Union ironclad gunboat USS Cairo is sunk by a remotely-detonated "torpedo" (naval mine) while clearing mines from the Yazoo River  for the attack on Haines Bluff, becoming the first armored ship sunk by  by a mine remotely detonated by hand, on December 12, 1862.

Union General William T. Sherman reaches the Yazoo River just north of the city of Vicksburg, but without support from Grant's half of the mission, he is repulsed in bloody assaults against Chickasaw Bayou from December 26 to 29.

This victory for the Confederate Army, here outnumbered two to one, results in six times as many Union casualties.