General Sherman’s next Post—The Steele’s Bayou Expedition—A
Trial of Courage—The Leader’s Heroism.
TO secure the forces necessary for a new movement against Vicksburg,
General Grant requested the War Department to reunite the thirteenth and
fifteenth corps with his own. Accordingly, after the completion of the
work of destruction of rebel defences and munitions at Arkansas Post,
the troops reported to him at Memphis.
The country was then excited over a quiet, and yet startling act of the
Chief Magistrate—one which would be felt over the world, and through
all ages—the Proclamation of Emancipation! General Grant immediately
addressed himself to the enforcement of its provisions within the limits
of his command. Thousands wept for joy; thousands more trembled or
cursed with alarm over the immortal document. Issuing his order in
harmony with it, he soon after removed a portion of his magnificent army
to Young’s Point, in Louisiana, and another at Milliken’s Bend down the
Mississippi River, taking up his headquarters at the former place, where
General Sherman was also stationed with his troops.
There was now a new device to get _around_ Vicksburg, and so open
communication with forces below the city. Canals were tried, but heavy
rains, and the troops being required to _fight_ the floods rushing into
camp and excavations, compelled the commander-in-chief to abandon the
enterprise. Providence Lake and its connections, and Yazoo Pass, were
successively explored, and the effort made to find a ship-path through
the wild region.
Admiral Porter had been looking along the shores of the “Father of
Waters,” to see if he could discover a highway or _byway_ for his
gunboats. About the middle of March, 1862, he told General Grant that he
was quite sure he could get through by Steele’s Bayou, Black Bayou, to
Duck Creek, thence to Deer Creek, into Rolling Fork, and down Sunflower
River into the Yazoo, which empties into the Mississippi.
[Illustration: IN THE BAYOUS.]
General Grant and Admiral Porter proceeded on the experimental excursion
over these dark bayous. “And what are they?” you may ask.
A bayou is a channel or outlet running from a river to other
waters—sometimes it is an old bed of the stream—forming thus
connections by which vessels can pass from one stream to another.
General Grant returned to Young’s Point to send a pioneer corps to cut
away moss-covered trees overhanging the waters, and obstructing the way.
You can scarcely imagine the awful gloom and solitude of those tangled
woods, whose drooping boughs and long plumes of moss sweep the surface
of the dismal bayous.
Admiral Porter soon found that the enemy were on his track, and might
shut him into the wilderness. He therefore sent to General Grant for
troops. The ignorance of the country, and the difficult winding way,
gave the rebels time to cut off the advance, and stop the bold
travellers just when near their journey’s end.
General Sherman now appears in the adventure, ordered forward by his
chief, to help the admiral out of the perilous spot.
The despatch from the Admiral having reached him March 21st, that the
channel was obstructed, and the enemy six hundred strong, with field
batteries disputing his advance, General Sherman, with the promptness
and decision characteristic of his unsleeping martial spirit, issued his
orders to the troops. They made a forced march, skirmishing part of the
way, and reached the gunboats before night of the 22d, a distance of
twenty-one miles, over a terrible road. But the brave fellows had
learned that General Sherman always had a reason for his movements, and
cheerfully advanced to the rescue through exhausting trial and peril.
“During the day the enemy had been largely reënforced from the Yazoo,
and now unmasked some five thousand men—infantry, cavalry, and
artillery. The boats were surrounded with rebels, who had cut down trees
before and behind them, were moving up artillery, and making every
exertion to cut off retreat and capture our boats. A patrol was at once
established for a distance of seven miles along Deer Creek, behind the
boats, with a chain of sentinels outside of them, to prevent the felling
of trees. For a mile and a half to Rolling Fork, the creek was full of
obstructions. Heavy batteries were on its bank, supported by a large
force. To advance was impossible; to retreat seemed almost hopeless. The
gunboats had their ports all closed, and preparations made to resist
boarders. The mortar boats were all ready for fire and explosion. The
army lines were so close to each other that rebel officers wandered into
our lines in the dark, and were captured. It was the second night
without sleep aboard ship, and the infantry had marched twenty-one miles
without rest. But the faithful force, with their energetic leader, kept
successful watch and ward over the boats and their valuable artillery.
At 7 o’clock that morning, the 22d, General Sherman received a despatch
from the admiral, by the hands of a faithful contraband who came along
through the rebel lines in the night, stating his perilous condition.”
He was now fairly shut up in the bayou by the rebels.
“The first firing of the gunboats was heard by General Sherman near the
Shelby plantation. He urged his troops forward, and after an hour’s hard
marching, the advance, deployed as skirmishers, came upon a body of the
enemy who had passed by the force which had been engaged. Immediately
engaging them, the enemy stood a while disconcerted by the unexpected
attack, fought a short time, and gave way.
“The next effort of the rebels was to pass around our lines in the
afternoon and night, and throw their whole force still further below us;
General Stuart, with four regiments, marched on Hill’s plantation the
same morning, having run his transports in the night, and immediately
advanced one regiment up Deer Creek, and another still further to the
right. The rebels, who were making a circuit about General Sherman, thus
found the whole line occupied, and abandoned the attempt to cut off the
gunboats for that day. During the afternoon the troops and gunboats all
arrived at Hill’s plantation.
“There were destroyed by our troops and by the rebels at least two
thousand bales of cotton, fifty thousand bushels of corn, and the gins
and houses of the plantations whose owners had obstructed our progress,
and joined in the warfare. The resources of the country we found ample
to subsist the army at Vicksburg for some length of time, and by the
destruction of them we crippled the enemy so far.”
The rescue of the admiral’s force was next thing to a miracle: it was
God’s kind and timely interposition. A half hour’s delay in the
movements of Generals Sherman and Stuart, or of the second forced march
of the former, and all would have been lost. In the hands of a less
gifted and energetic leader, one of our bravest admirals, with his
fleet, would have been taken by the rebels, who were confident of the
prey and booty.