The Civil War was a bloody affair, with over six hundred thousand casualties for the Union and Confederacy over the course of five years. There were battles with horrible losses: Battle of Chancellorsville: thirty thousand, Battle of Antietam: twenty-six thousand, Battle of Chickamauga: thirty-five thousand, and the bloodiest, the Battle of Gettysburg: fifty-one thousand. Of the fifty-one thousand men who died at Gettysburg, twenty-eight thousand were Confederates and made up more than a third of the Army of Northern Virginia. Finally, Lee felt the horrible effect of an offensive attack on an army. Mostly the South, Lee, fought a defensive battle, because the Union was invading the South. This defeat prevented Lee from attempting to invade the North again. His army was destroyed by the Union, and he now understood that another offensive attack would end the war, with the North winning. The Southern cause was not only "wounded" by Lee's defeats, but as he was retreating, news arrived that the city of Vicksburg had fallen to General Grant's forces. The combination of the loss of men, Vicksburg, the Mississippi River, and supplies from the Western Confederacy destroyed the South's War efforts. The world saw this destruction and knew that the South could not win the war. Londoner, Henry Adams writes his thoughts on the news to his family in the States: “The disasters of the rebels are not redeemed even by any hope of success. Now it is admitted that any idea of ​​intervention is over." The casualties at Gettysburg were devastating and heralded the defeat of the South, and the taking of Vicksburg was vital to the defeat of the Confederate States. The city of Vicksburg was a strategic city for one main reason,...... middle of paper.. ....ole would suffer. His obstinacy was driven by the fact that he was a stubborn man: once wandering along the line at Vicksburg [Grant] stopped at a wayward woman's house for a drink of water. The woman taunted him, asking if he ever expected to take the fortress. “Of course,” he replied. “But when,” [he asked.] “I can't say exactly when I'll take the city, but I intend to stay here until I do, if it takes me thirty years,” [Grant declared.] This was Grant's personality, while this can be seen as a flaw; in case of war, it made him a tenacious general. He refused to leave Vicksburg until the city was his. The siege of Vicksburg shows instances of Grant's determination; when Grant was given a task, he would complete it and/or die trying. This combination of moral and physical courage with his stubborn personality made Grant an aggressive general.