RUMORS OF THE FEDERAL ADVANCE ON BLACK RIVER--GUNBOATS ON THE
RIVER--CANNONADING AND FIRE AT WARRENTON--GENERAL PEMBERTON'S FORCES
ENGAGED AT BLACK RIVER.
We settled ourselves delightfully. With our sewing in the morning, and
rides in the evening, our home was very pleasant--very happy and quiet.
Rumors came to us of the advance of the Federal troops on Black River;
yet, so uncertain were the tidings, and so slow was the advantage gained,
we began to doubt almost everything. M---- was stationed below at
Warrenton, and came only occasionally to see us, as the gunboats were
threatening that point. Still, we were in a manner already cut off from
the outer world, for the cars had ceased running farther than the Black
River bridge, where General Pemberton had stationed his forces, fortifying
and awaiting an attack; still, every morning the papers would tell us all
was right, and our life passed on the same. Almost every day we walked up
the Sky Parlor Hill, and looked through the glass at the Federal
encampment near the head of the abandoned canal; we could see plainly,
also, below, at a point called "Brown and Johnson's Landing," the passing
of trains of wagons carrying supplies to the fleet below; we could, also,
discern troops and mounted men on the opposite shore, though some miles
away,--again, at the head of the canal, out in the stream, listlessly lay
the dark forms of the gunboats--now two lying quite near each other--then,
perhaps, a group of three, or often one alone, manned by negroes, as with
the aid of the glass we could see them passing to and fro; we could see,
also, the little tugboats carrying despatches from one to the other, we
supposed, as frequently after their visit a transport or gunboat would put
on steam and follow them up the river; we could see couriers galloping
from groups of tents along the shore up to where, we presumed, the masses
of the soldiers were encamped. Altogether, the Federal encampment and
movements were far more stirring and interesting than the quiet fortified
life of Vicksburg, waiting with calm and bristling front the result of the
energetic movements beyond. We met frequently on Sky Parlor Hill an
acquaintance on General Pemberton's staff, who seemed to watch with
interest operations on the shore above and below us. We could see that
Vicksburg was as attentively observed by the Federal troops.
The gunboats that stood out in the stream above seemed to be acting as
sentinels, or on a kind of picket duty, I might call it, as a man in
uniform constantly paced the deck with a large glass under his arm, which
he frequently raised and took a survey of the city. But Vicksburg must
have been a sealed book to him among her hills from that point of view.
One night we heard heavy cannonading an hour or two, ceasing, and then
commencing again quite early in the morning, undoubtedly from the vicinity
of Warrenton. How little we thought that was the commencement of music
that would ring in our ears for weeks to come!--how little we thought it
the beginning of trouble! That night the sky in the south was crimsoned by
the light of a large fire--the cause we could not learn. The next day we
heard that the little village of Warrenton had been burned by shells
thrown from the boats. M---- came in that evening, and told us that the
gunboats had been amusing themselves by throwing shot and shell at the
fort--that very little damage had been done, except setting fire to some
of the cotton composing the fort, which was still smouldering and burning
slowly under the earth-works. We were told soon after by some of our
friends, that the fort at Warrenton had been quietly evacuated; at least,
all the guns had been taken from it and brought into Vicksburg, with
ammunition, stores, &c.; the troops were left there as a blind for the
time being--all this M---- did not tell me. It must have been a trial for
the men to lie perfectly quiet, enduring a steady fire that they were
unable to return. However, the time came when these men could look back to
the shelling of Warrenton as a slight matter in comparison with the storm
of shot and shell that rained upon them in the rear of Vicksburg. And now
began my excitement: M---- was below, and exposed to the firing we heard
every morning and evening; and I prayed for him so fervently, feeling how
utterly powerless I was, and how merciful and powerful our Father would
be.
Saturday came, and with it the news that a battle was going on between the
Federal troops and General Pemberton's forces at Black River; and I saw
the blanching of a bright cheek, and felt, with a heavy heart, that the
hopes of happiness, for many a year to come, of a dear friend, hung upon a
life that would be bravely ventured there to-day. Oh! the terrible
suspense of that day, when feeling that, let the result be what it would
(and we trembled for it), the lives of our friends were all in all to us.