The important town of Vicksburg, which commanded the navigation of the Mississippi, was besieged, and after a resistance lasting for some months, surrendered, with its garrison of 25,000 men, on the 3d of July, and the Federal gunboats were thus able to penetrate the Mississippi and its confluents into the heart of the Confederacy.
Shortly after the battle of Chancellorsville Vincent was appointed to the command of a squadron of cavalry that was detached from Stuart's force and sent down to Richmond to guard the capital from any raids by bodies of Federal cavalry.

It had been two or three times menaced by flying bodies of horsemen, and during the cavalry advance before the battle of Chancellorsville small parties had penetrated to within three miles of the city, cutting all the telegraph wires, pulling up the rails, and causing the greatest terror.

Vincent was not sorry for the change.

It took him away from the great theater of the war, but after Chancellorsville he felt no eager desire to take part in future battles.
His duties would keep him near his home, and would give ample scope for the display of watchfulness, dash, and energy.

Consequently he took no part in the campaign that commenced in the first week in June.
Tired of standing always on the defensive, the Confederate authorities determined to carry out the step that had been so warmly advocated by Jackson earlier in the war, and which might at that time have brought it to a successful termination.