The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-06-24
ARNY CORRESPONDENCE
LETTER FROM JAKE"
CAMP 61TH INDIANA VOLUNTEERS,
In REAR OF VICHSBURG, }
Tnne Q l262

E5ssoTs Evansville Journal:
This being the point to which all eyes
are turned, and all ears being strained
TO catch the first news of victory, any
thing on the subject will of course be in
teresing to your readers. By this time
You are, doubtless, aware that our victo-
rious army did not get so fully crowned
with glory as to march into the city of
Ticksburg, with no more opposition than
they met at Port Gibson or Jackson,
though a reliable correspondent did
telegraph the facts to the contrary.
VicEsburg, though not exactly ours, is
in pretty much the same FIX as lion in
Il menagerie cage. We can take it in
half day by a general onslaught on
their works. Gen. Grant, and in fact
every private in the army, is well salts
fed of this, but, knowing that it would
be a hard battle to fight, and when won
be dearly bought by the lives of so many
gallant soldiers, the General prefers to
lay siege, and either starve or shell them
until they surrender 1t seems impossi-
BILE to me that they can escape; and we
are equally as safe in our own position
from any attack in our rear.
We invest the enemy's works so
closely that they dare not show q head
or hand at port-hole or on their fort
walls, from the mouth of the Yazoo to
the Mississippi above Warrenton. One
hundred yards from this wall of forts
which surrounds the city, is our first
rile-pit, in which our picket reserves
lay night and day; one hundred yards
back of this is another rifle-pit, in which,
on the slightest alarm, the army is in
stantly put, with the exception of the
reserves, when there is a living chain
around the whole city. At intervals of
one to three hundred yards along this
second line OF ritle-pits are our batteries,
ready, when the word is given, to rain
shot and shell in unlimited quantities on
their heads The batteries are all mask
ed, and not one in ten have ever fired a
shot as yet, so that the rebels do not
know what they will have to contend
with. In our rear We have the hills
from which we drove the rebels, addi.
tionally strengthened. Our loss in tax.
ing them shows what fighting jeff will
have before him when he attempts to
drive US from our position. The second
chain of riAe-pits from the front is on a
ridge, all along the line in the valleys
At the foot of it lie the regimental
camps, if they may be called such; in
reality the whole side of the hill is dug
into little caves, each with its little
bower of willow limbs or cane tops ovel
the mouth, in order to make it cool a
night, when they are lit up, a walk uE
the bottom of the valley reminds one o.
the fairy tales of old, when to every lea
of the forest hung twinkling star-tht
halfclad, dusky forms of the soldiers an
swering we'll for the el6n sprites, as they
fit hither and thither, chatting of home
with their companions, or gathering il
groups to discuss the news of the day.
The siege commenced on the 10th day
of May, when the 18th Army Corps, un
der Gen. McClernand, drove the rebels
to their "last ditch, and from what
can learn (our regiment then being a
Perkins plantation), actually stood fou
ranks deep at the lcalls of the fort, tht
rebels on the inside the same way, from
ii A. NJ. to 9 P. NJ, when they drew
back to their present position. Th'
walls of the fort are from twenty Il
thirty feet in perpendicular height, 81
| that it is impossible to scale them. Th'
portfolios and gateways of the fort, th
only practicable points of entrance, wer
the bone of contention all day, the in
domitable courage of both sides prevent
ing either from gaining ground. Eve
since, the pickets have kept up a stead
fire of musketry during the day, and a
unceasing watchfulness at night. Par
of the batteries keep fire night an
day, thing they think will annoy tn
enemy, thus making miniature battl
all the time.
At night the view from the rife pits o
the hill in front of our regiment is beau
tiful in the extreme, for beyond that o
any pyrotechnic display ever witnessed
The I'M mediate foreground is compose
ofthe continued fash from the picket fir
in connection with the commanding rigf
and left along the line as far as the eye wi
reach. Farther on the rebel pickets, firin
from the port holesX the cannon are silen
ed)and embrasures in the fort wall; in th
distance the shells from the Gun an
Mortar Boats shooting up from benin
the hills like meteoric corruscations.-
Soaring away above the stars they col
tinue their fight gradually slackenin
their pace until their force is spent the
slowly turning they descend with rapid
increasing strides until nearing the cart
they burst with report like double di
titled thunder, echoing and re-echoin
over the hundred hills and wales in OF
rear
At every lull in the firing, the picke
(whc;;are..withip:conversing distance) ma
, b. heard nquiring after friends IN , {
each other about their respective Gene
j erals or the quantity or quality of the
grub, in fact anything that happens
come first to their minds
Vicksburg is ours, as irrevocably
anything can possibly be; it is only
5 question how long men can do withol
q aatino. to tell how long it will be befo