CONFEDERATE RIVER-BATTERY O.N THE RIDGE SOUTH OE VICKSBURG. From a sketch made after the surrender.
VICKSBURG FROM THE NORTH.
From a sketch made after the surrender.
THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG.
NARRATIVE OP EVENTS.
Hill, midway between Jackson and Vicksburg. Defeated there, May 16, Pemberton retired westward across the Big Black. The next day he was again defeated at the crossings of the Big Black, and retreated to the defenses of Vicksburg. On the 19th, Grant’s lines extended from Haynes’s Bluff southward, inclosing the position on the east. An assault that day failed to carry the works, but advanced positions were secured where the troops were fully sheltered from the enemy’s fire.
On the 22d another assault commenced at 10 o’clock, covered by a furious cannonade. The assailants reached the parapets of the enemy and planted their battle-flags upon them, but were unable to enter the works, and were withdrawn at dark.
... I now determined upon a regular siege,— to “out-camp the enemy,” as it were, and to incur no more losses. The experience of the 22d convinced officers and men that this was best, and they went to work on the defenses and approaches with a will. With the navy holding the river the investment of Vicksburg was complete. As long as we could hold our position, the enemy was limited in supplies of food, men, and munitions of war, to what they had on hand. These could not last always.
The crossing of troops at Bruinsburg commenced April 30th. On the 18th of May the army was in rear of Vicksburg. On the 19th, just twenty days after the crossing, the city was completely invested and an assault had been made; five distinct battles — besides continuous skirmishing — had been fought and won by the Union forces; the capital of the State had fallen, and its arsenals, military manufactories, and everything useful for military purposes had been destroyed; an average of about 180 miles had been marched by the troops engaged; but 5 days’ rations had been issued, and no forage; over 6000 prisoners had been captured, and as many more of the enemy had been killed or wounded; 27 heavy cannon and 61 field-pieces had fallen into our hands; 250 miles of the river, from Vicksburg to Port Hudson had become ours. The Union force that had crossed the Mississippi River up to this time was less than 43,000 men. One division of these — Blair’s — only arrived in time to take part in the battle of Champion’s Hill, but was not engaged there; and one brigade—Ransom’s—of McPherson’s corps reached the field after the battle. The enemy had at Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, Jack-son, and on the roads between these places, over
miles south. A small force was stationed at Jackson, 50 miles east of Vicksburg.
In April Grant marched with McClernand’s column down the west bank of the river to a point opposite Grand Gulf. Sherman, meanwhile, threatened Haynes’s Bluff. McClernand was ferried over to the east bank, at Bruinsburg, and on May 1 defeated the enemy at Port Gibson, turning Grand Gulf. Sherman then reached the front, and the united columns marched northeastward tow ard J ackson. McClern and again defeated the enemy at Raymond, near Jackson, May 12.
Meanwhile, General Joseph E. Johnston, who had been appointed to the command of the Confederate armies in the West, in November, 1862, was marching from Chattanooga to the relief of Pemberton. Sherman captured Jackson May 14, before Johnston reached there, and the latter moved around northward to form a junction with Pemberton, whom he ordered to abandon Vicksburg. Grant’s advance intercepted Pemberton at Champion’s
command. Two months were passed in ineffectual efforts to reach high ground north of Vicksburg, and to cut ship-canals through which to pass the fleet and flank the stronghold.
THE UNION SIDE.
BY ULYSSES S. GRANT, GENERAL, U. S. A.
Commander of tlie besieging armies.
Note.—Pemberton’s army of defense, over 50,000 strong, was intrenched on the high ground along the east bank of the Mississippi, extending from Haynes’s Bluff, 11 miles north of Vicksburg, to Grand Gulf, 50
Immediately after the fall of New Orleans in the spring of 1862 Farragut’s fleet sailed up the Mississippi to Baton Rouge, a movement which threatened Natchez and Vicksburg, farther up the river. On May 18th the advance of the fleet, carrying a force of land troops 1400 strong, led by General Thomas Williams, anchored below Vicksburg and demanded the surrender of the town. After an extended reconnoissance the expedition retired to Baton Rouge May 25. In June and July further attempts were made by both the army and navy, but were unsuccessful. An expedition led by General John C. Breckinridge left Vicksburg in July, and attacked Baton Rouge August 5. Williams was killed, but the assault was repulsed. Breckinridge seized Port Hudson, near Baton Rouge, and fortified it. Baton Rouge was evacuated by the Union troops on the 20th.
The next attempt to reduce Vicksburg by land attack was made in November and December, 1862. Grant marched from Corinth southward late in November, and reached Oxford December 20. Meanwhile, Sherman started from Memphis with a river expedition, landed above Vicksburg, and assaulted the batteries and fortifications on Chickasaw Bluffs, on the 29th. He was repulsed, and the expedition withdrew to Milliken’s Bend above the mouth of the Yazoo. About that time General John A. McClernand reached Sherman’s camp as commander of the river expedition. He moved the army up the Arkansas River and captured Arkansas Post (Fort Hindman), with 5000 prisoners, January 11, 1863. (Other operations in Arkansas in 1862, subsequent to the decisive battle of Pea Ridge, March 8, were the organization of a Confederate army of 20,000 men at Little Rock; the occupation of Helena on the Mississippi by the Union army of General Curtis, and the campaign in northern Arkansas between Hindman’s corps of Arkansans and the Union Army of the Frontier, under General James G. Blunt, ending in a severe battle at Prairie Grove, Ark., December 7.)
Grant’s overland campaign against Vicksburg was interrupted by Confederate cavalry raids against his line of communications. Early in December General N. B. Forrest’s mounted column was despatched from Bragg’s army in central Tennessee into western Tennessee to cut the Mobile and Ohio Railway, and Earl Van Dorn, who had been appointed commander of a cavalry corps in Northern Mississippi, made a circuitous march from Grenada to Holly Springs, on the Mississippi Central, and destroyed Grant’s main depot of supplies. The campaign was virtually abandoned after those raids, and Grant transferred his army to Young’s Point, on the west bank of the Mississippi above Vicksburg, where it was united with McClernand’s. Grant reached Young’s Point in person early in February, and assumed chief
GENERAL BLAIR’S DIVISION CROSSING BIG BLACK RIVER ON THE WAY TO VICKSBURG.
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