Vicksburg, often called "The Gibraltar of the West," is situated on the
east bank of the Mississippi River, where the river makes a great bend
and the east bank of the same makes up from the river in a bluff about
200 feet.
Here at Vicksburg about 100,000 men and a powerful fleet of many
gunboats and ironclads for forty days and nights fought to decide
whether the Confederate states should be cut in twain; whether the
great river should flow free to the gulf.
The Confederate cannon, situated on the high bluff along the river
front at Vicksburg, commanded the waterway for miles in either
direction, while the obstacles in the way of a land approach were
almost equally insurmountable.
The object of the Federal army was to gain control of the entire course
of the river that it might, in the language of President Lincoln, "Roll
unvexed to the sea," and to separate the Confederate states so as to
hinder them from getting supplies and men for their armies from the
southwest.
The great problem of the Federals was how to get control of Vicksburg.
This great question was left to General Grant to work out.
In June, 1862, the Confederates, under General Van Dorn, numbering
15,000 men, occupied and fortified Vicksburg. Van Dorn was a man of
great energy. In a short time he had hundreds of men at work planting
batteries, digging rifle-pits, mounting heavy guns and building
bomb-proof magazines. All through the summer the work progressed and by
the coming of winter the city was a veritable Gibraltar.
In the last days of June the combined fleet, under Farragut and Porter,
arrived below the Confederate stronghold. They had on board about
3,000 troops and a large supply of implements required in digging
trenches. The engineers conceived the idea of cutting a new channel
for the Mississippi through a neck of land on the Louisiana side
opposite Vicksburg and thereby change the course of the river and leave
Vicksburg high and dry.
While General Williams was engaged in the task of diverting the mighty
river across the peninsula Farragut stormed the Confederate batteries
with his fleet, but failed to silence Vicksburg's cannon guards.
He then determined to dash past the fortifications with his fleet,
trusting to the speed of his vessels and the stoutness of their armor
to survive the tremendous cannonade that would fall upon them.
Early on the morning of June 28th his vessels moved forward and after
several hours of terrific bombardment with the loss of three vessels,
passed through the raging inferno to the waters above Vicksburg.
Williams and his men, including 1,000 negroes, labored hard to complete
the canal, but a sudden rise in the river swept away the barriers with
a terrific roar and many days of labor went for naught. This plan was
at length abandoned and they all returned with the fleet during the
last days of July to Baton Rouge, and Vicksburg was no more molested
until the next spring.
In October General John C. Pemberton, a Philadelphian by birth,
succeeded Van Dorn in command of the Confederate forces at Vicksburg.
General Grant planned to divide the army of the Tennessee, Sherman
taking part of it from Memphis down the Mississippi on transports
while he would move overland with the rest of the army and coöperate
with Sherman before Vicksburg. But the whole plan proved a failure,
through the energies of Van Dorn and others of the Confederate army in
destroying the Federal lines of communication.
Sherman, however, with an army of about 32,000 men, left Memphis on
December 20th, and landed a few days later some miles above Vicksburg,
and on the 29th made a daring attack on the Confederate lines at
Chickasaw Bayou, and suffered a decisive repulse with a loss of 2,000
men.
Sherman now found the northern pathway to Vicksburg impassable and
withdrew his men to the river, and, to make up triple disaster to the
Federals, General Nathan Forest, one of the brilliant Confederate
cavalry leaders, with 2,500 horsemen, dashed through the country west
of Grant's army, tore up many miles of railroad and destroyed all
telegraph lines and thus cut off all communication of the Federals.
In the meantime General Van Dorn pounced upon Holly Springs, capturing
the guard of 1,500 men and burning Grant's great store of supplies,
estimated to be worth a million and a half dollars, thus leaving Grant
without supplies, and for many days without communication with the
outside world. It was not until about the middle of January that he
heard, through Washington, of the defeat of Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou.
Grant changed his plan of attack and decided to move his army below
Vicksburg and approach the city from the south. Another plan was to cut
a channel through the peninsula opposite Vicksburg and again try the
project of changing the bed of the Mississippi so as to leave Vicksburg
some miles inland. For six weeks thousands of men worked on this ditch;
early in March the river began to rise and on the morning of the 8th it
broke through the embankments and the men had to run for their lives.
Many horses were drowned and great numbers of implements submerged. The
"Father of waters" had put a decisive veto on the project, and the same
was abandoned.
On the night of April 16th Porter ran past the batteries of Vicksburg
with his fleet after days of preparation. They left their station
near the mouth of the Yazoo about nine o'clock. Suddenly the flash of
musketry fire pierced the darkness. A storm of shot and shell was
rained upon the passing vessels. The water of the river was lashed
into foam by the shot and shell from the batteries. The gunboats
answered with their cannon. The air was filled with flying missiles.
The transport, Henry Clay, caught fire and burned to the water's edge.
By three in the morning the fleet was below the city and ready to
coöperate with Grant's army.
Grant's army at that time numbered about 43,000 men, and he decided
to make a campaign into the interior of Mississippi while waiting for
General Banks from Baton Rouge to join him. The Confederate army under
Pemberton numbered about 40,000, and about 15,000 more Confederates
were at Jackson, Miss., under command of General Joseph E. Johnston.
It was against Johnston's army that Grant decided to move. Johnston,
on being attacked by Grant, fell back from Jackson and took a position
on Champion's Hill, where a hard battle was fought in which the
Confederates were greatly outnumbered and gave way in confusion.
Part of Pemberton's army had arrived and was engaged in this battle.
Pemberton retreated towards Vicksburg, closely followed by Grant, and
several short engagements between the two armies took place on the
road to Vicksburg. The Federal army now invested the city, occupying
the surrounding hills. Around the doomed city gleamed the thousands
of bayonets of the Union army. The city was filled with soldiers and
the citizens of the country who had fled there for refuge and were now
penned in.
On May 22d Grant ordered a grand assault by his whole army. The troops,
flushed with their victories of the last few days, were eager for
the attack. It is said that his columns were made up with his taller
soldiers in front and the second in stature in the next line, and so on
down, so as to save exposure to the fire of the enemy.
At the appointed time the order was passed down the line to move
forward, and the columns leaped from their hiding places and started
on their disastrous march in the face of a murderous fire from the
defenders of the city, only to be mowed down by the sweeping fire
from the Confederate batteries. Others came, crawling over the bodies
of their fallen comrades, but at every charge they were met by the
missiles of death. Thus it continued hour after hour until the coming
of darkness. The assault had failed and the Union forces retired within
their entrenchments before the city. This is considered as one of the
most brave and disastrous assaults of the war.
The army now settled down to the wearisome siege, and for six weeks
they encircled the city with trenches, approaching nearer and nearer
to the defending walls. One by one the defending batteries were
silenced. On the afternoon of June 25th a redoubt of the Confederate
works was blown up with a mine. When the same exploded the Federals
began to dash into the opening, only to meet with a withering fire
from an interior parapet which the Confederates had constructed in the
anticipation of this event.
Grant was constantly receiving reënforcements, and before the end of
the siege his army numbered 70,000.
Day and night the roar of artillery continued without ceasing.
Shrieking shells from Porter's fleet rose in grand curves, either
bursting in midair or on the streets of the city, spreading havoc in
all directions.
The people of the city burrowed into the ground for safety, their
walls of clay being shaken by the roaring battles that raged above the
ground. The supply of food became scarcer day by day, and by the end of
June the entire city was in a complete famine. They had been living for
several days upon corn meal, beans and mule meat, and were now facing
their last enemy, death by starvation.
At ten o'clock on the morning of July 3d the firing ceased and a
strange quietness rested over all. Pemberton had opened negotiations
with Grant for the capitulation of the city. It is strange to say that
on this very day the final chapter at Gettysburg was being written.
On the following morning Pemberton marched his 30,000 men out of the
city and surrendered them as prisoners of war. They were released on
parole.
This was the largest army ever surrendered at one time.