Cannot get Graphite49 to work with Pro Tools 11 as a control surface

[sandwich]

I got a Graphite49 from Guitar Center a while ago, since I needed a MIDI keyboard.

I've gotten the keyboard working strictly as an instrument track, so I can play around with the virtual instruments, which is awesome.

My understanding was that the keyboard could also function as a control surface, meaning I could automate things like volume sliders or other Pro Tools widgets and map them to the physical sliders and knobs on the Graphite49.

Well, trying to do so has been, to understate, incredibly frustrating. Granted, I'm kind of new to all of this but I can't find the barest resources on how to do this. I can't find guides specific to the Graphite that go into even moderate detail, nor can I find any sort of generic overview of how exactly control surfaces function within Pro Tools, how to configure them (in general), etc.

So far I've gathered that the Graphite49 can function as an HUI (is that the same as Mackie?) control surface and that if configured as such under setup>peripherals it should work.

Even simple things like using the "Vacuum" virtual instrument and having the pitch bend wheel actually bend the pitch don't seem possible and I can't find any resources explaining how this could be accomplished.

I'm at the end of my rope with this.