VICKSBURG
Vicksburg had long been the hard military problem of the Southwest. The
city, which had been made a fortress, was at the summit of a range of
high bluffs, two hundred and fifty feet above the east bank of the
Mississippi River, near the mouth of the Yazoo. It was provided with
batteries along the river front and on the bank of the Yazoo to Haines's
Bluff. A continuous line of fortifications surrounded the city on the
crest of the hill. This hill, the slopes of which were cut by deep
ravines, was difficult of ascent in any part in the face of hostile
defenders. The back country was swampy bottom land, covered with a rank
growth of timber, intersected with lagoons and almost impassable except
by a few rude roads. The opposite side of the river was an extensive
wooded morass.
In May, 1862, flag officer Farragut, coming up the Mississippi from New
Orleans, had demanded the surrender of the city and been refused. In the
latter part of June he returned with flag officer Porter's mortar
flotilla and bombarded the city for four weeks without gaining his end.
In November, 1862, General Grant started with an army from Grand
Junction, intending to approach Vicksburg by the way of the Yazoo River
and attack it in the rear. But General Van Dorn captured Holly Springs,
his depot of supplies, and the project was abandoned.
The narration, with any approach to completeness, of the story of the
campaign against Vicksburg would require a volume. It was a protracted,
baffling, desperate undertaking to obtain possession of the
fortifications that commanded the Mississippi River at that point. Grant
was not unaware of the magnitude of the work, nor was he eager to
attempt it under the conditions existing. He believed that, in order to
their greatest efficiency, all the armies operating between the
Alleghanies and the Mississippi should be subject to one commander, and
he made this suggestion to the War Department, at the same time
testifying his disinterestedness by declining in advance to take the
supreme command himself. His suggestion was not immediately adopted. On
the 22d of December, 1862, General Grant, whose headquarters were then
at Holly Springs, reorganized his army into four corps, the 13th, 15th,
16th, and 17th, commanded respectively by Major-Generals John A.
McClernand, William T. Sherman, S. A. Hurlbut, and J. B. McPherson. Soon
afterwards he established his headquarters at Memphis, and in January
began the move on Vicksburg, which, after immense labors and various
failures of plans, resulted in the surrender of that fortress on July 4,
1863.
He first sent Sherman, in whose enterprise and ability to take care of
himself he had full confidence, giving him only general instructions.
Sherman landed his army on the east side of the river, above Vicksburg,
and made a direct assault, which proved unsuccessful, and he was
compelled to reëmbark his defeated troops. The impracticability of
successful assault on the north side was then accepted. General
McClernand's corps on the 11th of January, aided by the navy under
Admiral Porter, captured Arkansas Post on the White River, taking 6000
prisoners, 17 guns, and a large amount of military stores.
On the 17th, Grant went to the front and had a conference with Sherman,
McClernand, and Porter, the upshot of which was a direction to
rendezvous on the west bank in the vicinity of Vicksburg. McClernand was
disaffected, having sought at Washington the command of an expedition
against Vicksburg and been led to expect it. He wrote a letter to Grant
so insolent that the latter was advised to relieve him of all command
and send him to the rear. Instead of doing so, he gave him every
possible favor and opportunity; but months afterwards, in front of
Vicksburg, McClernand was guilty of a breach of discipline which could
not be overlooked, and he was deprived of his command.
Throughout the war Grant was notably considerate and charitable in
respect of the mistakes and the temper of subordinates if he thought
them to be patriotic and capable. His rapid rise excited the jealousy
and personal hostility of many ambitious generals. Of this he was
conscious, but he did not suffer himself to be affected by it so long as
there was no failure in duty. The reply he made to those who asked him
to remove McClernand revealed the principle of his action: "No. I cannot
afford to quarrel with a man whom I have to command."
The Union army, having embarked at Memphis, was landed on the west bank
of the Mississippi River, and the first work undertaken was the digging
of a canal across a peninsula that would allow passage of the transports
to the Mississippi below Vicksburg, where they could be used to ferry
the army across the river, there being higher ground south of the city
from which it could be approached more easily than from any other point.
After weeks of labor, the scheme had to be abandoned as impracticable.
Then various devices for opening and connecting bayous were tried, none
of them proving useful. The army not engaged in digging or in cutting
through obstructing timbers was encamped along the narrow levee, the
only dry land available in the season of flood. Thus three months were
seemingly wasted without result. The aspect of affairs was gloomy and
desperate.
The North became impatient and began grumbling against the general,
doubting his ability, even clamoring for his removal. He made no reply,
nor suffered his friends to defend him. He simply worked on in silence.
Stories of his incapacity on account of drinking were rife, and it may
have been the case that under the dreary circumstances and intense
strain he did sometimes yield to this temptation. But he never yielded
his aim, never relaxed his grim purpose. Vicksburg must fall. As soon as
one plan failed of success another was put in operation. When every
scheme of getting the vessels through the by-ways failed, one thing
remained,--to send the gunboats and transports past Vicksburg by the
river, defying the frowning batteries and whatever impediments might be
met. Six gunboats and several steamers ran by the batteries on the night
of April 16th, under a tremendous fire, the river being lighted up by
burning houses on the shore. Barges and flatboats followed on other
nights. Then Grant's way to reach Vicksburg was found; but it was not an
easy one, nor unopposed. A place of landing on the east side was to be
sought. The navy failed to silence the Confederate batteries at Grand
Gulf, twenty miles below Vicksburg, so that a landing could be effected
there, and the fleet ran past it, as it had run by Vicksburg. Ten miles
farther down the river a landing place was found at Bruinsburg. By
daylight, on the 1st of May, McClernand's corps and part of McPherson's
had been ferried across, leaving behind all impedimenta, even the
officers' horses, and fighting had already begun in rear of Port Gibson,
about eight miles from the landing. The enemy made a desperate stand,
but was defeated with heavy loss. Grand Gulf was evacuated that night,
and the place became thenceforth a base of operations. Grant had
defeated the enemy's calculation by the celerity with which he had
transferred a large force. He slept on the ground with his soldiers,
without a tent or even an overcoat for covering.
General Joseph E. Johnston had superseded General Beauregard in command
of all the Confederate forces of the Southwest. His business was to
succor General Pemberton and drive Grant back into the river. Sherman
with his corps joined Grant on the 8th. Jackson, the capital of
Mississippi, a Confederate railroad centre and depot of supplies, was
captured on the 14th, the defense being made by Johnston himself. Then
Pemberton's whole army from Vicksburg, 25,000 men, was encountered,
defeated, and forced to retire into the fortress, after losing nearly
5000 men and 18 guns. On the 18th of May Grant's army reached Vicksburg
and the actual siege began.
Since May 1, Grant had won five hard battles, killed and wounded 5200 of
the enemy, captured 40 field guns, nearly 5000 prisoners, and a
fortified city, compelled the abandonment of Grand Gulf and Haines's
Bluff, with their 20 heavy guns, destroyed all the railroads and bridges
available by the enemy, separated their armies, which altogether
numbered 60,000 men, while his own numbered but 45,000, and had
completely invested Vicksburg. It was an astonishing exhibition of
courage, energy, and military genius, calculated to confound his critics
and reëstablish him in the confidence of the people. It has been said
that there is nothing in history since Hannibal invaded Italy that is
comparable with it.
The incidents of the siege, abounding in difficult and heroic action,
including an early unsuccessful assault, must be passed over.
Preparations had been made and directions given for a general assault on
the works on the morning of July 5. But on the 3d General Pemberton sent
out a flag of truce asking, as Buckner did at Donelson, for the
appointment of commissioners to arrange terms of capitulation. Grant
declined to appoint commissioners or to accept any terms but
unconditional surrender, with humane treatment of all prisoners of war.
He, however, offered to meet Pemberton himself, who had been at West
Point and in Mexico with him, and confer regarding details. This meeting
was held, and on the 4th of July Grant took possession of the city. The
Confederates surrendered about 30,000 men, 172 cannon, and 50,000 small
arms, besides military stores; but there was little food left. Grant's
losses during the whole campaign were 1415 killed, 7395 wounded, 453
missing. When the paroled prisoners were ready to march out, Grant
ordered the Union soldiers "to be orderly and quiet as these prisoners
pass," and "to make no offensive remarks."
This great victory was coincident with the repulse of Lee at Gettysburg,
and the effect of the two events was a wonderfully inspiriting influence
upon the country. President Lincoln wrote to General Grant a
characteristic letter "as a grateful acknowledgment of the almost
inestimable service you have done the country." In it he said: "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 Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go
down the river and join General Banks [besieging Port Hudson]; 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."
Port Hudson surrendered to General Banks, to whom Grant sent
reinforcements as soon as Vicksburg fell, on the 8th of July, with
10,000 more prisoners and 50 guns. This put the Union forces in
possession of the Mississippi River all the way to the Gulf.
Grant now appeared to the nation as the foremost hero of the war. The
disparagements and personal scandals so rife a few months before were
silenced and forgotten. He was believed to be invincible. That he never
boasted, never publicly resented criticism, never courted applause,
never quarreled with his superiors, but endured, toiled, and fought in
calm fidelity, consulting chiefly with himself, never wholly baffled,
and always triumphant in the end, had shown the nation a man of a kind
the people had longed for and in whom they proudly rejoiced. The hopes
to which Donelson had given birth were confirmed in the hero of
Vicksburg, who was straightway made a major-general in the regular army,
from which, when a first lieutenant, he had resigned nine years before.