THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN.
OPERATIONS ON THE MISSISSIPPI--GRANT PLACED IN COMMAND--PLANS THE
CAMPAIGN--LOSS AT HOLLY SPRINGS--SHERMAN AND PORTER DESCEND THE
RIVER--SHERMAN'S ATTEMPT ON THE YAZOO--AT HAINES'S BLUFF--CAPTURE OF
ARKANSAS POST--CUTTING A CANAL--YAZOO PASS ATTEMPTED--STEELE'S
BAYOU--GRANT CROSSES THE MISSISSIPPI--GRIERSON'S RAID--ACTION AT
RAYMOND--CAPTURE OF JACKSON--BATTLE OF CHAMPION'S HILL--PEMBERTON IN
VICKSBURG--SIEGE OF THE CITY BEGUN--SURRENDER--OPERATIONS OF GUNBOAT
ON THE RIVER--A DUMMY GUNBOAT--INTERESTING INCIDENTS DURING THE SIEGE.
In the autumn of 1862, after the battles of Iuka and Corinth, the
National commanders in the West naturally began to think of further
movements southward into the State of Mississippi, and of opening the
great river and securing unobstructed navigation from Cairo to the
Gulf. The project was slow in execution, principally from division of
authority, and doubt as to what general would ultimately have the
command. John A. McClernand, who had been a Democratic member of
Congress from Illinois, and was what was known as a "political
general," spent some time in Washington, urging the plan upon the
President (who was an old acquaintance and personal friend), of course
in the expectation that he would be intrusted with its execution. But
he found little favor with General Halleck. At this time General Grant
hardly knew what were the limits of his command, or whether, indeed,
he really had any command at all.
[Illustration: COMMUNICATING WITH THE FLOTILLA.]
[Illustration: FLAG OFFICER CHARLES HENRY DAVIS. (Afterward
Rear-Admiral and Chief of Bureau of Navigation.)]
[Illustration: COMMODORE W. D. PORTER.]
Vicksburg is on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi, where it
makes a sharp bend enclosing a long, narrow peninsula. The railroad
from Shreveport, La., reaches the river at this point, and connects by
ferry with the railroad running east from Vicksburg through Jackson,
the State capital. The distance between the two cities is forty-five
miles. About a hundred miles below Vicksburg is Port Hudson, similarly
situated as to river and railways. Between these two points the great
Red River, coming from the borders of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana,
flows into the Mississippi. As the Confederates drew a large part of
their supplies from Texas and the country watered by the Red River, it
was of the first importance to them to retain control of the
Mississippi between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, especially after they
had lost New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Memphis.
After taking New Orleans, in April, 1862, Farragut had gone up the
river with some of his ships, in May, and demanded the surrender of
Vicksburg; but, though the place was then but slightly fortified, the
demand was refused, and without a land force he could not take the
city, as it was too high to be damaged by his guns. He ran by the
batteries in June, and communicated with the river fleet of Capt.
Charles H. Davis. But all the while new batteries were being planted
on the bluffs, and after a time it became exceedingly hazardous for
any sort of craft to run the gantlet under their plunging fire. In
August, a Confederate force, under Gen. John C. Breckinridge,
attempted the capture of Baton Rouge, expecting to be assisted in the
assault by an immense iron-clad ram, the _Arkansas_, which was coming
down the river. The city was occupied by a force under Gen. Thomas
Williams, who made a stubborn and bloody fight, driving off the enemy.
General Williams was killed, as were also the Confederate General
Clarke and numerous officers of lower rank on either side, and more
than six hundred men in all were killed or wounded. The ram failed to
take part in the fight, because her machinery broke down. She was
attacked next day by two or three vessels, commanded by Captain (now
Admiral) David D. Porter, and when she had been disabled her crew
abandoned her and set her on fire, and she was blown into a thousand
fragments. After this defeat, General Breckinridge turned his
attention {271} to the fortification of Port Hudson, which was made
almost as strong as Vicksburg.
On the 12th of November, 1862, General Grant received a despatch from
General Halleck placing him in command of all troops sent to his
department, and telling him to fight the enemy where he pleased. Four
days later Grant and Sherman had a conference at Columbus, and a plan
was arranged and afterward modified, by which Grant (who then had
about thirty thousand men under his personal command) was to move
southward and confront an equal force, commanded by Gen. John C.
Pemberton, on the Tallahatchie; while Sherman, with thirty thousand,
was to move from Memphis down the eastern bank of the Mississippi,
and, assisted by Porter and his gunboats, attempt the capture of
Vicksburg from the rear. If Pemberton moved toward that city, Grant
was to follow and engage him as soon as possible.
Sherman and Porter, with their usual energy, went to work with all
speed to carry out their part of the programme. Grant moved more
slowly, because he did not wish to force his enemy back upon
Vicksburg, but to hold him as far north as possible. He established
his dépôt of supplies at Holly Springs, and waited for Sherman's
movement. But the whole scheme was ruined by the activity of two
Confederate cavalry detachments under Generals Van Dorn and Forrest.
On the 20th of December Van Dorn made a dash at Holly Springs, which
was held by fifteen hundred men under a Colonel Murphy, and captured
the place and its garrison. Grant had more than two million dollars'
worth of supplies there, and as Van Dorn could not remove them he
burned them all, together with the storehouses and railroad buildings.
Forrest, making a wide detour, tore up a portion of the railroad
between Jackson, Tenn., and Columbus, Ky., so that Grant's army was
cut off from all communication with the North for more than a week. It
had not yet occurred to anybody that a large army could leave its
communications and subsist on supplies gathered in the enemy's
country; so Grant gave up this part of his plan and moved back toward
Memphis.
But Sherman and Porter, not hearing of the disaster at Holly Springs,
had proceeded with their preparations, embarked the troops, and gone
down the river in a long procession, the gunboats being placed at
intervals in the line of transports. Sherman says: "We manoeuvred by
divisions and brigades when in motion, and it was a magnificent sight.
What few of the inhabitants remained at the plantations on the river
bank were unfriendly, except the slaves. Some few guerilla parties
infested the banks, but did not dare to molest so strong a force as I
then commanded." The guerilla bands alluded to had been a serious
annoyance to the boats patrolling the river. Besides the
sharp-shooters with their rifles, small parties would suddenly appear
at one point or another with a field gun, fire at a passing boat, and
disappear before any force could be landed to pursue them. Farragut
had been obliged to destroy the town of Donaldsonville, in order to
punish and break up this practice on the lower reaches of the river.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. By permission of Dick &
Fitzgerald, N. Y., from "Twelve Decisive Battles of the War."]
The expedition arrived at Milliken's Bend on Christmas, where a
division was left, and whence a brigade was sent to break the railroad
from Shreveport. The next day the boats, with the three remaining
divisions, ascended the Yazoo thirteen miles to a point opposite the
bluffs north of Vicksburg, where the troops were landed. They were
here on the low bottom-land, which was crossed by numerous bayous,
some parts of it heavily wooded, the clearings being abandoned cotton
plantations. The bluffs were crowned with artillery, and along their
base was a deserted bed of the Yazoo. Most of the bridges were
destroyed, and the whole district was subject to inundation. It was
ugly ground for the operations of an army; but Sherman, confident that
Grant was holding Pemberton, felt sure there could not be a heavy
force on the heights, and resolved to capture them without delay. The
27th and 28th were spent in reconnoitring, selecting points for
attack, and placing the troops. On the 29th, while the gunboats made a
diversion at Haines's Bluff, and a part of Steele's division made a
feint on the right, near Vicksburg, the main force crossed the
intervening bayous at two points and attacked the centre of the
position. The battle was begun by a heavy artillery fire, followed by
musketry, and then the rush of the men. They had to face guns, at the
foot of the bluff, {272} that swept the narrow approaches, and at the
same time endure a cross-fire from the heights. Blair's brigade
reached the base of the hills, but was not properly supported by
Morgan's, and had to fall back again, leaving five hundred of its men
behind. The Sixth Missouri Regiment, at another point, had also gone
forward unsupported, reached the bluff, and could not return. The men
quickly scooped niches in the bank with their hands and sheltered
themselves in them, while many of the enemy came to the edge of the
hill, held out their muskets vertically at arm's-length, and fired
down at them. These men were not able to get back to their lines till
nightfall. This assault cost Sherman eighteen hundred and forty-eight
men, and inflicted upon the Confederates a loss of but two hundred. He
made arrangements to send a heavy force on the transports to Haines's
Bluff in the night of December 30, to be debarked at dawn, and storm
the works there, while the rest of the troops were to advance as soon
as the defences had been thus taken in reverse. But a heavy fog
prevented the boats from moving, and the next day a rain set in.
Sherman observed the water-marks on the trees ten feet above his head,
and a great deal more then ten feet above his head in the other
direction he saw whole brigades of reinforcements marching into the
enemy's intrenchments. He knew then that something must have gone
wrong with Grant's co-operating force, and so he wisely re-embarked
his men and munitions, and steamed down to the mouth of the Yazoo.
[Illustration: GUNBOATS PASSING VICKSBURG IN THE NIGHT.]
On the 4th of January, 1863, General McClernand assumed command of the
two corps that were commanded by Generals Sherman and George W.
Morgan. A fortnight before, a Confederate boat had come out of
Arkansas River and captured a mail boat, and it was known that there
was a Confederate garrison of five thousand men at Fort Hindman, or
Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas. It occurred to Sherman that there
could be no safety for boats on the Mississippi near the mouth of the
Arkansas till this post was captured or broken up; and accordingly he
asked McClernand to let him attack it with his corps, assisted by some
of the gunboats. McClernand concluded to go himself with the entire
army, and Porter also accompanied in person. They landed on the 10th,
below the fort, and drove in the pickets. That night the Confederates
toiled all night to throw up a line of works reaching from the fort
northward to an impassable swamp. On the 11th the whole National force
moved forward simultaneously to the attack, the gunboats steaming up
close to the fort and sweeping its bastions with their fire, while
Morgan's corps moved against its eastern face, and Sherman's against
the new line of works. The ground to be passed over was level, with
little shelter save a few trees and logs; but the men advanced
steadily, lying down behind every little projection, and so annoying
the artillerymen with their sharp-shooting that the guns could not be
well served. When the gunboats arrived abreast of the fort and
enfiladed it, the gunners ran down into {273} the ditch, a man with a
white flag appeared on the parapet, and presently white flags and rags
were fluttering all along the line. Firing was stopped at once, and
the fort was surrendered by its commander, General Churchill. About
one hundred and fifty of the garrison had been killed, and the
remainder, numbering forty-eight hundred, were made prisoners. The
National loss was about one thousand. The fort was dismantled and
destroyed, and the stores taken on board the fleet. McClernand
conceived a vague project for ascending the river farther, but on
peremptory orders from Grant the expedition returned to the
Mississippi, steaming down the Arkansas in a heavy snow-storm.
In accordance with instructions from Washington, Grant now took
personal command of the operations on the Mississippi, dividing his
entire force into four corps, to be commanded by Generals McClernand,
Sherman, Stephen A. Hurlbut, and James B. McPherson. Hurlbut's corps
was left to hold the lines east of Memphis, while the other troops,
with reinforcements from the North, were united in the river
expedition.
McClernand and Sherman went down the peninsula enclosed in the bend of
the river opposite Vicksburg, and with immense labor dug a canal
across it. Much was hoped from this, but it proved a failure, for the
river would not flow through it. Furthermore, there were bluffs
commanding the river below Vicksburg, and the Confederates had already
begun to fortify them; so that if the canal had succeeded, navigation
of the stream would have been as much obstructed as before. Still the
work was continued till the 7th of March, when the river suddenly rose
and overflowed the peninsula, and Sherman's men barely escaped
drowning by regiments.
Grant was surveying the country in every direction, for some feasible
approach to the flanks of his enemy. One scheme was to move through
Lake Providence and the bayous west of the Mississippi, from a point
far above Vicksburg to one far below. This involved the cutting of
another canal, from the Mississippi to one of the bayous, and
McPherson's corps spent a large part of the month of March in digging
and dredging; but this also was a failure. On the eastern side of the
Mississippi there had once been an opening, known as Yazoo Pass, by
which boats from Memphis made their way into Coldwater River, thence
into the Tallahatchie, and thence into the Yazoo above Yazoo City; but
the pass had been closed by a levee or embankment. Grant blew up the
levee, and tried this approach. But the Confederates had information
of every movement, and took prompt measures to thwart it. The banks of
the streams where his boats had to pass were heavily wooded, and great
trees were felled across the channel. Worse than this, after the boats
had passed in and removed many of the obstructions, it was found that
the enemy were felling trees across the channel behind them, so that
they might not get out again. Earthworks also were thrown up at the
point where the Yallabusha and Tallahatchie unite to form the Yazoo,
and heavily manned. Here the advance division of the expedition had a
slight engagement, with no result. Reinforcements arrived under Gen.
Isaac F. Quinby, who assumed command, and began operations for
crossing the Yallabusha and rendering the Confederate fortification
useless, when he was recalled by Grant, who had found that the
necessary light-draught boats for carrying his whole force through to
that point could not be had.
One more attempt in this direction was made before the effort to flank
Vicksburg on the north was given up. It was proposed to ascend the
Yazoo a short distance from its mouth, turn into Steele's bayou,
ascend this, and by certain passes that had been discovered get into
Big Sunflower River, and then descend that stream into the Yazoo above
Haines's Bluff. Porter and Sherman took the lead in this expedition,
and encountered all the difficulties of the Yazoo Pass project,
magnified several times--the narrow channels, the felled trees, the
want of solid ground on which troops could be manoeuvred, the horrible
swamps and canebrakes, through some of which they picked their way
with lighted candles, and the annoyance from unseen sharp-shooters
that swarmed through the whole region. Porter at one time was on the
point of abandoning his boats; but finally all were extricated, though
some of them had to back out through the narrow pass for a distance of
thirty miles.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL HENRY WALKE. (Commander of the "Tyler" and
"Carondelet.")]
In March, Farragut with his flagship and one gunboat had run by the
batteries at Port Hudson, but the remainder of his fleet had failed to
pass. Several boats had run by the batteries at Vicksburg; and Grant
now turned his attention to a project for moving an army by transports
through bayous west of the Mississippi to a point below the city,
where Porter, after running by the batteries with his iron-clads, was
to meet him and ferry the troops across to the eastern bank. The use
of the bayous was finally given up, and the army marched by the roads.
The fleet ran by the batteries on the night of April 16. As soon as it
was discovered approaching, the Confederates set fire to immense piles
of wood that they had prepared on the bank, the whole scene became as
light as day, and for an hour and a half {274} the fleet was under a
heavy fire, which it returned as it steadily steamed by; but beyond
the destruction of one transport there was no serious loss.
Bridges had to be built over bayous, and a suitable place discovered
for crossing the Mississippi. New Carthage was tried, but found
impracticable, as it was nearly surrounded by water. Grand Gulf was
strongly fortified, and on the 29th of April seven of Porter's
gunboats attacked it. They fired five hundred shots an hour for five
hours, and damaged the works somewhat, but only killed or wounded
eighteen men, while the fleet lost twenty-six men, and one boat was
seriously disabled. Grant therefore gave up the project of crossing
here, moved his transports down stream under cover of darkness, and at
daylight on the 30th began the crossing at Bruinsburg. McClernand's
corps was in the advance, and marched on Port Gibson that night. At
dawn the enemy was found in a strong position three miles west of that
place. There was sharp fighting all day, the Confederate force
numbering about eight thousand, and contesting every foot of the
ground; but the line was finally disrupted, and at night-fall they
made an orderly retreat, burning bridges behind them. The National
loss had been eight hundred and forty-nine men, killed, wounded, or
missing; the Confederate, about one thousand. Grant's movements at
this time were greatly assisted by one of the most effective cavalry
raids of the war. This was conducted by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson, who
with seventeen hundred men set out from La Grange, Tenn., on the 17th
of April, and rode southward through the whole State of Mississippi,
tearing up railroads, burning bridges, destroying supplies, eluding
every strong force that was sent out to stop him, defeating several
small ones, floundering through swamps, swimming rivers, spreading
consternation by the celerity and uncertainty of his movements, and
finally riding into Baton Rouge at the end of sixteen days with half
his men asleep in their saddles. He had lost but twenty-seven.
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT E. M. KING.]
[Illustration: LAKE PROVIDENCE.]
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COLONEL CHARLES RIVERS-ELLET.]
The fortifications at Grand Gulf were abandoned. Porter took
possession of them, and Grant established his base there. A bridge had
to be rebuilt at Port Gibson, and then Crocker's division pushed on in
pursuit of the retreating Confederates, saved a burning bridge at
Bayou Pierre, came up with them at Willow Springs, and after a slight
engagement drove them across the Big Black at Hankinson's Ferry, and
saved the bridge. There was a slight delay, for Sherman's corps and
the supplies to arrive, and then Grant pressed on resolutely with his
whole army. He had with him about forty-one thousand men, subsequently
increased to forty-five thousand; and Pemberton at this time had about
fifty thousand.
Grant moved northeasterly, toward Jackson, and on the 12th of May
found a hostile force near Raymond. It numbered but three thousand,
and was soon swept away, though not until it had lost five hundred men
and inflicted a loss of four hundred and thirty-two upon the National
troops. It was the purpose of the Union commander to move swiftly, and
beat the enemy as much as possible in detail before the scattered
forces could concentrate against him. Believing there was a
considerable force at Jackson, which he would not like to leave in his
rear, he {275} marched on that place, and the next conflict occurred
there, May 14th. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (whom we took leave of when
he was wounded at Seven Pines, nearly a year before) had just been
ordered by the Confederate Government to take command of all the
forces in Mississippi, and arrived at Jackson in the evening of the
13th, finding there about twelve thousand men subject to his orders.
Pemberton was at Edwards Station, thirty miles westward, and Grant was
between them. Johnston telegraphed to Richmond that he was too late,
but took what measures he could for defence. It rained heavily that
night, and the next morning, when the corps of Sherman and McPherson
marched against the city, they travelled roads that were a foot under
water. McPherson came up on the west, and Sherman on the southwest and
south. The enemy was met two miles out, and driven in with heavy
skirmishing. While manoeuvring was going on before the intrenchments,
the Union commanders seeking for a suitable point to assault, it was
discovered that the enemy was evacuating the place, and Grant and his
men went in at once and hoisted the National colors. They had lost two
hundred and ninety men in the skirmishing; the enemy, eight hundred
and forty-five, mostly captured. Seventeen guns were taken, but the
Confederates burned most of their stores.
Leaving Sherman at Jackson to destroy the railroad, and the factories
that were turning out goods for the Confederacy, which he did very
thoroughly, Grant ordered all his other forces to concentrate
at Bolton, twenty miles west. Marching thence westward, keeping
the corps well together, and ordering Sherman to send forward an
ammunition-train--for he knew that a battle must soon be fought--Grant
found Pemberton with twenty-three thousand men waiting to receive him
at Champion's Hill, on high ground well selected for defence, which
covered the three roads leading westward. The battle, May 15th, lasted
four hours, and was the bloodiest of the campaign. The brunt of it, on
the National side, was borne by the divisions of Hovey, Logan, and
Crocker; and Hovey lost more than one-third of his men. Logan's
division pushed forward on the right, passed Pemberton's left flank,
and held the only road by which the enemy could retreat. But this was
not known to the Union commander at the time, and when Hovey, hard
pressed, called for help, Logan was drawn back to his assistance, and
the road uncovered. A little later Pemberton was in full retreat
toward the crossing of the Big Black River, leaving his dead and
wounded and thirty guns on the field. Grant's loss in the
action--killed, wounded, and missing--was twenty-four hundred and
forty-one. Pemberton's was over three thousand killed and wounded
(including General Tilghman killed), besides nearly as many more
captured in battle or on the retreat.
The enemy was next found at the Big Black River, where he had placed
his main line on the high land west of the stream, and stationed his
advance (or, properly speaking, his rear guard) along the edge of a
bayou that ran through the low ground on the east. This advanced
position was attacked vigorously on the 17th, and when Lawler's
brigade flanked it on the right, that general leading a charge in his
shirt-sleeves, the whole line gave way, and Pemberton resumed his
retreat, burning the bridge behind him and leaving his men in the
lowland to their fate. Some swam the river, some were drowned, and
seventeen hundred and fifty were made prisoners. Eighteen guns were
captured here. The National loss was two hundred and seventy-nine.
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL J. C. PEMBERTON, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL CARTER L. STEVENSON, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL LLOYD TILGHMAN, C. S. A.]
Sherman now came up with his corps, and Grant ordered the building of
three bridges. One was a floating or raft bridge. One was made by
felling trees on both sides of the stream and letting them fall so
that their boughs would interlace over the channel, the trunks not
being cut entirely through, and so hanging to the stumps. Planks laid
crosswise on these trees made a good roadway. The third bridge was
made by using cotton bales for pontoons. Sherman's troops made a
fourth bridge farther up the stream; and that night he and Grant sat
on a log and watched the long procession of blue-coated men with
gleaming muskets marching across the swaying structure by the light of
pitch-pine torches. All the bridges were finished by morning, and that
day, the 18th, the entire army was west of the river.
Pemberton marched straight into Vicksburg, which had a long line of
defences on the land side as well as on the water front, and shut
himself up there. Grant, following closely, invested the place on the
19th. Sherman, holding the right of the line, was at Haines's Bluff,
occupying the very ground beneath which his men had suffered defeat
some months before. Here, on the Yazoo, Grant established a new base
for supplies. McPherson's corps was next to Sherman's on the left, and
McClernand's next, reaching to the river below the city. Sharp
skirmishing went on while the armies were getting into position, and
an assault in the afternoon of the 19th gained the National troops
some advantage in the advancement of the line to better ground.
Grant's army had been living for three weeks on five days' rations,
with what they could pick up in the country they passed through, which
was {276} not a little; and his first care was to construct roads in
the rear of his line, so that supplies could be brought up from the
Yazoo rapidly and regularly. He had now about thirty thousand men, the
line of defences before him was eight miles long, and he expected an
attack from Johnston in the rear. At ten o'clock on the 22d,
therefore, he ordered a grand assault, hoping to carry the works by
storm. But though the men at several points reached the breastworks
and planted their battle-flags on them, it was found impossible to
take them. McClernand falsely reported that he had carried two forts
at his end of the line, and asked for reinforcements, which were sent
to him, and a renewal of the assault was made to help him. This caused
additional loss of life, to no purpose, and shortly afterward that
general was relieved of his command, which was given to Gen. E. O. C.
Ord.
After this assault, which had cost him nearly twenty-five hundred men,
Grant settled down to a siege of Vicksburg by regular approaches. The
work went on day by day, with the usual incidents of a siege. There
was mining and counter-mining, and two large mines were exploded under
angles of the Confederate works, but without any practical result. The
great guns were booming night and day, throwing thousands of shells
into the city, and more than one citizen picked up and threw into a
heap hundreds of pounds of the iron fragments that fell into his yard.
Caves were dug in the banks where the streets had been cut through the
clayey hills, and in these the people found refuge from the shells. A
newspaper was issued regularly even to the last day of the siege, but
it was printed on the back of wallpaper. Provisions of course became
scarce, and mule-meat was eaten. Somebody printed a humorous bill of
fare, which consisted entirely of mule-meat in the various forms of
soup, roast, stew, etc. All the while the besiegers were digging away,
bringing their trenches closer to the defences, till the soldiers of
the hostile lines bandied jests across the narrow intervening space.
At the end of forty-seven days the works arrived at the point where a
grand assault must be the next thing, and at the same time famine
threatened, and the National holiday was at hand. After some
negotiation General Pemberton unconditionally surrendered the city and
his army of thirty-one thousand six hundred men, on the 4th of July,
1863, one day after Lee's defeat at Gettysburg.
Port Hudson, which Banks with twelve thousand men and Farragut with
his fleet had besieged for weeks, was surrendered with its garrison of
six thousand men, five days after the fall of Vicksburg. The entire
Confederate loss in Mississippi, from the time Grant entered the State
at Bruinsburg to the surrender, was about fifty thousand; Grant's was
about nine thousand. But the great triumph was in the opening of the
Mississippi River, which cut the Confederacy completely in two.
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD J. OGLESBY.]
By Grant's orders there was no cheering, no firing of salutes, no
expression of exultation at the surrender; because the triumph was
over our own countrymen, and the object of it all was to establish a
permanent Union.
In his correspondence with Pemberton, while demanding an unconditional
surrender, Grant had written: "Men who have shown so much endurance
and courage as those now in Vicksburg will always challenge the
respect of an adversary, and I can assure you will be treated with all
the respect due to prisoners of war. I do not favor the proposition of
appointing commissioners to arrange the terms of capitulation, because
I have no terms other than those indicated above." As soon as the
surrender was effected, the famished Confederate army was liberally
supplied with food, Grant's men taking it out of their own haversacks.
All the prisoners at Vicksburg and Port Hudson were immediately
paroled and furnished with transportation and supplies, under the
supposition that they would go to their homes and remain there till
properly exchanged.
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL NEAL DOW.]
[Illustration: COLONEL CHARLES W. LE GENDRE.]
The coöperation of Porter's fleet of river gunboats above the city,
and some of Farragut's vessels below it, had been a great assistance
during the siege, in cutting off the city from communication across
the river. General Grant's thoughtfulness and mastery of details in
great military movements are suggested by one of his letters to
Farragut at this time. Knowing that Farragut's ships would need a
constant supply of coal, he sent him a large cargo, and wrote:
"Hearing nothing from Admiral Porter, I have determined to send you a
barge of coal from here. {277} The barge will be cast adrift from the
upper end of the canal at ten o'clock to-night. Troops on the opposite
side of the point will be on the lookout, and, should the barge run
into the eddy, will start it adrift again."
[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM E. STRONG.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ADAM BADEAU.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GABRIEL J. RAINS, C. S. A.]
One of the most ludicrous incidents of the siege was the career of the
dummy monitor, sometimes called the "Black Terror." The _Indianola_,
of Porter's fleet, had been attacked by the Confederates and captured
in a sinking condition. They were hard at work trying to raise her,
when they saw something coming down the river that struck them with
terror. Admiral Porter had fitted up an old flat-boat so that, at a
little distance, it looked like a monitor. It had mud furnaces and a
smokestack made of pork barrels. Fire was built in the furnaces, and
she was set adrift on the river without a single person on board. The
men at the Vicksburg batteries were startled at the appearance of a
monitor in those waters, and opened a furious cannonade, but did not
succeed in stopping the stranger, which passed on with the current. In
the excitement, orders were given to destroy the _Indianola_, and she
was blown up just before the trick was discovered.
A few days after the capture of Vicksburg, President Lincoln wrote
this characteristically frank and generous letter to General Grant:
MY DEAR GENERAL: I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.
I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost
inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say further:
when you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should
do what you finally did--march the troops across the neck, run the
batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any
faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the
Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below
and took Fort Gibson, Grand Gulf and vicinity, I thought you should go
down the river and join General Banks; and when you turned northward,
east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make a
personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
After the surrender Grant reorganized his army, issued instructions
for the care and government of the blacks who had escaped from slavery
and come within his lines, and gave orders for furloughs to be granted
freely to those of his soldiers who had been conspicuous for their
valor and attention to duty during the campaign. It is said that he
also took particular care that no exorbitant prices should be demanded
of these soldiers on the steamboats by which they ascended the river
in going to their homes. His own modesty and loyalty are exhibited in
a letter that he wrote, a month later, when the loyal citizens of
Memphis proposed to give him a public dinner. He said: "In accepting
this testimonial, which I do at great sacrifice of personal feelings,
I simply desire to pay a tribute to the first public exhibition in
Memphis of loyalty to the Government which I represent in the
Department of the Tennessee. I should dislike to refuse, for
considerations of personal convenience, to acknowledge anywhere or in
any form the existence of sentiments which I have so long and so
ardently desired to see manifested in this department. The stability
of this Government and the unity of this nation depends solely on the
cordial support and the earnest loyalty of the people."
{278} [Illustration: THE ADVANCE ON VICKSBURG--THE FIFTEENTH CORPS
CROSSING THE BIG BLACK RIVER BY NIGHT, MAY 16, 1863.]
Of the innumerable incidents of the marches and the siege, in this
campaign, some of the most interesting were told by Gen. Manning F.
Force in a paper read before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion,
all of them being drawn from his own experience. In that campaign he
was colonel of the Twentieth Ohio infantry.
"About the 20th of April I was sent, with the Twentieth Ohio and the
Thirtieth Illinois, seven miles out from Milliken's Bend, to build a
road across a swamp. When the sun set, the leaves of the forest seemed
to exude smoke, and the air became a saturated solution of gnats. When
my mess sat down to supper under a tree, the gnats got into our
mouths, noses, eyes, and ears. They swarmed upon our necks, seeming to
encircle them with bands of hot iron. Tortured and blinded, we could
neither eat nor see. We got a quantity of cotton, and made a circle
around the group, and set it on fire. The pungent smoke made water
stream from our eyes, but drove the gnats away. We then supped in
anguish, but in peace. I sent back to camp and got some mosquito
netting from a sutler. Covering my {279} head with many folds, I
slept, waking at intervals to burn a wad of cotton. Many of the men
sat by the fire all night, fighting the gnats, and slept next day. In
the woods we found stray cattle, sheep, and hogs. A large pond was
full of fish. We lived royally.
"On the 25th of April, Logan's division marched. The Twentieth Ohio
had just drawn new clothing, but had to leave it behind. Stacking
spades and picks in the swamp, they took their place in the column as
it appeared, taking with them only the scanty supplies they had there.
Six days of plodding brought them over nearly seventy miles, to the
shore of the river opposite Bruinsburg. We marched six miles one day,
and those six miles by evening were strewn with wrecks of wagons and
their loads and half-buried guns. At a halt of some hours the men
stood in deep mud, for want of any means of sitting. Yet when we
halted at night, every man answered to his name, and went laughing to
bed on the sloppy ground.
"On the 12th of May the Seventeenth Corps marched on the road toward
Raymond. The Thirtieth Illinois was deployed with a skirmish line in
front, on the left of the road; the Twentieth Ohio, in like manner on
the right. About noon we halted--the Twentieth Ohio in an open field,
bounded by a fence to the front, beyond which was forest and rising
ground. An unseen battery on some height beyond the timber began
shelling the fields. The Twentieth advanced over the fence into the
woods. The First Brigade came up and formed on our right. All at once
the woods rang with the shrill rebel yell and a deafening din of
musketry. The Twentieth rushed forward to a creek, and used the
farther bank as breastworks. The timber beyond the creek and the fence
was free from undergrowth. The Twentieth Illinois, the regiment next
to the right of the Twentieth Ohio, knelt down in place and returned
the fire. The enemy advanced into the creek in its front. I went to
the lieutenant-colonel, who was kneeling at the left flank, and asked
him why he did not advance into the creek. He said, 'We have no
orders.' In a few minutes the colonel of the regiment was killed. It
was too late to advance, it was murder to remain, and the
lieutenant-colonel withdrew the regiment in order back behind the
fence. I cannot tell how long the battle lasted. I remember noticing
the forest leaves, cut by rifle-balls, falling in thick eddies, still
as snowflakes. At one time the enemy in our front advanced to the
border of the creek, and rifles of opposing lines crossed while
firing. Men who were shot were burned by the powder of the rifles that
sped the balls.
"In eighteen days Grant marched two hundred miles, won five battles,
four of them in six days, inflicted a loss of five thousand men,
captured eighty-eight pieces of artillery, compelled the abandonment
of all outworks, and cooped Pemberton's army within the lines of
Vicksburg, while he had opened for himself easy and safe communication
with the North. During these eighteen days the men had been without
shelter, and had subsisted on five days' rations and scanty supplies
picked up on the way. The morning we crossed the Big Black I offered
five dollars for a small piece of corn bread, and could not get it.
The soldier said bread was worth more to him than money.
"The Twentieth was placed in a road-cut, which was enfiladed by one of
the enemy's infantry intrenchments. But when we sat with our backs
pressed against the side of the cut toward Vicksburg, the balls
whistled by just outside of our knees. At sunset the company cooks
were possessed to come to us with hot coffee. They succeeded in
running the gantlet, and the garrison could hear the jingling of tin
cups and shouts of laughter as the cramped men ate their supper. After
dark we were recalled and placed on the slope of a sharp ridge, with
orders to remain in place, ready to move at any moment, and with
strict injunctions not to allow any man's head to appear above the
ridge. There we lay two or three days in line. Coffee was brought to
us by the cooks at meal-time. Not a man those two or three days left
the line without a special order. The first night Lieutenant
Weatherby, commanding the right company reported that the slope was so
steep where he was that the men as soon as they fell asleep began to
roll down hill. I had to give him leave to shift his position.
"One day when there was a general bombardment I was told a soldier
wished to see me. Under the canopy of exploding shell I found a youth,
a boy, lying on his back on the ground. He was pale and speechless;
there was a crimson hole in his breast. As I knelt by his side he
looked wistfully at me. I said, 'We must all die some time, and the
man is happy who meets death in the discharge of duty. You have done
your whole duty well.' It was all he wanted. His eyes brightened, a
smile flickered on his lips, and I was kneeling beside a corpse.
"One day when the Twentieth Ohio was in advance, we came, at a turn in
the road, upon two old colored people, man and woman, plump and sleek,
riding mules, and coming toward us. As they caught sight of the long
column of blue-coats, the woman, crossing her hands upon her bosom,
rolled up her eyes and cried in ecstasy 'Bress de Lord! Bress Almighty
God! Our friends is come, our friends is come!' On the return, we
crossed a plantation where the field-hands were ploughing. The
soldiers like mules, and the negroes gladly unharnessed them, and
helped the soldiers to mount. I said to one, 'The soldiers are taking
your mules.' The quick response was, 'An' dey is welcome to 'em, sar;
dey is welcome to 'em.' Men and women looked wistfully at the marching
column, and began to talk about joining us. They seemed to wait the
determination of a gray-headed darky who was considering. Presently
there was a shout, 'Uncle Pete's a-gwine, an' I'm a-gwine, too!' As
they flocked after us, one tall, stern woman strode along, carrying a
wooden tray and a crockery pitcher as all her effects, looking
straight to the front. Some one asked, 'Auntie, where are you going?'
She answered, without looking, 'I don't car' whicher way I go, so as I
git away from dis place.'
"When the working parties carried the saps to the base of the works,
the besieged used to light the fuses of six-pound shells and toss them
over the parapet. They would roll down among the working parties and
explode, sometimes doing serious damage. A young soldier of the
Twentieth Ohio, named Friend, devised wooden mortars. A very small
charge of powder in one of these would just lift a shell over the
enemy's parapet and drop it within. After the surrender there was much
inquiry from the garrison how they were contrived."
Concerning this tossing of the shells, one who had been a private in
Grant's army said to the writer: "I was in the trenches one evening
when a shell came over without noise, as if thrown by hand.
Fortunately it did not explode, or it would have injured a good many
of us. This greatly surprised me, and when in a few minutes another
came, I was on the watch and noted the point from which it seemed to
start. By strange luck this also failed to explode. I then laid my
rifle across the breastwork, cocked it, and put my eye to the sight,
with the muzzle facing the point from which the shell had come.
Presently I saw a man {280} rise in the enemy's trench with a third
shell in his hand--but he never threw it."
[Illustration: SIEGE OF VICKSBURG--SHOWING SOME OF THE FEDERAL
INTRENCHMENTS.]
[Illustration: MAKING GABIONS.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL SETH M. BARTON, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL N. G. EVANS, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM PRESTON, C. S. A.]
When the siege began, General Pemberton issued an order that all
non-combatants leave the city; but many of them refused to go--some
because they had no other home, or means to sustain themselves
elsewhere--and a few women and children were among those who remained.
One lady, wife of an officer in Pemberton's army, published the next
year an account of her life in the city during the siege, which is
especially interesting for its picturesque and suggestive details,
many of which are not to be found elsewhere. A few passages are here
reproduced:
"The cave [of a friend] was an excavation in the earth the size of a
large room, high enough for the tallest person to stand perfectly
erect, provided with comfortable seats, and altogether quite a large
and habitable abode (compared with some of the caves in the city),
were it not for the dampness and the constant contact with the soft
earthy walls.
"Two negroes were coming with a small trunk between them, and a
carpet-bag or two, evidently trying to show others of the profession
how careless of danger they were, and how foolish 'niggars' were to
run 'dat sort o' way.' A shell came through the air and fell a few
yards beyond the braves, when, lo! the trunk was sent tumbling, and
landed bottom upward; the carpet-bag followed--one grand somerset; and
amid the cloud of dust that arose, I discovered one porter doubled up
by the side of the trunk, and the other crouching close by a pile of
plank. A shout from the negroes on the cars, and much laughter,
brought them on their feet, brushing their knees and giggling, yet
looking quite foolish, feeling their former prestige gone. The
excitement was intense in the city. Groups of people stood on every
available position where a view could be obtained of the distant
hills, where the jets of white smoke constantly passed out from among
the trees.
"The caves were plainly becoming a necessity, as some persons had been
killed on the street by fragments of shells. The room that I had so
lately slept in had been struck by a fragment of a shell during the
first night, and a large hole made in the ceiling. Terror-stricken, we
remained crouched in the cave, while shell after shell followed each
other in quick succession. I endeavored by constant prayer to prepare
myself for the sudden death I was almost certain awaited me. My heart
stood still as we would hear the reports from the guns, and the
rushing and fearful sound of the shell as it came toward us. As it
neared, the noise became more deafening; the air was full of the
rushing sound; pains darted through my temples; my ears were full of
the confusing noise; and, as it exploded, the report flashed through
my head like an electric shock, leaving me in a quiet state of terror
the most painful that I can imagine, cowering in a corner, holding my
child to my heart--the only feeling of my life being the choking
throbs of my heart, that rendered me almost breathless. I saw one fall
in the road without the mouth of the cave, like a flame of fire,
making the earth tremble, and, with a low, singing sound, the
fragments sped on in their work of death.
"So constantly dropped the shells around the city that the inhabitants
all made preparations to live under ground during the siege.
M---- sent over and had a cave made in a hill near by. We seized the
opportunity one evening, when the gunners were probably at their
supper, for we had a few moments of quiet, to go over and take
possession.
"Some families had light bread made in large quantities, and subsisted
on it with milk (provided their cows were not killed from one milking
time to another), without any more cooking, until called on to
replenish. Though most of us lived on corn bread and bacon, served
three times a day, the only luxury of the meal consisting in its
warmth, I had some flour, and frequently had some hard, tough biscuit
made from it, there being no soda or yeast to be procured. At this
time we could also procure beef. A gentleman friend was kind enough to
offer me his camp-bed; another had his tent-fly stretched over the
mouth of our residence to shield us from the sun. And so I went
regularly to work keeping house under ground. Our new habitation was
an excavation made in the earth, and branching six feet from the
entrance, forming a cave in the shape of a T. In one of the wings my
bed fitted; the other I used as a kind of dressing-room. In this the
earth had been cut down a foot or two below the floor of the main
cave; I could stand erect here; and when tired of sitting in other
portions of my residence I bowed myself into it, and stood impassively
resting at full height--one of the variations in the still
shell-expectant life.
"We were safe at least from fragments of shell, and they were flying
in all directions. We had our roof arched and braced, the supports of
the bracing taking up much room in our confined quarters. The earth
was about five feet thick above, and seemed hard and compact.
"'Miss M----,' said one of the more timid servants, 'do they want to
kill us all dead? Will they keep doing this until we all die?' I said
most heartily, 'I hope not.' The servants we had with us seemed to
possess more courage than is usually attributed to negroes. They
seldom hesitated to cross the street for water at any time. The 'boy'
slept at the entrance of the cave, with a pistol I had given him,
telling me I need not be 'afeared--dat any one dat come dar would have
to go over his body first.' He never refused to carry out any little
article to M---- on the battlefield. I laughed heartily at a dilemma
{281} he was placed in one day. The mule that he had mounted to ride
out to the battlefield took him to a dangerous locality, where the
shells were flying thickly, and then, suddenly stopping, through
fright, obstinately refused to stir. It was in vain that George kicked
and beat him--go he would not; so, clinching his hand, he hit him
severely in the head several times, jumped down, ran home, and left
him. The mule stood a few minutes rigidly; then, looking round, and
seeing George at some distance from him, turned and followed quite
demurely.
"One morning, after breakfast, the shells began falling so thickly
around us, that they seemed aimed at the particular spot on which our
cave was located. Two or three fell immediately in the rear of it,
exploding a few minutes before reaching the ground, and the fragments
went singing over the top of our habitation. I at length became so
much alarmed--as the cave trembled excessively--for our safety, that I
determined, rather than be buried alive, to stand out from under the
earth; so taking my child in my arms, and calling the servants, we ran
to a refuge near the roots of a large fig-tree, that branched out over
the bank, and served as a protection from the fragments of shells. As
we stood trembling there--for the shells were falling all around
us--some of my gentleman friends came up to reassure me, telling me
that the tree would protect us, and that the range would probably be
changed in a short time. While they spoke, a shell, that seemed to be
of enormous size, fell, screaming and hissing, immediately before the
mouth of our cave, sending up a huge column of smoke and earth, and
jarring the ground most sensibly where we stood. What seemed very
strange, the earth closed in around the shell, and left only the newly
upturned soil to show where it had fallen.
"The cave we inhabited was about five squares from the levee. A great
many had been made in a hill immediately beyond us; and near this hill
we could see most of the shells fall. Caves were the fashion--the
rage--over besieged Vicksburg. Negroes who understood their business
hired themselves out to dig them, at from thirty to fifty dollars,
according to the size. Many persons, considering different localities
unsafe, would sell them to others who had been less fortunate or less
provident; and so great was the demand for cave workmen, that a new
branch of industry sprang up and became popular--particularly as the
personal safety of the workman was secured, and money withal.
"A large trunk was picked up after the sinking of the _Cincinnati_,
belonging to a surgeon on board. It contained {282} valuable surgical
instruments that could not be procured in the Confederacy.
"I was sitting near the entrance, about five o'clock, thinking of the
pleasant change--oh, bless me!--that to-morrow would bring, when the
bombardment commenced more furiously than usual, the shells falling
thickly around us, causing vast columns of earth to fly upward,
mingled with smoke. I was startled by the shouts of the servants and a
most fearful jar and rocking of the earth, followed by a deafening
explosion such as I had never heard before. The cave filled instantly
with powder, smoke, and dust. I stood with a tingling, prickling
sensation in my head, hands, and feet, and with a confused brain. Yet
alive!--was the first glad thought that came to me; child, servants,
all here, and saved!--from some great danger, I felt. I stepped out,
to find a group of persons before my cave, looking anxiously for me;
and lying all around, freshly torn, rose-bushes, arbor-vitæ trees,
large clods of earth, splinters, pieces of plank, wood, etc. A mortar
shell had struck the corner of the cave, fortunately so near the brow
of the hill that it had gone obliquely into the earth, exploding as it
went, breaking large masses from the side of the hill, tearing away
the fence, the shrubbery and flowers, sweeping all like an avalanche
down near the entrance of my good refuge.
"A young girl, becoming weary in the confinement of the cave, hastily
ran to the house in the interval that elapsed between the slowly
falling shells. On returning, an explosion sounded near her--one wild
scream, and she ran into her mother's presence, sinking like a wounded
dove, the life-blood flowing over the light summer dress in crimson
ripples from a death-wound in her side, caused by the shell fragment.
A fragment had also struck and broken the arm of a little boy playing
near the mouth of his mother's cave. This was one day's account.
"I was distressed to hear of a young Federal lieutenant who had been
severely wounded and left on the field by his comrades. He had lived
in this condition from Saturday until Monday, lying in the burning sun
without water or food; and the men on both sides could witness the
agony of the life thus prolonged, without the power to assist him in
any way. I was glad, indeed, when I heard the poor man had expired on
Monday morning. Another soldier left on the field, badly wounded in
the leg, had begged most piteously for water; and lying near the
Confederate intrenchments, his cries were all directed to the
Confederate soldiers. The firing was heaviest where he lay, and it
would have been at the risk of a life to have gone to him; yet a
Confederate soldier asked and obtained leave to carry water to him,
and stood and fanned him in the midst of the firing, while he eagerly
drank from the heroic soldier's canteen.
"One morning George made an important discovery--a newly made stump of
sassafras, very near the cave, with large roots extending in every
direction, affording us an inexhaustible vein of tea for future use.
We had been drinking water with our meals previous to this disclosure;
coffee and tea had long since been among the things that were, in the
army. We, however, were more fortunate than many of the officers,
having access to an excellent cistern near us; while many of our
friends used muddy water or river water.
"On another occasion, a gentleman sent me four large slices of ham,
having been fortunate enough to procure a small piece himself. Already
the men in the rifle-pits were on half rations--flour or meal enough
to furnish bread equivalent in quantity to two biscuits in two days.
They amused themselves, while lying in the pits, by cutting out little
trinkets from the wood of the parapet and the minie-balls that fell
around them. Major Fry, from Texas, excelled in skill and ready
invention, I think; he sent me one day an armchair that he had cut
from a minie-ball--the most minute affair of the kind I ever saw, yet
perfectly symmetrical. At another time, he sent me a diminutive plough
made from the parapet wood, with traces of lead, and a lead point made
from a minie-ball.
"The courier brought many letters to the inhabitants from friends
without. His manner of entering the city was singular. Taking a skiff
in the Yazoo, he proceeded to its confluence with the Mississippi,
where he tied the little boat, entered the woods, and awaited the
night. At dark he took off his clothing, placed his despatches
securely within them, bound the package firmly to a plank, and, going
into the river, he sustained his head above the water by holding to
the plank, and in this manner floated in the darkness through the
fleet, and on two miles down the river to Vicksburg, where his arrival
was hailed as an event of great importance in the still life of the
city.
"The hill opposite our cave might be called 'death's point,' from the
number of animals that had been killed in eating the grass on the
sides and summit. Horses or mules that are tempted to mount the hill
by the promise of grass that grows profusely there invariably come
limping down wounded, to die at the base, or are brought down dead
from the summit.
"A certain number of mules are killed each day by the commissaries,
and are issued to the men, all of whom prefer the fresh meat, though
it be of mule, to the bacon and salt rations that they have eaten for
so long a time without change.
"I was sewing, one day, near one side of the cave, where the bank
slopes and lights up the room like a window. Near this opening I was
sitting, when I suddenly remembered some little article I wished in
another part of the room. Crossing to procure it, I was returning,
when a minie-ball came whizzing through the opening, passed my chair,
and fell beyond it. Had I been still sitting, I should have stopped
it."
[Illustration]
{283}