IN CAMP AND BATTLE WITH GRANT AND HIS GENERALS.
Marching into the enemy's country--A night in a church with a Bible
for pillow--Our communications are cut--Entering the capital of
Mississippi--The War Department gives Grant full authority--Battle
of Champion's Hill--General Logan's peculiarity--Battlefield
incidents--Vicksburg invested and the siege begun--Personal traits
of Sherman, McPherson, and McClernand.
It was the second day of May, 1863, when I rode into Port Gibson, Miss.,
and inquired for Grant's headquarters. I found the general in a little
house of the village, busily directing the advance of the army. He told
me that in the battle of the day before the Confederates had been driven
back on the roads to Grand Gulf and Vicksburg, and that our forces were
now in full pursuit. By the next morning, May 3d, our troops had
possession of the roads as far as the Big Black. As soon as he was sure
of this, General Grant started with a brigade of infantry and some
twenty cavalrymen for Grand Gulf. I accompanied him on the trip. When
within about seven miles of Grand Gulf we found that the town had been
deserted, and leaving the brigade we entered with the cavalry escort.
During this ride to Grand Gulf Grant made inquiries on every side about
the food supplies of the country we were entering. He told me he had
been gathering information on this point ever since the army crossed
the Mississippi, and had made up his mind that both beef and cattle and
corn were abundant in the country. The result of this inquiry was that
here at Grand Gulf Grant took the resolve which makes the Vicksburg
campaign so famous--that of abandoning entirely his base of supplies as
soon as the army was all up and the rations on the way arrived, boldly
striking into the interior, and depending on the country for meat and
even for bread.
We did not reach Grand Gulf until late on May 3d, but at one o'clock on
the morning of the 4th Grant was off for the front. He had decided that
it was useless to bring up the army to this place, to the capture of
which we had been so long looking, and which had been abandoned so
quickly now that our army was across the Mississippi. I did not follow
until later in the day, and so had an opportunity of seeing General
Sherman. His corps was marching from above as rapidly as possible down
to Hard Times landing, and he had come over to Grand Gulf to see about
debarking his troops there; this he succeeded in doing a couple of days
later.
That evening I joined Grant at his new headquarters at Hankinson's Ferry
on the Big Black, and now began my first experience with army marching
into an enemy's territory. A glimpse of my life at this time is given in
a letter to a child, written the morning after I rejoined Grant:
"All of a sudden it is very cold here. Two days ago it was hot like
summer, but now I sit in my tent in my overcoat, writing, and thinking
if I only were at home instead of being almost two thousand miles away.
"Away yonder, in the edge of the woods, I hear the drum-beat that calls
the soldiers to their supper. It is only a little after five o'clock,
but they begin the day very early and end it early. Pretty soon after
dark they are all asleep, lying in their blankets under the trees, for
in a quick march they leave their tents behind. Their guns are all ready
at their sides, so that if they are suddenly called at night they can
start in a moment. It is strange in the morning before daylight to hear
the bugle and drums sound the reveille, which calls the army to wake up.
It will begin perhaps at a distance and then run along the whole line,
bugle after bugle and drum after drum taking it up, and then it goes
from front to rear, farther and farther away, the sweet sounds throbbing
and rolling while you lie on the grass with your saddle for a pillow,
half awake, or opening your eyes to see that the stars are all bright in
the sky, or that there is only a faint flush in the east, where the day
is soon to break.
"Living in camp is queer business. I get my meals in General Grant's
mess, and pay my share of the expenses. The table is a chest with a
double cover, which unfolds on the right and the left; the dishes,
knives and forks, and caster are inside. Sometimes we get good things,
but generally we don't. The cook is an old negro, black and grimy. The
cooking is not as clean as it might be, but in war you can't be
particular about such things.
"The plums and peaches here are pretty nearly ripe. The strawberries
have been ripe these few days, but the soldiers eat them up before we
get a sight of them. The figs are as big as the end of your thumb, and
the green pears are big enough to eat. But you don't know what beautiful
flower gardens there are here. I never saw such roses; and the other day
I found a lily as big as a tiger lily, only it was a magnificent red."
Grant's policy now was to push the Confederates ahead of him up the Big
Black River, threatening Jackson, the State capital, and the Big Black
bridge behind Vicksburg, and capturing both if necessary. His opinion
was that this maneuver would draw Pemberton out of Vicksburg and bring
on a decisive battle within ten days.
From Hankinson's Ferry, the headquarters were changed on the 7th to
Rocky Springs, and there we remained until the 11th. By that time
McClernand and McPherson had advanced to within ten or twelve miles of
the railroad which runs from Vicksburg to Jackson, and were lying nearly
in an east and west line; and Sherman's entire corps had reached
Hankinson's Ferry. Supplies which Grant had ordered from Milliken's Bend
had also arrived. The order was now given to Sherman to destroy the
bridge at Hankinson's Ferry, the rear guards were abandoned, and our
communications cut. So complete was our isolation that it was ten days
after we left Rocky Springs, on May 11th, before I was able to get
another dispatch to Mr. Stanton.
This march toward Jackson proved to be no easy affair. More than one
night I bivouacked on the ground in the rain after being all day in my
saddle. The most comfortable night I had, in fact, was in a church of
which the officers had taken possession. Having no pillow, I went up to
the pulpit and borrowed the Bible for the night. Dr. H. L. Hewitt, who
was medical director on Grant's staff, slept near me, and he always
charged me afterward with stealing that Bible.
In spite of the roughness of our life, it was all of intense interest to
me, particularly the condition of the people over whose country we were
marching. A fact which impressed me was the total absence of men capable
of bearing arms. Only old men and children remained. The young men were
all in the army or had perished in it. The South was drained of its
youth. An army of half a million with a white population of only five
millions to draw upon, must soon finish the stock of raw material for
soldiers. Another fact of moment was that we found men who had at the
first sympathized with the rebellion, and even joined in it, now of
their own accord rendering Grant the most valuable assistance, in order
that the rebellion might be ended as speedily as possible, and something
saved by the Southern people out of the otherwise total and hopeless
ruin. "Slavery is gone, other property is mainly gone," they said, "but,
for God's sake, let us save some relic of our former means of living."
In this forward movement the left of the army was ordered to hug the Big
Black as closely as possible, while the right moved straight on Raymond.
On the 12th, the right wing, under McPherson, met the enemy just west of
Raymond. Grant at the time had his headquarters about at the center of
the army, with Sherman's corps, some seven miles west of Raymond. I left
him to go to the scene of the battle at once. It was a hard-fought
engagement, lasting some three hours. McPherson drove the Confederates
back to and through Raymond, and there stopped. The next day the advance
of the army toward Jackson was continued. It rained heavily on the march
and the roads were very heavy, but the troops were in the best of
spirits at their successes and prospects. This work was a great
improvement on digging canals and running batteries. On the afternoon of
the 14th, about two and a half miles west of Jackson, McPherson and
Sherman were temporarily stopped by the enemy, but he was quickly
defeated, and that night we entered the capital of Mississippi.
At Jackson I received an important telegram from Stanton, though how it
got to me there I do not remember. General Grant had been much troubled
by the delay McClernand had caused at New Carthage, but he had felt
reluctant to remove him as he had been assigned to his command by the
President. My reports to the Secretary on the situation had convinced
him that Grant ought to have perfect independence in the matter, so he
telegraphed me as follows:
WASHINGTON, D.C., _May 6, 1863_.
C. A. DANA, Esq., Smith's Plantation, Ia.
General Grant has full and absolute authority to enforce his own
commands and to remove any person who by ignorance in action or any
cause interferes with or delays his operations. He has the full
confidence of the Government, is expected to enforce his authority,
and will be firmly and heartily supported, but he will be
responsible for any failure to exert his powers. You may
communicate this to him.
E. M. STANTON, _Secretary of War_.
The very evening of the day that we reached Jackson, Grant learned that
Lieutenant-General Pemberton had been ordered by General Joe Johnston to
come out of Vicksburg and attack our rear. Grant immediately faced the
bulk of his army about to meet the enemy, leaving Sherman in Jackson to
tear up the railroads and destroy all the public property there that
could be of use to the Confederates. I remained with Sherman to see the
work of destruction. I remember now nothing that I saw except the
burning of vast quantities of cotton packed in bales, and that I was
greatly astonished to see how slowly it burned.
On the afternoon of the 15th I joined Grant again at his headquarters at
Clinton. Early the next morning we had definite information about
Pemberton. He was about ten miles to the west, with twenty-five thousand
men, as reported, and our advance was almost up with him. We at once
went forward to the front. Here we found Pemberton in a most formidable
position on the crest of a wooded ridge called Champion's Hill, over
which the road passed longitudinally. About eleven o'clock in the
morning of the 16th the battle began, and by four in the afternoon it
was won.
After the battle I started out on horseback with Colonel Rawlins to
visit the field. When we reached Logan's command we found him greatly
excited. He declared the day was lost, and that he would soon be swept
from his position. I contested the point with him. "Why, general," I
said, "we have gained the day."
He could not see it. "Don't you hear the cannon over there?" he
answered. "They will be down on us right away! In an hour I will have
twenty thousand men to fight."
I found afterward that this was simply a curious idiosyncrasy of
Logan's. In the beginning of a fight he was one of the bravest men that
could be, saw no danger, went right on fighting until the battle was
over. Then, after the battle was won, his mind gained an immovable
conviction that it was lost. Where we were victorious, he thought that
we were defeated. I had a very interesting conversation with Logan on
this day, when he attempted to convince me that we had lost the battle
of Champion's Hill. It was merely an intellectual peculiarity. It did
not in the least impair his value as a soldier or commanding officer. He
never made any mistake on account of it.
On leaving Logan, Rawlins and I were joined by several officers, and we
continued our ride over the field. On the hill where the thickest of the
fight had taken place we stopped, and were looking around at the dead
and dying men lying all about us, when suddenly a man, perhaps
forty-five or fifty years old, who had a Confederate uniform on, lifted
himself up on his elbow, and said:
"For God's sake, gentlemen, is there a Mason among you?"
"Yes," said Rawlins, "I am a Mason." He got off his horse and kneeled by
the dying man, who gave him some letters out of his pocket. When he came
back Rawlins had tears on his cheeks. The man, he told us, wanted him
to convey some souvenir--a miniature or a ring, I do not remember
what--to his wife, who was in Alabama. Rawlins took the package, and
some time afterward he succeeded in sending it to the woman.
I remained out late that night conversing with the officers who had been
in the battle, and think it must have been about eleven o'clock when I
got to Grant's headquarters, where I was to sleep. Two or three officers
who had been out with me went with me into the little cottage which
Grant had taken possession of. We found a wounded man there, a tall and
fine-looking man, a Confederate. He stood up suddenly and said: "Kill
me! Will some one kill me? I am in such anguish that it will be mercy to
do it--I have got to die--kill me--don't let me suffer!" We sent for a
surgeon, who examined his case, but said it was hopeless. He had been
shot through the head, so that it had cut off the optic nerve of both
eyes. He never could possibly see again. Before morning he died.
I was up at daylight the next day, and off with Grant and his staff
after the enemy. We rode directly west, and overtook Pemberton at the
Big Black. He had made a stand on the bottom lands at the east head of
the Big Black bridge. Here he fought in rifle-pits, protected by abatis
and a difficult bayou. Lawler's brigade, of McClernand's corps, charged
the left of the Confederate rifle-pits magnificently, taking more
prisoners than their own numbers. The others fled. Pemberton burned his
bridge and retreated rapidly into Vicksburg, with only three cannon out
of sixty-three with which he had entered upon this short, sharp, and
decisive campaign.
There was nothing for Grant to do now but build bridges and follow.
Before morning four bridges had been thrown across the Big Black, and by
the evening of that day, the 18th, the army had arrived behind
Vicksburg, which was now its front. In twenty-four hours after Grant's
arrival the town was invested, the bluffs above the town had been seized
so that we could get water from the Mississippi, and Haynes's Bluff up
the Yazoo had been abandoned by the Confederates. With the Yazoo
highlands in our control there was no difficulty in establishing a line
of supplies with our original base on the Mississippi. On the 20th I was
able to get off to Mr. Stanton the first dispatch from the rear of
Vicksburg. In it I said, "Probably the town will be carried to-day."
The prediction was not verified. The assault we expected was not made
until the morning of the 22d. It failed, but without heavy loss. Early
in the afternoon, however, McClernand, who was on the left of our lines,
reported that he was in possession of two forts of the rebel line, was
hard pressed, and in great need of re-enforcements. Not doubting that he
had really succeeded in taking and holding the works he pretended to
hold, General Grant sent a division to his support, and at the same time
ordered Sherman and McPherson to make new attacks. McClernand's report
was false, for, although a few of his men had broken through in one
place, he had not taken a single fort, and the result of the second
assault was disastrous. We were repulsed, losing quite heavily, when
but for his error the total loss of the day would have been
inconsiderable.
The failure of the 22d convinced Grant of the necessity of a regular
siege, and immediately the army settled down to that. We were in an
incomparable position for a siege as regarded the health and comfort of
our men. The high wooded hills afforded pure air and shade, and the deep
ravines abounded in springs of excellent water, and if they failed it
was easy to bring it from the Mississippi. Our line of supplies was
beyond the reach of the enemy, and there was an abundance of fruit all
about us. I frequently met soldiers coming into camp with buckets full
of mulberries, blackberries, and red and yellow wild plums.
The army was deployed at this time in the following way: The right of
the besieging force was held by General Sherman, whose forces ran from
the river along the bluffs around the northeast of the town. Sherman's
front was at a greater distance from the enemy than that of any other
corps, and the approach less advantageous, but he began his siege works
with great energy and admirable skill. Everything I saw of Sherman at
the Vicksburg siege increased my admiration for him. He was a very
brilliant man and an excellent commander of a corps. Sherman's
information was great, and he was a clever talker. He always liked to
have people about who could keep up with his conversation; besides, he
was genial and unaffected. I particularly admired his loyalty to Grant.
He had criticised the plan of campaign frankly in the first place, but
had supported every movement with all his energy, and now that we were
in the rear of Vicksburg he gave loud praise to the commander in chief.
To the left of Sherman lay the Seventeenth Army Corps, under
Major-General J. B. McPherson. He was one of the best officers we had.
He was but thirty-two years old at the time, and a very handsome,
gallant-looking man, with rather a dark complexion, dark eyes, and a
most cordial manner. McPherson was an engineer officer of fine natural
ability and extraordinary acquirements, having graduated Number One in
his class at West Point, and was held in high estimation by Grant and
his professional brethren. Halleck gave him his start in the civil war,
and he had been with Grant at Donelson and ever since. He was a man
without any pretensions, and always had a pleasant hand-shake for you.
It is a little remarkable that the three chief figures in this great
Vicksburg campaign--Grant, Sherman, and McPherson--were all born in
Ohio. The utmost cordiality and confidence existed between these three
men, and it always seemed to me that much of the success achieved in
these marches and battles was owing to this very fact. There was no
jealousy or bickering, and in their unpretending simplicity they were as
alike as three peas. No country was ever more faithfully, unselfishly
served than was ours in the Vicksburg campaign by these three Ohio
officers.
To McPherson's left was the Thirteenth Army Corps, under Major-General
John A. McClernand. Next to Grant he was the ranking officer in the
army. The approaches on his front were most favorable to us, and the
enemy's line of works evidently much the weakest there, but he was very
inefficient and slow in pushing his siege operations. Grant had resolved
on the 23d to relieve McClernand for his false dispatch of the day
before stating that he held two of the enemy's forts, but he changed his
mind, concluding that it would be better on the whole to leave him in
his command till the siege was concluded. From the time that I had
joined Grant's army at Milliken's Bend and heard him criticising Porter,
Sherman, and other officers, I had been observing McClernand narrowly
myself. My own judgment of him by this time was that he had not the
qualities necessary for commander even of a regiment. In the first
place, he was not a military man; he was a politician and a member of
Congress. He was a man of a good deal of a certain kind of talent, not
of a high order, but not one of intellectual accomplishments. His
education was that which a man gets who is in Congress five or six
years. In short, McClernand was merely a smart man, quick, very
active-minded, but his judgment was not solid, and he looked after
himself a good deal. Mr. Lincoln also looked out carefully for
McClernand, because he was an Illinois Democrat, with a considerable
following among the people. It was a great thing to get McClernand into
the war in the first place, for his natural predisposition, one would
have supposed, would have been to sympathize with the South. As long as
he adhered to the war he carried his Illinois constituency with him; and
chiefly for this reason, doubtless, Lincoln made it a point to take
special care of him. In doing this the President really served the
greater good of the cause. But from the circumstances of Lincoln's
supposed friendship, McClernand had more consequence in the army than he
deserved.