The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-07-28
FIELD. FORT AND FLEET
Ire First Chapter in the Siege of NIess- burg Grants Plans arl
 Failures.
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 THefe were. beginning troa :he hour N hen Mcclellan MAS a;tac sed l; Shicka- heIniuy. ha,i q dozen peuods during .he war when Richmond was open to capture by the iedeIais. and xe, ]: was sel1 aaul events necessi,a,ed its evacuation. There never was an hour. from the time IeS>- barg vas tirS: invested until tember:ons surrender. when there was the leas, chance for lis capture. and vel the fed era governmen. made no count et lie or treasure in seeking 10 bring !: about. All military men saw. after the w.r. how Richmond could have been taken. and wondered tha, i. was not. but TO one has asserted tina; Nicksburg should have fallen aa hour before 1t did. The iron-clad ice, could have run the batteries. but with the bluffs linei with guns for miles, and field batteries posted all along the banks. boat could effect no more d; one poin: than another. The country back offered every advantage 10 an army of defense, being broken and timbered ard easily fortified. ard when Sherman ie; go 0; the undertaking it was in the belief that nothing bu, a long siege could ever give federal general possession of the place. Other points along the river fell into federal hands at the trst attack. but Nieksburg was a Gibraltar which the con- federates were determined to hold at any cost.
 A few families out of the many sought safeey in the interior, or left the state d. together when i, was realized ,ha; Nicks- burg was to be attacked and defended with desperate energy. bu, the majority remained. Indeed. they were nor pre- pared 10 go. A siege offered scarcely more anxiety than a hurried removal to a locality among strangers who had enough to endure without further burdens. As the city faces the river the only danger to be feared was from the fleet. To escape this aimos, every household had it's cave in the bluffs. These were tunnels. having their openings on the far side ot the bluffs and generally ending in chamber after running in ten or twelve feet. Having from fifty 10 five hundred fee, of solid hill between them and the river. the peo- pie sheltered in these caves were perfectly safe from missiles, bu, the danger vas in getting to them. The federal ice, did not send word in advance when a bom- bardment was 30 begin. and the fire was as likely 10 open at midnigh, as any hour in the day. A, the first gun everybody would start up. At the second or third the non-combatants would prepare to rush to shelter, and the rush mus, be made with solid shot and bursting shell sounding their fearful warnings to make haste. Women and children were at times half buried or knocked down as they ran, but the deaths were few and far between. Probably the entire liss would not count up a dozen names
 A man would hardly dare attempt to compute the weight of federal metal hurled into Vicksburg. from first to last, but he who visits the place. and looks for what he may consider legitimate results, will be greatly disappointed. There are not six buildings in the city sh owing scars of the bombardment. Not more than two or three buildings were fired and destroyed, and the citizens do not remem- Der case where any one was killed in a house. Cannon balls and pieces of shell and grape-shot were thick enough in the streets. and bullets could be picked up everywhere, yet the fire from the river. from first to last, amounted to little more than throwing away ammunition Upon one occasion an iron-clad steamed slowly along for distance of two miles, throw ing grape into the town as fast as her guns could be fired, yet only one house was hit hard enough to leave scars. That house IS there to-day, and % are hundreds of people who passed through II all, and dodged death Q oftea, and in 90 many different forms that they came to consider themselves bsllet-peoof
 The cut-of which General Williams frst began across the peninsula opposite Nicksburg, and about five miles from the city, was intended to isolate the post and render its defense worthless The length d the cut was only mile, and had things worked as intended, Vicksburg mus, have surrendered or been evacuated within week Williams could not get the waters a the Mississippi to run into his ditch. He had the advice of the bes, civil en- gineers. bu, however well they under stood surveying line of defense they did not understand the nature Of the big rlvcr. The angle at which they struck the river was incorrect l, was correct from an engineers standpoint. but the cratic nature of the current had no, been considered Therefore the diggers had