The Position of the Western Forces—The Expedition against
Vicksburg under General Sherman—The Just and Stringent Orders
of the Chief—He shows the Speculators no Mercy—The Advance of
the Grand Army Checked—The Embarkation of Troops—The
Magnificent Pageant—The Progress and Arrival of the Fleet.
BEFORE following our brave commander further in his war-path, let us
survey the field of action in the West. The goal of patriotic ambition
was now the “Gibraltar of the Father of Waters”—Vicksburg. The great
work of preparation to move went forward during the autumn and early
winter under the eye of the patient, persistent Grant.
December 22d, 1862, he issued an order dividing the troops into four
army corps, stating that “the fifth division, Brigadier-General Morgan
L. Smith commanding, the division from Helena, Arkansas, commanded by
Brigadier-General Steele, and the forces in the district of Memphis,
will constitute the fifteenth army corps, and be commanded by
Major-General W. T. Sherman.” Meanwhile, General Sherman had been
quietly put in command of his forces, and ordered to sail for Friar’s
Point, eighteen miles below Helena, and be ready to coöperate with the
main body of troops under General Grant, in a combined movement on the
stronghold. The former had been in the vicinity of the Tallahatchie
River, making reconnaissances, and was acquainted with that country by
this personal observation. He had issued an order of march which showed
no mercy to speculators, and, as you will see, is marked with the clear
thought and forcible words of its gifted author:
“1. The expedition now fitting out is purely of a military character,
and the interests involved are of too important a nature to be mixed up
with personal and private business. _No citizen, male or female, will be
allowed to accompany it_, unless employed as part of a crew or as
servants to the transports. Female chambermaids to the boats and nurses
to the sick alone will be allowed, unless the wives of captains and
pilots actually belonging to the boats. No laundress, officer’s, or
soldier’s wife must pass below Helena.
“2. No person whatever, citizen, officer, or sutler, will, on any
consideration, buy or deal in cotton or other produce of the country.
Should any cotton be brought on board of any transport going or
returning, the brigade quartermaster, of which the boat forms a part,
will take possession of it, and invoice it to Captain A. R. Eddy, Chief
Quartermaster at Memphis.
“3. Should any cotton or other produce be brought back to Memphis by any
chartered boat, Captain Eddy will take possession of the same, and sell
it for the benefit of the United States. If accompanied by its actual
producer, the planter or factor, the quartermaster will furnish him with
a receipt for the same to be settled for, on proof of his loyalty at the
close of the war.
“4. Boats ascending the river may take cotton from the shore for
bulkheads to protect their engines or crew, but on arrival at Memphis it
will be turned over to the quartermaster, with a statement of the time,
place, and name of its owner. The trade in cotton must await a more
peaceful state of affairs.
“5. Should any citizen accompany the expedition below Helena, in
violation of these orders, any colonel of a regiment or captain of a
battery will conscript him into the service of the United States for the
unexpired term of his command. If he show a refractory spirit unfitting
him for a soldier, the commanding officer present will turn him over to
the captain of the boat as a deck hand, and compel him to work in that
capacity without wages until the boat returns to Memphis.
“6. Any person whatever, whether in the service of the United States or
transports, found making reports for publication, which might reach the
enemy, giving them information, aid, and comfort, will be arrested and
treated as spies.”
The columns of the three army corps had advanced along the railroad
leading from Grand Junction to Grenada, the advance passing onward
through Holly Springs the last of November. By the middle of December
General Grant’s headquarters were at Oxford, his face set toward
Vicksburg. On the 20th occurred a painful and memorable affair to check
the forward march. Although Gen. Grant had taken every precaution
against raiding parties, a dash was made at Holly Springs in his rear,
held by Colonel Murphy, who at once surrendered the post.
General Grant was indignant at the cowardly surrender, and immediately
dismissed the unworthy officer from the service. In consequence of the
destruction of supplies, the commander-in-chief had to fall back to
Holly Springs and prepare to start again. While this serious
interruption in the army’s progress was transpiring, General Sherman had
located his headquarters on board of the _Forest Queen_ with his staff.
This magnificent fleet consisted of one hundred and twenty-seven
steamers besides the gunboats. The troops were hardy, western men,
unsurpassed in the ranks for the qualities of brave warriors.
War does not often present such a pageant as that of this _armada_
sailing down the Tennessee and then the Mississippi Rivers. The Stars
and Stripes waved over the crowded decks, and music floated over the
waters. The grand procession of vessels moved majestically over the
broad current, which in the sunlight reflected their forms, and in the
evening unnumbered signal lanterns from mast and prow and stern. Various
were the scenes and incidents of the voyage.
Writes a passenger: “Until we got below Helena, wood was so scarce on
the river that it was only to be obtained by cutting it, either entirely
green or from the water-logged drifts which had caught against the
banks. Wherever a good placer was discovered, the boats lucky enough to
find it landed and all hands went out with axes, and in a few hours
enough was obtained to steam on to the next good place.
“When the fleet approached Napoleon, Arkansas, the _Post Boy_, which is
a transportation boat, was in the advance, and as she neared the shore
she was hailed by a person bearing a flag of truce, with the information
that there was a band of guerrillas just below, waiting to fire upon
her. At this time she was the only boat visible, but in a short time the
remainder of the fleet made its appearance, and the guerrillas, if there
were any, concluded, no doubt, that we were too many for them. At all
events, at this point there was firing. The houses in the town appeared
to be nearly all deserted, but in some of them could be seen persons
standing back in the door, as if to escape the observation of their
neighbors, and waving their handkerchiefs. Napoleon is the place where
the first shot was fired at a Federal steamer on the Mississippi River,
but there may be some Union people there nevertheless.
“As we reached Helena, very little of the city could be seen for the
long line of tents stretched along the bank. The fleet stopped there for
the night and took on the troops that were to accompany the expedition,
and next morning started on for Friar’s Point, the first place of
rendezvous. It lay there all night, and about nine o’clock next morning
again started down the river, and reached Gaines’ Landing, one hundred
and fifty miles below Helena, about two o’clock P. M., where it stopped
to wood. As the fleet approached this point the bank appeared to be
lined with negroes, who all started down the shore hurrahing and
shouting and jumping, and cutting all kinds of antics. I learned from
some of them that they thought the fleet was going down to set all the
slaves free.
“When the boats landed, a negro gave information of a large store of
wood of the best quality, amounting to more than two thousand cords,
secreted in the timber near the bank, in a place where it would not
readily have been found. This was a great prize, and was instantly
levied on for the use of Uncle Sam. Every soldier able to do duty was
sent on shore to pack wood, and by nightfall all the boats were well
supplied for nearly the whole trip. Near the wood were some ten or
twelve houses, one of them a very fine frame. The negroes said the
owners had gone to join the Southern army, and the soldiers, without
more ado, burned them all down. Many of the negroes, if not all, came on
the boats, and are now under the protection of the army.
“At early light the next morning the fleet moved on again, and as
General Morgan’s division came opposite a little village known as Wood
Cottage Landing, some guerrillas, secreted in a clump of undergrowth,
fired a volley at one of his transports. To teach them a lesson for the
future, General Morgan sent some troops on shore and burnt every house
in the neighborhood.
“Milliken’s Bend was to be the last rendezvous of the fleet before it
started out for active operations on Vicksburg, and we arrived there
about dark on the evening of the 24th December. The next day would be
Christmas, and many of the soldiers had the idea that the fleet would
sail right in without difficulty, and that they would take their
Christmas dinner in Vicksburg. Many invitations were given among friends
for a dinner at the Preston House. They little dreamed of the
disappointment in store for them, or that New Year’s day would find them
on the wrong side of the hill.
“On the night of the 24th, General Sherman sent out a detachment of
troops, under command of General M. L. Smith, to tear up a section of
the line of the Vicksburg and Texas Railroad, about ten miles west of
Vicksburg. The work was well and quickly done, and the stations at Delhi
and Dallas burned.
“At daylight next morning all was ready, and the fleet started for its
destined port, which it reached on the banks of the Yazoo about noon the
same day. Many years ago, about eight miles below the mouth of the
Yazoo, the Mississippi cut a new channel for itself across a bend,
coming into the main channel again just above Vicksburg. The Yazoo
followed the old channel, and the mouth of the river is, therefore,
really from twelve to fifteen miles below where it was originally; but
from the old mouth to the new the river is known to pilots as ‘Old
River.’ Where the fleet landed was about three miles above Old River,
where the right rested, and the left extended to within three miles of
Haynes’ Bluff, the intervening space being about six miles.
“On entering the Yazoo, the first object that attracted the attention
was the ruins of a large brick house and several other buildings, which
were still smoking. On inquiry, I learned that this was the celebrated
plantation of the rebel General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed
at Shiloh. It was an extensive establishment, working over three hundred
negroes. It contained a large steam sugar refinery, an extensive steam
saw-mill, cotton-gins, machine-shop, and a long line of negro quarters.
“The dwelling was palatial in its proportions and architecture, and the
grounds around it were magnificently laid out in alcoves, with arbors,
trellises, groves of evergreens, and extensive flower-beds. All was now
a mass of smouldering ruins. Our gunboats had gone up there the day
before, and a small battery planted near the mansion announced itself by
plugging away at one of the iron-clads, and the marines went ashore
after the gunboats had silenced the battery, and burned and destroyed
every thing on the place. If any thing were wanting to complete the
desolate aspect of the place, it was to be found in the sombre-hued
pendant moss, peculiar to Southern forests, and which gives the trees a
funereal aspect, as if they were all draped in mourning. As on almost
every Southern plantation, there were many deadened trees standing about
in the fields, from the limbs of all of which long festoons of moss
hung, swaying with a melancholy motion in every breeze.
“The weather, since the starting out of the fleet, had, up to this time,
been very fine; but as evening now approached, a heavy rain commenced,
which, from the appearance of things, bid fair to continue for an
indefinite period. The Yazoo River was low, and the banks steep and
about thirty feet high. Along the edge of the water, and reaching to the
foot of the bank, is a dense undergrowth of willows, briers, thorns,
vines, and live oaks, twined together in a most disagreeably promiscuous
manner. To effect a landing of the troops and trains, a way had to be
cut through this entanglement, from every boat, and this caused such a
delay that it was quite dark before all the troops were got on shore.
Tents were pitched for the night, pickets sent out, and the army
encamped, anxiously awaiting the dawn of the next day.”
That General Grant would fail to communicate with him, General Sherman
could not know. He carried out his part of the great programme, and
steadily advanced in accordance with its provisions for united action.
In this profound ignorance of the occasion of the failure, he prepared
to move upon Vicksburg.