# Decisive Battles Since Waterloo/Chapter 15

CHAPTER XV.
SIEGE AND FALL OF VICKSBURG—1863.
At the very outset of the civil war in America the importance of the possession of the Mississippi River was perceived by the leaders on both sides of the conflict. The Confederates sought to close the great water highway by the erection of powerful batteries at Columbus, Kentucky, twenty miles below the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi at Cairo, and at the same time they obstructed its mouth by seizing the forts below New Orleans. Immediately there arose throughout all the region drained by the mighty stream and its numerous tributaries a demand that this great artery of commerce should be opened. Never were a people moved by a stronger and more united impulse than were the dwellers in the great valley that the Father of Waters, should be restored to peaceful navigation. No more stirring prophecy was ever made than that of General Logan when he declared that "the men of the West will hew their way to the Gulf of Mexico with their swords."
The earliest military movements of any magnitude in the Western States were undertaken with a view to opening the navigation of the Mississippi. While General Lyon was making efforts for retaining possession of Missouri on behalf of the nation, a military force was gathered at Cairo under command of General Prentiss, to protect that important point and prevent as far as possible the further descent of boats laden with supplies. Many of ​the merchants and steamboat owners of St. Louis were in sympathy with the secession movement, and in the early days of the blockade at Cairo numerous boats succeeded in passing safely down the stream, never to return. Gun-boats were hastily improvised and added to the efficiency of the blockade, and in the autumn of 1861 General Grant, who had been placed in command at Cairo, led an expedition for the capture of Belmont, a small town opposite Columbus. The Confederate camp at that point was captured and destroyed, but the Union forces were compelled to retreat owing to the fire of the heavy guns from the heights of Columbus, and the overwhelming number of troops that were sent across the river to reinforce the feeble garrison of Belmont. The losses on the Union side were about four hundred in killed, wounded, and captured, and about six hundred on that of the Confederates. The battle had no strategic importance, but it ranks in history as the first aggressive movement for the opening of the Mississippi.
The Confederate position at Columbus was on a high bluff commanding the river, and the batteries were so powerful and so well planted that their reduction by the gun-boats of the river was not a possibility. In the early part of 1862 the army and fleet were ready to move, but instead of making a direct attack as the Confederates had expected. General Grant proceeded to a flank movement up the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. Forts Henry and Donelson fell, and Columbus, no longer tenable, as it could be easily assailed from the rear, was evacuated by the Confederates, who took a new position at Island Number Ten, 25 miles farther down the river. The gun-boats and a strong land force assailed the batteries on this island, but were unable to capture it. It held out for nearly a month, and in the meantime the Confederates were assembling an army at Corinth, Mississippi, with a view to demolishing the forces of General Grant, who had ​moved up the Tennessee River after the capture of Fort Donelson, and taken position at Pittsburg Landing. The Confederate army attacked General Grant on the 6th April, and the battle of Shiloh ensued. General Grant's army was saved by the opportune arrival of a portion of General Buell's army which had been marching to join it, and the Confederates retreated to Corinth. Their defeat rendered Island Number Ten untenable, and it was evacuated on the 7th; part of the garrison retiring to Fort Pillow, 130 miles farther down the river, and a part falling into the hands of General Pope as prisoners of war.
Fort Pillow was bombarded by the gun-boats for several weeks, but it could not be attacked from the land side as long as the Confederates held possession of Corinth. At the end of May they evacuated Corinth, and the evacuation of Fort Pillow followed immediately. The Union fleet then steamed down the river, 70 miles to Memphis, where a Confederate fleet of seven gun-boats waited to defend the city. After a sharp battle, which was witnessed by the population of Memphis from the bluff on which that city stands, the Confederate boats were captured or destroyed, and the Union forces were in possession of the place.
Shortly after the capture of Memphis the Union flotilla descended the river to Vicksburg, finding no obstructions other than occasional light batteries which fired upon the gun-boats from the banks. While the army and flotilla had been making its way southward a national fleet, commanded by the intrepid Farragut, had passed the forts near the mouth of the Mississippi, emerged victorious from one of the greatest naval battles of the war, and compelled the surrender of New Orleans. A land force under General Butler arrived and took possession of the city, and soon afterwards Admiral Farragut sent a portion of his fleet under Commander Lee to ascertain what obstructions there might be to the navigation of the great river ​farther up. Commander Lee reached Vicksburg on the 18th May and judged that he could not successfully cope with the batteries. He reported thus to Admiral Farragut, and waited for reinforcements, which arrived during the latter part of May. Early in June a bombardment was begun, but without serious effect; during June the fleet was strengthened, and by the end of the month Admiral Farragut arrived with his entire squadron, and accompanied by an infantry force of four regiments under General Williams.
The gun-boat flotilla from above and the naval fleet from below met in front of Vicksburg, which was now the only point firmly held by the Confederates along the whole course of the Mississippi. On the 27th and 28th June the lower fleet bombarded the defences for several hours, and seven of the vessels passed the batteries and joined the fleet above. The bombardment had very little effect on the defences of Vicksburg; shot and shell were occasionally thrown into the town until the 15th July, when the Confederate ram Arkansas, which had been constructed at Yazoo City, came out of the Yazoo River, and after disabling two of the Union gun-boats, was safely moored under the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg.
Fearing that this vessel might destroy his mortar boats anchored below the city, Farragut again descended the river, passing the forts in the night, and towards the end of the month retired altogether from the vicinity. The land force had been endeavoring to dig a canal across the tongue of land known as Young's Point, directly opposite Vicksburg. The canal was a failure, as water could not be made to run through it, and the land force retired at the same time as the lower fleet. The upper gun-boats also went away, and before the first of August there was no enemy in sight of Vicksburg. This first siege lasted altogether more than two months, and though 25,000 shot and shell were thrown into the place from the Union ​guns, the loss or damage to the Confederates was trifling; they reported altogether 7 killed and 15 wounded.
During the latter half of 1862 no material advance towards the opening of the Mississippi was made. The Confederates resumed the offensive, sending the larger part of the army that withdrew from Shiloh to reinforce the army that was defending Chattanooga. The Army of the Ohio, under General Buell, was forced back through Tennessee and Kentucky; the Army of the Tennessee, under General Grant, advanced along the line of the Mississippi Central Railway and was making good progress towards a position on the line in the rear of Vicksburg. General Pemberton commanded the Confederate forces opposed to General Grant; he held the line of the Tallahatchie River, and in order to drive him from it General Grant sent a cavalry force under Generals Washburne and Hovey to cut the line of railway and menace Pemberton's communications. This movement caused him to abandon the line of the Tallahatchie and fall back to Grenada, and as soon as he had done so the Union line was advanced through Holly Springs to Oxford, where head-quarters were established on the 3d December.
Grant proceeded to accumulate large quantities of stores and munitions of war at Holly Springs preparatory to another advance. Realizing the danger of a long line of railway through an enemy's country, he decided to make an attempt to establish a position in the rear of Vicksburg, which would enable him to cut loose from his line of railway and advance, en l' air, until he could connect with the new base and thus have a secure position from which to prosecute the siege of Vicksburg. To establish this base he ordered the corps which formed his right wing to be embarked on transports and convoyed by the gun-boat fleet to the mouth of the Yazoo River a few miles above Vicksburg. Ascending the river some ten or twelve miles, it was to land and occupy Haines' Bluff, a commanding position in the rear of the city.
​The fleet of gun-boats and transports started from Memphis on the 20th December, and on the 26th the troops debarked on the south bank of the Yazoo River near the mouth of Chickasaw Bayou. The whole day was consumed in landing, and on the 27th the Confederate lines were attacked. That day and the next passed in skirmishes and small encounters of no great consequence. But on the 29th an assault was made on the Confederate works, in which there was heavy loss of life with no advantage to the Union side. The charge up the hillsides seamed with rifle pits, covered with abatis, and raked by artillery and small arms, was most heroic; it was performed by the division of General Morgan, reinforced by the brigades of Generals Blair and Thayer from Steele's division. General Thayer's brigade reached the edge of the Confederate entrenchments side by side with that of General Blair, but the fire was so furious that it could not be met, and the storming party was driven back, leaving the ground strewn with dead and wounded. The Union loss in the attack on Haines' Bluff was 1,929 killed, wounded, and missing; that of the Confederates was 209.
The failure of the movement was due partly to the delay in making the assault, and partly to the fact that on the very day the expedition left Memphis General Grant's line of communication was cut by the Confederate cavalry under General Van Dorn. That energetic ofificer had been sent by Pemberton to attack Holly Springs, which was insufficiently defended, having a garrison of only 1,200 men under a commander who was soon afterwards dismissed for incompetence. Van Dorn seized the place and remained there several hours engaged in destroying the immense stores which had been accumulated. Then he rode away without molestation, having upset all of General Grant's plans. Grant was compelled to retire to Holly Springs, and his retirement gave opportunity for Pemberton to send reinforcements to Vicksburg and ​enable the commander there to cope successfully with the Union forces that attacked the forts at Haines' Bluff.
On the 2d January the troops at Chickasaw Bayou were re-embarked. They left the Yazoo and ascended the Mississippi to Milliken's Bend, about 12 miles above Vicksburg, and there on the 4th January, General M'Clernand assumed command. To restore in as great measure as possible the morale of the troops disheartened by the failure at Haines' Bluff, General M'Clernand ordered an attack upon Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River, a short distance from its mouth. This fort commanded the navigation of the Arkansas River and was a convenient striking point from which to interfere with the safe navigation of the Mississippi by the Union boats. Two transports had been captured by sallies of the Confederates from Fort Hindman; its garrison was known to be small and the capture would not be a difficult matter for the forces under General M'Clernand.
Fort Hindman was a regular, square bastioned work, 300 feet on each exterior side, with a parapet 18 feet high and a ditch 15 feet deep. It mounted 12 guns, two of them 8-inch and one 9-inch. The garrison comprised about 6,000 troops under command of Brigadier-General Churchill.
During the evening of the 10th January, the gun-boats bombarded the fort for about half an hour, from a distance of 400 yards. On the 11th, a combined attack of the army and navy was made, the army having been landed during the night and taken a position in the rear of the fort. The battle lasted for four hours; attack and defence were ably conducted, and when further resistance was useless, the Confederates displayed the white flag and the works were occupied by the Union forces. Seven thousand prisoners, 8,000 stand of arms, 20 pieces of artillery, and a large amount of ammunition and commissary stores were taken. The Union loss was 120 killed and about 480 ​wounded; the Confederate loss in killed and wounded was much less, owing to the shelter which the fort afforded. Expeditions were sent to capture Des Arc and Duval's Bluff, where there were small military posts; the main body of M'Clernand's command returned down the river to Napoleon, Arkansas, and a few days later received orders from General Grant to proceed to Young's Point, just below Milliken's Bend.
Soon after the raid of Van Dorn upon Holly Springs, General Grant determined to abandon the line of advance by way of Grenada and Jackson, and to assault Vicksburg with the river as his base. Leaving sufficient forces to hold important points in Tennessee and Mississippi, he transferred his army to Memphis by rail, and sent it thence in steamboats to Milliken's Bend and Young's Point. The transfer occupied the greater part of January, and on the 2d February the General arrived in person at Milliken's Bend and assumed command. The attack upon the works at Haines' Bluff had demonstrated the impossibility of taking Vicksburg from that direction, and the General proceeded to make plans for transferring the army below the city.
Operations were resumed in the canal which General Williams attempted to dig in the previous year, but they were hindered by the rapid rise of the river and the incessant rains. The earth taken from the canal was piled on its western side to prevent the flooding of that part of the country when the water was let in, as it is below the level of the Mississippi at a high stage. An embankment at the upper end of the canal was intended to keep out the water until the work was completed.
On the night of the 8th March, this embankment gave way and the river poured a torrent into the canal, carrying away the digging implements, and flooding the camps of the troops that were located near by. Several regiments were obliged to gather their camp equipage and make a ​rapid run for the levee, and some of the troops that were on the lower side of the peninsula had to be ferried over to join the main body of the army. Attempts were made to repair the damages, but the water was so high that they were ineffectual, and it was evident that the canal could not be utilized for its intended purpose.
While the work on the canal was progressing, General Grant ordered a channel to be cut from the Mississippi into Lake Providence, on the west side of the river, in the hope of opening a route by which he might send transports and gun-boats to co-operate with General Banks farther down. He also sent an expedition to the Coldwater River, by way of Yazoo Pass, in the hope of getting into the Yazoo River and destroying some transports and partially completed gun-boats at Yazoo City. The Confederates had established a navy-yard at that point, and it was from there that the ram Arkansas descended in 1862 and created the havoc and alarm already described.
Neither of these and two or three similar enterprises amounted to any thing further than to furnish occupation for idle troops and keep the Confederates in considerable alarm for their communications, and doubts as to the intentions of the Union commander. The Confederates had a steamboat, the City of Vicksburg, lying at the levee in front of the town, and the Union commander desired to destroy her. Colonel Ellet, commanding the ram, Queen of the West, volunteered to undertake the dangerous task, and at the same time run below Vicksburg and destroy other boats which the enemy were using for the transport of troops and supplies across the river. To protect her as much as possible three hundred bales of cotton were placed in such a position as to partially shield her engines, and her steering wheel was removed from the usual position and placed under shelter. But it was found that with this arrangement she steered so badly that the wheel was put back in its old place; the necessity of the ​change delayed her starting, and instead of getting off at daybreak, as first intended, it was full sunrise before she was in front of Vicksburg. A hundred guns opened fire upon her as soon as she came in range, but only a few shots struck her.
She delivered a blow with her iron prow upon the side of the City of Vicksburg, but owing to the broad guards of the latter, the force of the impact was broken and the hull was not injured. Circumstances did not permit delay for a second blow, and the Queen of the West continued her journey down the stream after discharging some incendiary shells into the enemy's boat. The cotton on the Queen was fired by the enemy's shells, but all hands were set to work to extinguish the flames and no serious damage occurred. The steamer was soon out of range and tied up to the shore on the southerly side of Young's Point, where her commander was warmly greeted by the officers of the troops stationed there.
The boat was struck about a dozen times, but all damages were repaired in a few hours. She then steamed down the river. She burned several Confederate transports, returned for a supply of coal, and then started up the Red River on an expedition in which she captured one steamer, but was herself captured, having been run ashore under the guns of a fort through the treachery of her pilot. Part of the crew was taken with the boat, but the remainder, including Colonel Ellet, escaped to the steamer De Soto, a tender of the Queen. On the latter steamer the party descended the Red River to where the Era, one of the captured boats, was lying. The De Soto unshipped her rudder and could not be steered; she was blown up to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy, and the Era made good her escape and ascended the river to the position of the army near Vicksburg.
Soon after the descent of the Queen of the West in front of Vicksburg the gunboat Indianola followed her; she ​drifted past the batteries with the force of the current and was not discovered until in front of the town. The batteries opened upon her, but she escaped unharmed, and the success of the movement prompted General Grant to make further attempts in the same direction. The Indianola was captured in a fight with the Confederate gun-boat Webb and the Queen of the West, which had been repaired and placed in the service of her captors. Soon afterwards a coal-barge was disguised to resemble a gun-boat and allowed to drift past the batteries of Vicksburg in the night. Her pilot house was a small shed taken from a plantation, and her smoke-stacks were made of barrels piled endwise on top of one another, the topmost one containing a kettle of burning tar.
A tremendous fire was opened from the batteries, but the coal-barge, with not a soul on board, drifted along as though nothing had happened, and passed beyond the reach of the guns. The Indianola was being repaired a few miles below, and fearing the supposed gun-boat would recapture her, the Confederates sent a courier with orders that she should be set on fire. By the time the ruse was discovered and an order countermanding the burning could be sent, the Indianola had been destroyed. She burned and blew up and not even a gun was saved from her.
Preparations were now made by General Grant for transferring his army to a point on the Mississippi below Vicksburg, and for this purpose General McClernand, on the 29th of March, moved with the 13th corps to New Carthage, distant by land from Milliken's Bend about thirty-five miles. The movement was slow, as the roads were bad; the 16th corps followed, accompanied by long trains of wagons transporting supplies and ammunition. While the movement was going on preparations were made for running several gun-boats and a fleet of transports past the batteries of Vicksburg. Eight gun-boats ​and three transports were assigned for the effort; the plan was for the gun-boats to drift down at about a hundred yards from each other and engage the batteries as soon as they were discovered, but not before. The night of the 16th of April was selected for the undertaking. Under cover of the smoke of the cannonade the transports were to endeavor to slip through with a full head of steam.
The gun-boats were fairly in front of the city before there was any sign of life on shore. Suddenly two guns were fired from the extreme right of the Vicksburg batteries, and then the cannonade commenced along the whole line of the works. The fleet immediately replied, and a great cloud of smoke soon hid the boats from view. Then the transports started at full speed, in the cover of the smoke; the Forest Queen, the foremost transport, was disabled by a shot through her steam drum, and the Henry Clay, which followed, was set on fire by a shell. The Forest Queen drifted out of range, and was picked up by a gun-boat; the crew of the Henry Clay escaped in their yawl, all except the pilot, who remained at his post till the flames were around him, and finding that his signals to the engineer were not answered, he jumped overboard and was saved by one of the gun-boats. The Henry Clay was burned, and drifted down the river a mass of flames. The Silver Wave, the third transport, was not touched by the Confederate shot and shell.
​Grant found it necessary to order the army to concentrate at Hard Times, nearly opposite the town of Grand Gulf, at the mouth of the Big Black River.
The batteries of Grand Gulf were engaged by the gun-boats, but owing to the commanding position the Confederates had the advantage, and it was not deemed prudent to attempt to carry the place by assault after the bombardment. The troops were marched across the point from Hard Times, the gun-boats and transports ran past the batteries of Grand Gulf in the night of the 29th of April, and on the morning of the 30th the work of ferrying the troops across was begun. They were landed at Bruinsburg, supplied with three days' rations, and sent on the road to Port Gibson, where a force of the enemy was known to be posted.
General McClernand's corps had the advance, and steadily drove back the enemy until within three or four miles of Port Gibson. The Confederates made a stand on the bank of Bayou Pierre, but were promptly defeated on the 1st May, and fled in the direction of Vicksburg. Grand Gulf was abandoned on the 2d, the gun-boats finding it deserted on the morning of the 3d. Considerable quantity of ammunition and several heavy guns were captured here; the fortifications were very strong. If they had been completed and properly garrisoned it would have been impossible for any fleet to take them.
General Grant's plan of campaign was now evident to every one, and the army moved forward with the animation that is developed by hope of success. The plan was to advance along the valley of the Big Black River, and the road to Jackson, until fairly in the rear of Vicksburg. When this position was gained the army could close in on the town, and at the same time cut off the arrival of reinforcements or supplies for the garrison. But there was a dangerous feature about the movement, that the army, on leaving the Mississippi, would have to cut loose from ​its base, and in case of defeat its retreat again to the river would be full of peril. It was necessary to strike out for a new base, which General Grant decided should be at Haines' Bluff, in the rear of Vicksburg. By swinging around to that point he expected to open communication to the banks of the Yazoo, where he could meet the gun-boat and transport fleet.
On the same day that Grant crossed from Hard Times to Bruinsburg, the 15th corps, which had been left at Milliken's Bend, was ordered to make a demonstration on Haines' Bluff, as though with a serious intent of capturing it. General Blair's division, accompanied by several gun-boats, and carried on ten transports, was sent up the Yazoo to a point near the scene of the disaster in December. A vigorous demonstration was made during the whole of the 30th, the troops being landed in full view of the enemy, only to be re-embarked when night came on. Similar demonstrations were made the next day at other points on the Yazoo, and then the 15th corps proceeded to follow the rest of the army to the crossing at Grand Gulf as rapidly as possible. The demonstration had the desired effect of drawing the attention of the Confederates from the movements at Grand Gulf, and prevented their despatching reinforcements to the menaced points.
All through the month of March and down towards the end of April General Pemberton believed that General Grant would be forced to abandon his attempt to take Vicksburg, and he certainly had good reason for his belief in the invulnerability of the place after so many and futile attempts at its occupation. Pemberton was in constant communication with General Joe Johnston, who had chief command over the armies of Bragg and Pemberton, with head-quarters at Tullohoma, and steadily advised his superior that Vicksburg was in no danger; but when the gun-boats and transports passed the batteries, and the Union army assembled in front of Grand Gulf, ​Pemberton saw that there was a sudden and disagreeable change in the situation. On the 29th he telegraphed to Johnston: "The enemy is at Hard Times in large force, with barges and transports, indicating a purpose to attack Grand Gulf with a view to Vicksburg." Before Johnston had time to reply and give instructions how to prevent Grant from crossing the river, the Union forces had reached the east bank, and were pushing on towards Vicksburg.
On May 1st Pemberton telegraphed: "A furious battle has been going on since daylight just below Port Gibson.... I should have large reinforcements. Enemy's movements threaten Jackson, and, if successful, cut off Vicksburg and Port Hudson." Johnston replied with instructions for Pemberton to unite all his forces and beat Grant, which Pemberton found was much easier to say than to do. He did his best; but the enemy were too strong for him. After the defeat at Port Gibson his forces withdrew in the direction of Vicksburg. General Grant advanced in pursuit to where the road from Port Gibson to Vicksburg crosses the Big Black River at Hankinson's Ferry.
Here the Union army halted from the 3d to the 8th of May, waiting for supplies from Grand Gulf and for the arrival of the 15th corps, which was hastening on from Milliken's Bend. Demonstrations were made in the direction of Vicksburg, which was twenty miles away, as though a direct attack was intended; but that was not General Grant's plan. His real design was to keep his forces on the east bank of the Big Black, and strike the Vicksburg and Jackson Railway about midway between the two places, thus severing the connection with Pemberton and any reinforcements that might come to him from the east. This would he done with the left and centre of the army, while the right wing would make a detour eastward through Raymond to Jackson. After ​destroying the stores at that point and disabling the railway, the right wing (McPherson's corps) would march westward to join the rest of the army for moving on Vicksburg.
Four days were occupied in carrying out these movements; but unforeseen circumstances caused a change of plan. On the 12th of May, when approaching Raymond, McPherson's corps encountered two Confederate brigades, which were defeated after a fight of two hours. They retreated on Jackson, and were followed by McPherson, who was confident of capturing the place without much difficulty, when news came during the night that Johnston was momentarily expected in Jackson to take command in person, and that troops were being concentrated there with a view to strengthening Vicksburg. General Grant immediately ordered the left and centre of the army to march on Jackson, where it would join the right wing, and be able to cope with whatever force might be assembled there. Pemberton was at Edwards Station, on the Vicksburg and Jackson Railway, and waiting to deliver battle on the appearance of the enemy. But the latter turned eastward before the railway was reached.
Johnston arrived at Jackson on the night of the 13th, and immediately perceived the danger of the situation, with the Union army between himself and Pemberton. He immediately sent orders for the latter to move east to Clinton, and attack the rear of the Union army, while he engaged it in front. Pemberton had 17,000 men at Edwards Station, while Johnston had some 10,000 or 12,000 in Jackson. If these had co-operated there was a possibility of defeating the Union army, though hardly a probability. But without co-operation there was no hope of success. Pemberton did not move as ordered, and when McPherson's and the 15th corps reached Jackson on the 14th, all that Johnston could do was to engage in a sort of rear guard fight for two hours or so, while he removed the stores, or as much of them as possible, along ​the road to Canton. After destroying what they had no use for, disabling the railway, and burning bridges, the Union troops faced westward, and marched near the line of the railway in the direction of Vicksburg.
Meantime Pemberton, after disregarding Johnston's orders to move on Clinton, called a council of war of his officers; the majority of them favored moving as Johnston had directed, which would enable the column, in case of defeat, to connect with Johnston by making a detour to the north from Clinton. But Pemberton was opposed to any movement which would separate him from Vicksburg, which he considered his base, though it was obviously untenable in the then position of the Union army. He advised a movement towards Raymond to sever Grant's communications with his base at Grand Gulf, and was supported by a minority of the officers forming the council. He accordingly directed all his available forces, about 17,500, to move in the direction of Raymond on the afternoon of the 15th.
Under ordinary circumstances the movement was a good one, but Grant had foreseen the possibility of it, and on the 11th he telegraphed to General Halleck that he should communicate with Grand Gulf no more unless it became necessary to send a train with a heavy escort. "You may not hear from me again for several weeks," the despatch concluded, and thus the army had dropped its base and was moving en l'air. Therefore when Pemberton marched on the 15th to sever Grant's communications with Grand Gulf, there were none to sever. On the same day McClernand was ordered to move his corps to Edwards Station and continue the advance till he could feel the enemy, but not to bring on a general engagement unless he was confident of victory. General Blair's division of the 15th corps was moved with McClernand, and the rest of the 15th, together with McPherson's corps, was ordered to join McClernand as rapidly as possible.
​By night the Union troops were within a few miles of Edwards Station, and so close to Pemberton's army on the Raymond road that their pickets were within speaking distance. Pemberton on the morning of the 16th received orders from Johnston to march northward, but he soon found he could not do so without being met by the Union army, which was interposing between him and the direction of the Polar Star. He took up a strong position at Champion Hill and prepared for battle: his left, Stevenson's division, occupying Champion Hill; the centre, Bowen's division, extending across Baker's Creek; and his right, Loring's division, stretching to the southward among thick woods and deep ravines with sharply sloping sides. Champion Hill is thickly wooded, and in front of it is a cleared valley, the clearing extending a short distance up the side of the hill.
Hovey's division of McClernand's corps was the first to engage the enemy, which it did by coming up on the Confederate left. Grant saw that a general battle was imminent, and gave orders for Hovey not to engage seriously until the rest of McClernand's corps could come up, and also McPherson's, which was pushing forward as rapidly as possible. McPherson's corps was thrown to the right so as to envelop the Confederate left and threaten his rear, while McClernand's divisions (other than Hovey's) were marching towards the Confederate right and centre. The firing between Hovey's division and the Confederate skirmishers gradually increased, and by eleven o'clock the skirmishing had swelled into a battle. The odds were against Hovey's division; one brigade and then another of Crocker's division of McPherson's corps were sent to assist Hovey, while Logan's division (of McPherson corps) was effectively striking against the Confederate rear and distracting his work in front. In spite of this diversion, the Confederates were able, with their superior numbers, to push back Hovey ​and those who came to his support; but the line retreated slowly, and ultimately gained a position where it could pour a fire of artillery upon the Confederate line and force it back in turn.
Logan's division worked so well around to the enemy's rear that Pemberton realized his danger of being cut off from Vicksburg and ordered a retreat. Stevenson's and Bowen's divisions made good their escape, but Loring's division was cut off and compelled to retire to the southward, abandoning all its guns and losing many men, who were captured. Loring found it impossible to retreat into Vicksburg, but by making a wide detour south and east he reached Jackson three days later (on the 19th), and reported to Johnston with what he had saved from his command.
The Union loss in this battle (Champion Hill) was 426 killed, 1,842 wounded, and 189 missing. The Confederates lost quite as heavily in killed and wounded, about 2,000 prisoners, 15 or 20 guns, and three or four thousand small-arms. The battle was fought mainly by Hovey's division, which lost about 1,200 in killed and wounded, as it was engaged for several hours before the other divisions could come to its aid. This assertion is not intended to detract in any way from the other divisions, as all fought gallantly as soon as they reached the field. The 15th corps was too far away to be of service, as it was still marching from Jackson, and only three divisions of McClernand's corps could come up before the battle ended. Two divisions (Carr's and Osterhaus') of McClernand's corps pursued the fleeing enemy until dark, capturing many wagons and adding considerably to the number of prisoners.
The result of the battle of Champion Hill was to sever completely the communications between Johnston and Pemberton, and shut the latter up in Vicksburg. It was virtually the beginning of the siege.
​Next morning (17th) the enemy was vigorously pursued to the banks of the Black River, where they made a stand to cover the passage of their train and artillery across that stream. Besides the railway bridge, Pemberton had a bridge which consisted mainly of three steam-boats, but he was not able to get all his impedimenta over the river. Carr's division and Lawler's brigade carried the Confederate defences after a fight of about two hours, and Pemberton fled in the direction of Vicksburg, leaving 18 guns, 1,500 prisoners, several thousand stand of arms, and large quantities of commissary stores, to fall into the Union hands. The loss of Grant's forces in the affair of the Black River was 29 killed and 242 wounded. Pemberton burned the bridges as he retired, and thus delayed pursuit. McClernand and McPherson built bridges during the night, and the 15th corps, which had the only pontoon train, crossed at Bridgeport several miles above.
Each corps began crossing at eight a.m. on the 18th, the 15th pressing forward to within 3½ miles of Vicksburg, when it turned to the right and occupied Walnut Hills to open communication with the Yazoo. McPherson followed the route of the 15th corps to where it turned off to the right, and there he halted for the night. McClernand advanced on the direct road from Jackson to Vicksburg, and when near the city turned to the left. On the morning of the 19th the investment of the city was practically completed, though there were several gaps to be filled in the lines of the besiegers. Vicksburg was in a state of siege.
Communication was opened with the gun-boat fleet, which had been guarding the front of Vicksburg and preventing the receipt of supplies by river. The gun-boats then ascended to attack Haines' Bluff, which the Confederates immediately evacuated, as their position was no longer tenable with the Union forces in their rear. The fortifications at Haines' Bluff were found to be strongly ​constructed, and abundantly supplied with material of war, the ammunition being sufficient for a long siege. The author of "The American Conflict" says: "It would hardly be credited on other testimony than his own, that our admiral proceeded to destroy this inestimable material of war with full knowledge that Grant's triumphant army was at hand to defend and utilize it."
General Grant, apprehending an attack by Johnston's relieving force from Jackson, and counting much on the demoralization of Pemberton's command, ordered an assault on the 20th, at 2 p.m. The Union flag was planted on the Confederate earthworks by Blair's division of the 15th corps, but an entrance was not effected owing to the severity of the Confederate fire. A second assault on a larger scale was made on the 22d, at 10 a.m., and to make sure of a simultaneous movement, the corps commanders set their watches by General Grant's. The gun-boats co-operated by opening fire in front, and at the appointed time the assault was general along the whole line.
Sergeant Griffith and 11 men of the 22d Iowa infantry, of McClernand's corps entered one of the bastions of a fort in front of McClernand's position, but all except the sergeant were killed or captured. In two instances at other points regimental flags were planted on the bastions, but that was all. The whole attack was repulsed with a loss of nearly 3,000 in killed, wounded, and captured. At one time General McClernand thought his attack had been successful, and sent word to that effect to General Grant, and at the same time he asked reinforcements, which were sent. Colonel Boomer commanding one of the reinforcing brigades was killed just as his men went into action, and shortly afterwards the assaulting force was hauled off.
​about equal to those of Pemberton whom he was besieging; each had not far from 30,000 men, and it has been claimed by some historians that the Confederates were numerically superior. Be this as it may, the relative conditions of the two armies was vastly different. The Union forces were flushed with victory, while the Confederates were disheartened by defeat; the Union forces were well fed and clothed, having opened communications with their heavily laden transports in the Yazoo, while the Confederates were poorly supplied and had starvation staring them in the face. Grant had an abundance of ammunition, while Pemberton was but poorly supplied, and of his 30,000 men there were 6,000 in hospital, so that he could hardly muster more than 15,000 effectives.
Reinforcements, provisions, munitions, artillery, and intrenching tools were sent down the river to Grant, and the men set to work with a will to dig their way into Vicksburg. The rugged hills, which afforded excellent ground for constructing works of defence before the siege, were utilized by the besiegers while they prosecuted their enterprise. Day and night the cannon rained shot and shell into the doomed city, the land forces under Grant being seconded vigorously by the gun-boats and mortar rafts of the flotilla. Mine after mine was run under the enemy's works, and met by countermines, which were often so close that the diggers were separated only by thin curtains of earth and could plainly hear the blows of pick and spade. Portions of the defensive works were blown up, but no practicable breach was made to justify an assault in force.
Famine was busily at work inside the walls of Vicksburg, and knowing the state of affairs there, General Grant was willing to wait patiently for the result. A Confederate officer thus tells the story:
About the thirty-fifth day provisions began to get very scarce, and the advent of General Johnston's relieving force was anxiously and momentarily looked for. Mule meat was ​the common fare of all alike, and even dogs became in request for the table. Bean meal was made into bread, and corn meal into coffee, and in these straits the garrison patiently dragged on the weary length of one day after another, under a scorching sun, the stench from the unburied corpses all around alone causing the strongest-minded, firmest-nerved, to grow impatient for the day of deliverance. The enemy pushed their works; they blew up several forts, and with them the garrison, and attempted to charge; but the meagre and famished yet steadfast garrison still defiantly held the key to the Mississippi. But every thing must have an end. General Pemberton learned from General Johnston that he could not afford him relief, and as the garrison was too famished and reduced to cut its way out, he determined to capitulate.
During the siege Johnston made great efforts to gather an army to relieve Vicksburg, but he was unable to do so until too late. On the 29th June he left Jackson with about 24,000 men, and marched in the direction of the Big Black, in the hope of creating a diversion sufficient to enable Pemberton's army to cut its way out. On the 3d July he sent word to Pemberton to hold out until the 7th, when such a diversion would be made, but already Pemberton had begun negotiations for surrender.
On the morning of the 3d July, after 45 days of isolation, General Pemberton ordered a white flag displayed on the bastion of one of the earthworks. The flag was shown in front of General A. J. Smith's division, and firing ceased at that point. An officer went to ascertain the reason for the display of the flag, and found that General Bowen, who commanded one of the Confederate divisions, and Colonel Montgomery of General Pemberton's staff had a communication for General Grant. They were blindfolded and taken to the tent of General Burbridge, whence the letter was forwarded to the commander-in-chief. It proved to be an application for an armistice with a view to arranging terms for capitulation. General Grant replied ​that he could listen to nothing short of unconditional surrender, but expressed a willingness to meet General Pemberton during the afternoon at any hour he might name. Three o'clock was appointed for the conference, and orders were given to cease firing along the whole line at that hour.
The conference was begun in presence of several officers of both armies, but it had not progressed far before General Grant invited General Pemberton to walk away a little distance where they would be unheard by others. They sat down under a tree and talked for about an hour. The conference was ended without any agreement as to the details of the surrender, General Grant agreeing to send in his proposals that evening. They were sent in accordingly, General Grant demanding the surrender of the works and city, prisoners to be paroled, private soldiers to be allowed all their clothing but no other property, and officers to retain their side arms, private baggage, and one horse to each mounted officer.
Pemberton replied, accepting the terms in a general way, but making several stipulations to which Grant refused to accede. In his reply to Pemberton, Grant said that if the terms were not accepted by 9 a.m. on the following day, they would be considered rejected. Acceptance could be signified by the display of white flags along the Confederate lines before that hour.
The white flags were displayed and the long siege was over. At 9 a.m. General McPherson rode into Vicksburg to receive the surrender; he met Pemberton half a mile inside the lines, where they were soon joined by Grant. Gen. Logan went in to establish a provost guard; the stars and stripes were hoisted over the court-house, and the soldiers sang "Rally round the Flag" with an enthusiasm which had a double force in view of the triumph and the fact that the surrender took place on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the nation's birth. Early in the ​afternoon the Union fleet of gun-boats and transports was tied along the levee of Vicksburg, and the citizens, who had been hiding in caves and living in constant terror of shot and shell for six long weeks, were able to walk about without danger.
General Grant reported his losses, from the day he landed at Bruinsburg until the surrender, at 943 killed, 7,095 wounded, and 537 missing, a total of 8,575, of whom 4,236 fell before Vicksburg, the most of them in the assault of May 22d. Twenty-seven thousand prisoners were paroled in Vicksburg, of whom only 15,000 were effective for duty. The loss of the enemy in the whole campaign, from Bruinsburg to the surrender, was 37,000 prisoners, among them 15 general officers, and at least 10,000 killed and wounded, including 3 generals. Arms and munitions for an army of 60,000 men were taken, besides a large amount of other public property, such as railway cars, locomotives, steamboats, cotton, etc. A vast amount was destroyed to prevent its capture.
Immediately after the surrender of Vicksburg, General Grant ordered the division of General F. J. Herron to go to aid in the siege of Port Hudson, which was being conducted by General Banks. Port Hudson is 200 miles below Vicksburg, and was invested about the time General Grant drew his lines around Vicksburg. General Gardner, its commander, heard of the surrender of Vicksburg, and sent a flag of truce to General Banks to ascertain the correctness of the report. The latter sent a copy of General Grant's despatch announcing the momentous event, and, on being satisfied of its correctness. General Gardner made a formal surrender of Port Hudson and its garrison, 6,000 strong. General Banks received General Gardner's sword, and immediately returned it in consideration of the gallantry its owner had displayed in the defence of the post intrusted to his charge.
News of the surrender of Port Hudson arrived just as ​General Herron's division had embarked. Consequently its destination was changed to the Yazoo River, which it ascended to Yazoo City, where it captured one steamboat and some other property. Twenty-two steamboats had been carried farther up the Yazoo, where they were burned or sunk by the Confederates to save them from capture. Herron captured and brought away 300 prisoners, 6 heavy guns, 250 small-arms, 800 horses, and 2,000 bales of cotton belonging to the Confederate government.
In its consequences the capture of Vicksburg, naturally and imperatively followed by that of Port Hudson, was of the highest importance. The Mississippi River was opened from its mouth to the head of navigation, and "The Father of Waters flowed unvexed to the sea." The Confederacy was split in two, and its western half could no longer send supplies of cattle, salt, provisions, and other needed articles to the armies in the east. The 37,000 prisoners taken in the campaign, together with the 10,000 killed and wounded, were an army which the Confederacy, already heavily overmatched by the Union forces, could sadly afford to lose. It was an army to which the government at Richmond had confided the defence of the Mississippi, and with its surrender was gone the hope of holding any point on the great river.
In a speech at Jackson, Mississippi, in December, 1862, the President of the Confederacy urged the citizens to go to Vicksburg to "assist in preserving the Mississippi River, that great artery of the country, and thus conduce, more than in any other way, to the perpetuation of the Confederacy, and the success of the cause." It is fair to say that this view of the value of the possession of the mighty stream was shared by all the people of the South, and no less by those of the North. Consequently the fall of Vicksburg was an irreparable loss to the one and a gain of immense importance to the other. It was beyond all question one of the most decisive events of the war.