The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-01-08
From the Columbus Miss.) Inde1.
Cen. Stenhen ID. Lee at Chickasaw Bluff

,
The following account of the brilliant victo-
ry won by our distinguished fellow citizen,
Gen. S. D. Lee, in the defence OF Vlcksburg,
we take from Gen. D. H. Maury's account OF
Grants Campaign in North Mississippi IN
1892"
In December, while Grant was 80 leisurely
moving down the Central Railroad and bearing
our little army back towards Grenada, Sherman
was sent with force, estimated at twenty thou
sand men, to seize Vicksburg. He would then
move to Jackson, and thus Van Dorm would
be placed with his little army of just $4,000
men between the armies of Grant and Sherman,
and would have been forced to evacuate Miss
issippi. Sherman disembarked his army on
the Yazoo river, above Vicksburg, about De-
cember goth. The place was then defended
by an insufficient force and must have fallen
an easy prey to an energetic attack by such an
army as General Sherman now brought against
it, But Sherman delayed his attack several
days, thus losing precious time and opportuni-
ty, and it was not until December 9th that he
moved in battle array to fight the battle OF
Chickasaw Bluff, which so far as we know is
the only battle General Sherman ever did
fight.
! On that day General Stephen D. Lee COM
manded five regiments of infantry and two
light batteries, twenty-five hundred men and
+ twelve guns, which confronted Sherman's army
on the Chickasaw and Willow bayous. Lee
arrayed his little force along the road which
leads under the Chickasaw bluff His centre
fronted the opening between the bayous through
which Sherman would debouch to the attack.
An open cotton field six hundred yards across
between the hostile lines. The centre of Lees
lne Louisiana troops, lay in the road, with the
bluff at their backs. There was no ditch or
embankment or cover of any sort along this
part of Lees line nor was there any obstacle
to the approach of the Federal forces except
steady rifles of the brave men who that day
achieved the most signal victory of the war
The troops of Lees wings were much better
posted than his centre; they were on more
elevated ground Their front was in great part
securely covered by deep and impossible fis-
sures or gullies, which the enemy could not
their fire could sweep the whole front of at
tack. About four o'clock p. m. the enemy in
heavy column marched out of the timber be-
yond the bayou, crossed the narrow neck be-
tween the bayous, and marched straight against
Lees centre. The column of attack was COM
manded by General Frank Blair, and moved
up in fine and formidable array but so deadly
was the fire of Lees line, and so steady were
his men, that before the foremost enemy could
come within one hundred yards, their lines
were broken, the attack was repulsed, the Fed
erals were retreating in disorder to the cover of
the woods, leaving one thousand dead, wounded
and prisoners on the field, and General Sher-
man was defeated, and from that moment aban-
doned all further efforts Ct an attack, and turned
all his energies and attention to effect safe re-
treat.
In no battle of the war was the disparity of
| tfx,1 Inccno
so great Lee captured on the ground two
who in their fright had fallen down our men
thought them dead, until examination proved
them to be entirely unhurt. Several hundred
wounded were removed by Lee to his own hos
pitals, and more than one hundred were killed
upon the field. Captain Hamilton, of Lees
staff, killed by the explosion of caisson, was
the only Confederate killed ten others were
wounded, and this was Lees whole loss.
! X
The conduct of Sherman during this, his
first Independent expedition, is open to crti
cism The grandeur of his intentions and
preparations is in strong contrast with the i'm
potent conclusion. His delay and hesitation
in making his attack the feebleness of that
attack, and his unjustifable seadiness to aban-
| don the whole enterprise, evinced incapaclty
for command His attempt to evade admitting
that the battlefield was Lees in not applying
at once for truce to bury his dead, and his
petty assumption of dignity in causing SUBJ
ordinate officer to sign the letter which he
finally sent requesting truce, and the gross
neglect Of his gallant dead consequent upon
this unsoldicr-like course, were characteristic
of the man who has proclaimed that Wade
Hampton's troops burned Columbia, and that
| his did not, and who announces that ''the honor
of military men is rery different from the honor
of politicians"
In pleasing contrast with Sherman's conduct
of this battle was that Of his antagonist,
Brigadier General Stephen D. Lee. Twenty
wears younger than Sherman, he was yet a SOL
dier of tried experience and was fresh from
the army of Northern Virginia, that school of
war commanded by the great master Of the art
and had borne conspicuous part in all OF its
great battles. Like Sherman, Lee was now
commanding for the first time on field where
all was committed to the hazard of battle
! The odds against him were fsarful-near ten to
one-and it was not possible to perceive that
the advantages of position were so strongly in
his favor as to compensate for his unequal
numbers. A commander of less experience
and nerve than Lee might have posted the
centre of his army on the bluff instead of in
the road at its base. But Lee perceived that II
his line were on the bluff there would be dead
angle along his front of such extent that the
enemy would be safe from fire long way of,
and could carry his position by escalade.-
Therefore he resolved to receive the attack at
the base of the blnf, and to depend on the
Workmanship of his troops and their tried
courage, animated by his example, for his sole
defence. While Sherman never during the
| ho flo showed himself in its 'front.' but remained
with his reserves, which he never brought up,
Lees presence was constantly seen and felt
along his whole line. Never did commander
show himself in battle more freely to friend
and foe, and never was such exposure justified
by richer results.
- 1t is said that the people who went down
in the Vile du Havre were worth twenty mil