The National tribune., 1906-02-08
CHAPTER Xiv.
PUSHING THE SIEGE OF PORT
HUDSON.

sfegers-IndOmitableY Yankee Pluck and
Recommendations Defense-COndi-
tions Inside Port Hudson-InGenious
Expedients.
The matchless courage and deter
mination of the American soldier were
never better illustrated than In the
grim resolution with which the men
under Gen. Banks pushed forward the
siege after the shocking losses in the
assaults of May q and June IA. Never
had men more to discourage them.
More than half of them We're green
troops, enlisted the previous October,
for nine months service, and brought
at once from the health-breath thing up
lands of New England to the miasmatic
lOwlands of Louisiana, where the semi
tropical sun was like a furnace, where
every breath of air was fever-tainted
and every drop of water germ-laden.
The trees and vegetation, SO different
from the kindly wholesomeness of
their mountain forests and fields, SEEM
ed as rankly malarious as the earth
and water. The stately magnolias ex-
haled a strong, rank odor from their
great, white flowers. which seemed
positively baleful, when compared
with the balsamic breath of their
native pines and the sweet smell of the
oaks and beeches. The weird, shadowy
wreaths of Spanish moss had the look
of funeral drapings.
To fall sick seemed certain DEATH
and every one was more or less i'll, and
daily becoming worse.
To the jungle-feverS was added that
worst of all fevers-home-sick
Plain. housekeeping, hOme-loving boys
had been sharply separated from the
thoughtful, sympathetic family circle
and carried thousands of miles away to
what then seemed the uttermost parts
of the earth. There was absolutely
nothing home-like-New England-like
anywhere. Even the faces of their
comrades had been sallowed and dis
their former companions. Many of the
negroes and whites spoke a French or
Spanish jargon as foreign and uncanny
to their ears as the fostering morasses
were to their eyes.
Worst of all was a profound distrust
of their Commanding General. Not an
enlisted man failed to understand that
both assaults had been horribly mis-
managed and men had ben slaughtered
to no purpose. There was not a ray of
hope that future operations would be
better conducted.
DdIiy the cfImdIIc CONDITIONS became
worse. The hot sun rose earlier, burned
more fiercely, and staid above the no
rfZon longer. In the close trenches the
heat was insupportable, and yet they
must stay there, musket in hand,
watching the enemy's lines with lynx
like attentiyeness. Or they must toll
with the pick and shovel and push for
ward their sap-rollers under the deadly
sharpshooting of their enemies, where
seconds incautious exposure meant
death, or a wound that would tester
Into gangrene. The stenches of the
camps, held close under the protection
of the works, added to the horrors
The creeks and springs dried up, the
river fell and exposed broad expanse
OF pestilential swamps to breed count
less millions more musketoes to add
to the torments of the day and night.
The enemy's fire was so searching
that it swept off every blade of grass
ground had been industriously hoed.
Intolerable Labor.
In the very beginning the force was
much too small for such an extended
line OF investment The front was
seven miles long, and where the Eu-
ropean rules prescribe 10000 men for
every mile, there were never more than
$4,000 for the whole line, and toward
the end of the siege there were fewer
about 10000 men around Port Hud-
son, but such were the ravages of dis
ease and the assaults that he could not
be said to have ever had more than half
that number available. These had to
maintain and guard that whole line
and, beside, furnish working parties to
carry on the severe labor of making
the approaches. AS Col. Irwin says,
every man would have been on the sick
list. but that pride and sense of duty
took him out TO the trenches The need
of men was so great that we find Gen
Emory ransacking the hospitals to find
q company or two at time OF men
that might be regarded as well enough
Tor duty, and sending them forward.
This, too at a time when Emory's own
force was reduced to 400 men to hold
down New Orleans against the rumors
OF Dick Taylor's approach. All of the
fleet but two vessels were sent up
the river, either to add to the weight
OF fire upon the enemy or to patrol the
river against the batteries which Dick
Taylor was planting to cut off COM
munication with New Orleans.
Progress Of the Siege.
In his History of the Nineteenth
Corps" Col. Irwin gives this account Of
the progress of the siege which Is in
valuable. as in some inscrutable way
the full reports of commanding officers
have disappeared from the files of the
War Department. and Col Irwin's OBJ
servations as Assistant Adjutant-Gen-
eral, are about all the material that we
have:
Rushing tho Approaches.
after the 14th of June the siege pro-
gre:sed steadily without further
ittempt at an assault. This was now
deferred to the last resort. At four
points a system Of comparatively regu-
ar approaches was begun, and upon
:hese labor was carried on necessarily
1ight and day; indeed. as is usual with
works Of this character, the greatest
progress was made i'm the short hours
II the June nights. The main approach
ed from Duryea's Battery No. IL to-
ward the priest-cap. following the
sindings OF the ravines and the contour
II the hill. When at last the sap had,
With great toll and danger. been carried
% the crest facing the priest-cap, and
,nly a few yards distant. the trench
was rapidly and with comparative ease
Extended toward the left, In a line par
lllel with the general direction of the
1efenses. The least distance from this
hird parallel. as 1t was called by an
sasy stretch OF the language. to the
snemy's parapet was about 20 yards
The greatest about As.
4 About 200 yards farther to the right
H ~ to olh ~ ho in, z;s