, canals that wouldn't drain, naval probes that got chewed up by river batteries. In April 1863 he made a decision no other Union general would have made: he marched his army down the west bank of the Mississippi, had Admiral Porter run the Confederate batteries at night to bring transports below the city, ferried the entire army across into Mississippi, cut loose from his supply line, and lived off the country. In eighteen days he fought five battles — Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River — defeated two separate Confederate armies, captured the Mississippi state capital, and shut Pemberton's army inside Vicksburg's defenses. The siege lasted forty-seven days. The city surrendered on July 4, 1863. Combined with Lee's defeat at Gettysburg the day before, Vicksburg cut the Confederacy in two along the Mississippi River and made it impossible for the South to win the war by attrition. Lincoln promoted Grant to Lieutenant General — a rank held by no American officer since George Washington — and brought him east to direct all Union armies.

This W. Britain figure depicts Grant in his characteristic field kit: the plain dark blue major general's frock coat, the civilian black slouch hat, and the relaxed posture in the saddle that contemporaries said was the most natural thing they had ever seen on a horse. Grant was the best horseman the United States Military Academy at West Point had produced — at his 1843 graduation he set a high-jump record on horseback that stood for twenty-five years — and the seat the figure captures is the seat of a man who had been riding since boyhood on his father's tannery roads in Ohio. The horse is Cincinnati: a tall seventeen-hand thoroughbred, son of the legendary racehorse Lexington, given to Grant in 1864 by an admirer who had heard the general needed a better mount. Cincinnati became Grant's preferred horse for the rest of the war. Grant rode him into Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, to accept Lee's surrender. Pair this figure with President Abraham Lincoln, who promoted Grant to Lieutenant General after Vicksburg — the first American officer to hold that rank since George Washington — and brought him east to direct all Union armies; with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, the Army of the Potomac commander Grant chose not to replace, riding with Meade's army through the Overland Campaign and giving orders through him rather than around him; or with General Robert E. Lee, the opposite number Grant chased from the Rapidan to Appomattox.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31456. From the American Civil War range. Single mounted figure, supplied painted and ready for display.