re: Vlogging Through History's YouTube series on Ulysses S. Grant's Vicksburg Campaign

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From a purely military standpoint, free of bias and the prism of politics, The Valley Campaign was far and away the most brilliant campaign of the Civil War, and perhaps the greatest in American history.

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Incorrect. It satisfied a strategic objective to be sure, but the Valley Campaign didn't do nearly as much as the Vicksburg Campaign in terms of winning the war. Jackson merely tied down an entire army and prevented it from reinforcing McClellan on the Peninsula (not that he would have done anything with the extra men anyway given his caution) by playing on the Lincoln administration's fears that a Confederate force would use the Shenandoah Valley as a backdoor to take Washington.

Grant captured an entire army, gained control of the entire Mississippi River, and split the Confederacy in two. His accomplishments in the Vicksburg campaign far outweigh what Jackson managed to achieve in the Valley.