From its humble beginnings as a trading route for Native Americans, Northern Michigan's Inland Route has become one of the most scenic and memorable voyages anywhere in America. As a series of interconnected lakes and rivers from Cheboygan to Conway, the Inland Route touches several Northern Michigan communities and links them through her winding rivers and vast lakes. After improvements to the waterway in the 1870s, bigger boats and log booms started drifting down the route; but what once was a necessity for fur traders and lumbermen, the meandering waterway soon blossomed with dozens of tourist boats, hotels, resorts, and cottages. The result was a memorable voyage filled with natural beauty, recreation, and socialization.

In this fifth and final volume of his renowned series detailing the campaign for Vicksburg, Tim Smith sheds much-needed light to this often-misunderstood episode of the Union’s efforts to take Vicksburg. In the entire nine-month-long campaign, there was no more tension and drama than in these seventeen days when Grant’s Army of the Tennessee marched through the wilds of Mississippi, claiming victory after victory, tearing the heart out of the State of Mississippi and the Confederacy. By the end of the swift assault, Grant arrived victorious at the exact place he had worked to gain for months: the high ground east of Vicksburg where he had access to both the city and an open and unchallenged supply route via the Yazoo River to the north. He could finally begin the process of capturing Vicksburg. Civil War historians have long disagreed about how to understand this moment of the Vicksburg Campaign as they analyze Union supply lines, the swiftness of the campaign, and other salient details of Grant’s success. Amid this debate, Tim Smith has written the first standalone investigation of the Inland Campaign, which boasts new insights, keen attention to primary sources, and a broad, clear-eyed look at Grant’s brilliance as he led the Army of the Tennessee toward Vicksburg. Completing the Vicksburg series, this book lies between Smith’s Bayou Battles for Vicksburg (January 1–April 30, 1863) and The Union Assaults at Vicksburg (May 17–22, 1863).

Throughout the history of the Great Lakes many organizations have played important roles in the growth and development of the water system. Charting the Inland Seas highlights the work done by the U.S. Lake Survey, one of the most notable, yet least known, organizations in the history of the Great Lakes. With the first great influx of settlers into the Great Lakes region came the need for extensive surveys and accurate navigational charts. In the 1830s shipowners and masters pressed the federal government to begin a thorough survey of the Great Lakes in order to make available detailed maps and charts of the various routes by which the lakes could safely be sailed. In 1841, Congress appropriated $15,000 for the Corps of Topographical Engineers to begin a survey of the northern and northwestern lakes, thus marking the formation of the United States Lake Survey. Arthur M. Woodford documents how the role and responsibility of the Lake Survey grew as conditions on the Great Lakes changed over the next 135 years. Great Lakes ships evolved into larger vessels with greater drafts, creating the need for new and more exact surveys and charts. In order to more accurately predict the water levels of the Great Lakes, special forecasting techniques evolved. When erosion of beaches threatened to destroy valuable lakefront property, extensive studies by the Lake Survey determined the causes. And as the number of recreational crafts increased, a program began for the design and publication of large scale book charts for boaters to use. In addition, the U.S. Lake Survey was one of the military's major suppliers of maps and charts during the two world wars and the Korean conflict. In 1970 the federal government established the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of the Department of Commerce, and brought together, in a single agency, the major federal programs dealing with the seas and the atmosphere, and the U.S. Lake Survey was reorganized. In 1976, the U.S. Lake Survey was completely phased out, concluding an important chapter in the history of the Great Lakes.