Morning journal and courier., 1885-08-31
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. GRANT AT VICKSBURG. His Own Account Of
 The Siege. IA CHOLERA PANIC IN TOUl0N. Efforts Making To Save
 Rie1. THE SUICIDE OF A BRIDE. Russian Vessels Maneuv-
 ering In Secret.
THE SUICIDE OF A BRIDE.
THE SIEGE OF v1CKsBURG.

THE SIEGE OF vICKSBURG.
 Graphic Account of the Affair
 As Related by General Grant I'm
 the september Number of the
 Century.
 NEW YORK, Aug. 30.--The beginning of the siege of Vicksburg is thus related by General Grant in the September number of the Century:
 'sWe had no siege guns except six thirty two pounders and there were none at the West to draw from. Admiral Porter, how ever, supplied us with battery of navy guns of large calibre and with these and the field artillery used in the campaign the siege be- gan The first thing to do was to get the artillery in batteries where they would oc- cupy commanding positions; then to estab- fish the camps under cover from the fire of the enemy, but as near up as possible; and then to construct rife pits and covered ways to connect the entire command by the short est route. The enemy did not harass us much while we were constructing our bat tery. Probably their military ammunition was short and their infantry was kept down by our sharpshooters who were always on the alert and ready to fire at head whenever it showed above the rebel works. In no place were our lines more than six hundred yards from the enemy. It was necessary therefore to cover our men with something more than the ordi nary parapet. To give additional protection sandbags Outlet proof were placed along the %o,, of fbo far aJ1OuOh a0art to make loopholes for musketry. On top of these logs were put. By these means the men were enabled to walk about erect when off duty without fear of annoyance from sharpshooters. The enemy used in their de- fense explosive musket balls, thinking no doubt that bursting over our men they would do some execution. do not remember a single case where man was inj ured by one of these shells. When they were hit and the ball exploded the wound was terrible. In these cases solid ball would have hit as we'll Their use is barbarous because they produce increased suffering without any cor responding advantage to those using them. The enemy could not resort to our method to protect their men because we had an inexhaustible supply of ammuni-
  ters from the timber would have made havoc with the men behind. There were no nor tars with the besiegers except those that the navy had in front of the city, but wooden ones were made by taking logs of the hard est wood that could be found, boring them binding them with strong iron bands These answered as COG horns and shells were successfully thrown from them into the trenches of the enemy The labor of building the batteries and of entrenching was largely done by the pioneers assisted by negroes who came with in our lines and who were paid for their work, but details from the line had often to be made. The work was pushed forward as rapidly as possible and when an advanced position was secured and covered from the enemy the batteries, were advanced. By two hundred and twenty guns in position, mostly eight field pieces besides battery of heavy guns belonging to and manned and commanded by the navy We were now strong for the de- fence against the garrison of Vlcksburg as they were against us; but l knew that John ston was in our rear and was receiving con stant endorsements from the east. He had at this time larger force than l had had at any time prior to the battle of Champions Hill."
 General Grant wrote as follows concerning Pembsrtons scheme to escape from Vicks- burg: "About this time an intercepted des patch from Johnston to Pemberton informed me that Johnston intended to make an attack upon us in order to relieve the garrison at Vicksburg. knew the garrison would make no formidable effort to relieve itself. The picket lines were so close to each other where there was space enough be- the men could converse. On the 21st of June was informed through this means that Pemberton was preparing to escape by cross ing to the Louisiana side under cover of the night, that he had employed workmen in making boats for that purpose, that the men would make an assault on the Yankees to cut their way out, that they had refused and had almost mu- tinied because their commander would not surrender and relieve their sufferings and had only been pacifed by the assurance that boats enough would be furnished in week. The rebel pickets also said that houses in the city had been pulled down to get mate rial to build the boats with. Afterwards this story was verified. On entering the city we found 8 large num- Der of very rudely constructed boats. All necessary steps were at once taken to render an attempt abortive. Our pickets were doubled; Admiral Porter was in formed so that the river might be more closely watched; material was collected on the west bank of the river with which to light it up if the attempt was made; and batteries were established along the 1evee crossing the peninsula on the Louisiana side. Had the attempt been made the garrison of Vicksburg would have been drowned or made prisoners on the Louisiana side. General Richard Taylor was expected on the west bank to cooperate in this move ment, I believe, but he did not come nor could he have done so with force sufficient to ha of service D