Wait, what happened to all those ships he had sailing down the Mississippi to ferry him across?
Once the ships got Grant’s troops across the Mississippi River, they were used to shell Vicksburg until Grant had Pemberton penned up in Vicksburg. From that point on they were instrumental in keeping Grant’s forces resupplied with ammunition, provisions and fodder. In addition they kept up nearly a 24 hour bombardment of the city of Vicksburg until
the city surrendered.
Seven of them were gunboats. Of the other nine, three were empty and were meant to ferry troops across the river and only five of the six carrying supplies made it past Vicksburg. Other than that Grant was on his own as far as supplies were concerned.