News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-11-18
GUNBOATS AT VICKSBURG.
A NOVEL EXPEDITION TO PASS TEE
CONFEDERATE STRONGHOLD.
| A Federal FIotilIa Fails to Force
Passage Through Bogs and
SwamDS-SaVed Inv Sherman

Federal FIotilIa Fails to Force
Passage Through Bogs and
Swamps-Saved by Sherman.
Darlington Smith says, in the Detroit
Free Press, that had any Confederate in
or around Vicksburg asserted that the
| Federals would seek to pass that point
| by sending gunboats through the Yazoo,
| Sun lower and Yallabusha Rivers and a
corps of men through the swamps and
marshes and bogs which cover the entire
country for fifty miles in length, he
would have been hooted at as a fool
And y t. continues Mr.. Smith, that was
| exactly what Grant planned as cool as
| ice and Sherman and Porter were sent
to carry out.
To begin with, each of the streams
named was hardly more than a creek.
| While they had good depth of water,
| they were narrow, crooked and OBJ
structed by sunken trees, and at that
date were hardly known even to fiat
boats. We made our start about the
middle of March, having five gunboats,
four or five large tugs mounting one gun
each, but depended on for pulling away
distractions, and two or three floats, or
fat bottoms, on which mortars were
mounted. 1t was understood by the
fle4t that Sherman was to keep pace with
us with about 10, 900 men. The novelty
of the situation was such as no feet ever
experienced. After ascending the Yazoo
for few miles details of axmen had to
be sent on ahead to cut away the limbs
which would have brushed away our
smokestacks in the narrow channels
The woods, as far as the eye could see,
were hung with moss, ivy and wild
grapes, and the ground was hidden Dy
water The on.y WAS ~ A'l1 iile elan7
mel was to sound for 1t, and to follow
the lead of the pilot-boat The sight OF
US frightened away great tlocks OF birds,
and alligators roll, d lazily aside and SER
pents swan Kissing away.
We were no sooner out of the Yazoo
than the tugs had to begin on the logs
and stumps and fallen trees, and our
progress was slow and tedious. At one
point the channel ran between growing
trees for three OF four miles, and three
tifths of them had to be cut away before
the fleet could pass. They weie sawed
off, the trunks hauled off, and then q
couple of tugs would hitch to the
stump" and snake it out by the roots
At this one spot we suffered a delay of
thirty hours, and got our first inkling of
the difficulties of the voyage. Each day
we crept along at snail's pace, clearing
away the distractions, and each night
our hawsers were made fast to trees
along the banks and we turned in with
bruised hands and aching bodies.
AS soon as the Confederates discovered
the movement our troubles vastly in
creased Scores and hundreds of trees
were felled across the stream in advance
of us, and our working parties were con-
tinually fred upon by men hidden in the
swamps for the purpose. We had not
Only to work the vessels, but to clear the
stream of oqstructions and Feep the guns
going. We now also had to work by
night as we'll as by day, for if we rested
the enemy were at work again with the
AK.
On the fifth day. when the stream be-
gan to broaden and deepen, and there
was hope that we had seen the worst,
we found our progress absolutely
blocked. The entire bed of the river
was filled with willows, bushes, canes
and young trees, and channel must be
cut through or we must go back A
survey was made, and it was decided it
would be labor of week to cut a chan
mel. We were even now under hot
Gre, the Confederates having sent in
fantry and artillery from Vicksburg to
head off the expedition. Sherman had
found it impossible to keep the banks,
and had sought to make cross-cuts. In
this way we had left every Federal In
fantryman miles behind, and all the
fighting was being done by the men of
the fotilla. Our retreat began at day
light on the morning of the sixth day Of
the expedition.
The waters were rising and the current
increasing, and each vessel dropped
from tree 70 t tree Dd II hS Gle a Pisss
In less than three hours this method had
to be abandoned, the enemy filling the
woods with sharpshooters and killing off
the men handling the hawsers. Indeed,
it after awhile became impossible for
any one to show himself on the deck of
a single craft. Our men, protected by
such barr cades as they could form, were
the fire with all possible vigor,
when the feet was brought to a sudden
by Instructions which had been
felled in the rear. At the same moment
the Confederates began telling trees
mile and half above and to also in
crease their rifle fire. We were nicely
penned up, and nine men out of every
ten among us felt certa that we must
Every craft was short of
and the l,ne was strung out
in such u way, and one was so hidden
from the other by the trees, that signals
were of little use. However after lying
under hot fire for about twenty min
ltes, a detail was sent of from every
boat, making 500 or 600 men in all, and
while some worked at the trees others
held the Confedei ates at bay.
We were still at work, suffering Sc
verely from the enomy's fire, when word
was sent back from the front that the
had received a large rein
and that body of regular
troops, accompanied by artillery, was ad-
vancing to bold attack. There was
panic among us for a few moments, each
one feeling certain that this was the end,
and eve boat made ready for the final
After what seemed a criminal
was of time. and with men dropping
dead at the rate of three or four per min
ute, we recei ed orders to return to our
ships. The movement was being exc
ruted when the head of one of Sher-
mans columns came up and struck the
ldvan ing Confederate force in tank,
md after brief fight scattered il
through the woods. The providential
arrival of the infantry certainly saved
hat whole fleet from capture, pennedup