# What Were the Types of Sieges? Tags: military, warfare, siege - Score: 8 - Views: 1703 - Answers: 3 - Answered: yes - Asked by: Tom Au (106024 rep) - Asked: 2011-10-23 - Edited: 2012-06-06 - Site: history ## Question As I understand it, there were two types of sieges. One was where the attacking army would "camp," surrounding the city, and let the defenders run out of food. An example was Ulysses S. Grant's siege of Vicksburg. The other kind was where the attacking army would try to invade the city by breaching the walls, scaling them, or by tunneling under them (e.g. Grant's forces at St. Petersburg, Virginia, or Santa Anna at the Alamo). What considerations would cause an attacking army to choose one kind of siege over the other? Was one easier to defend against than the other? ## Answers ### Answer by Steven Drennon (score: 5 [ACCEPTED]) I don't believe there is a separate name for either type of siege, they are both considered simply a siege. The whole point of a siege in general is to overtake the castle, and as you indicated, there are different means for going about doing this. The considerations for choosing one over the other ultimately comes down to a basic f