lowed by sombre gloom and the hateful whirr of the jagged iron, as it hurtled to the earth-perhaps finding a harmless grave-possibly hurrying a human being into his last resting place. The hostile lines gradually approached ours, and the fire of their sharpshooters became more and more effective. We were losing daily many of our men who were becoming reckless and exposed themselves constantly; indeed, there were few positions near the lines that could be considered at all secure, and the ditches were about as safe as any other place. The Missourians were losing men daily and almost hourly. The sick and wounded had become crowded in the hospitals; and in them were seen the forms of women, clad in simple, dark attire, with quiet steps and pale faces, gliding about and hovering around the beds of the sick and wounded: they seemed to know no cessations in their days and nights of watchfulness and care. Without noise, without display, meekly and faithfully they went forth upon their pious and holy mission, like ministering angels, carrying balm and healing to the poor soldier, cheering his hope of recovery, or soothing the last moments of expiring life. Their noble and Christian devotion to the cause of suffering humanity throughout the South, during the war, can never be forgotten. CHAPTER XXII. THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG, CONTINUED-MAY 17TH TO JULY ΟΝ 4TH, 1863. N the twenty-fifth of May a short truce was agreed upon to bury the dead, when those of the two hostile armies who were at the front at the time mingled for a few minutes in friendly intercourse, the Missourians finding many acquaintances and some relatives among Blair's men. On the twenty-sixth General Pemberton issued an address to the soldiers, in which he complimented General Bowen's division very highly for the gallantry displayed by its officers and men since the commencement of the siege. On the morning of the 27th an unusual activity of shooting from the distant bomb-boats betokened something in the wind. Soon five vessels came steaming down the river, headed by Commodore Porter's flag-ship, the Cincinnati, and simultaneously four others appeared from below and commenced a vigorous shelling of our upper and lower batteries. Four well-directed shots from "Whistling Dick" pierced the Cincinnati, and sent her hurrying up stream again, but she sank near the Mississippi shore, settling to her hurricane deck, the Commodore, it is said, escaping by good swimming. One of her marines floated down the river on a bale of hay, and was hauled in by one of our sentinels. As the man shook himself he exclaimed, "Wall, I started for Vicksburg, and, I swow, I've got here at last." Four days thereafter the Yankees made some demonstrations towards removing the armament of the Cincinnati, when a volunteer expedition from the First Missouri cavalry, led by Captain Barclay, reached it in yawls, under cover of the night, and burned it to the water's edge. The Federals sent a regiment to the peninsula, and opened a heavy canonnade on them, but the brave little party succeeded in returning without the loss of a man. General Pemberton issued an order, which was read to the army, complimenting them in unmeasured terms for their gallant achievement, fully equal to that of Decatur in the harbor of Tripoli. Not long after this Lieutenant Stockton, of the Third infantry, while stationing the night guard outside the works, was captured. Lieutenant Alford, of the same regiment, was then ordered out with ten men. With a revolver in each hand and his squad behind him, he proceeded to execute the order. When within six steps of the picket post he was ordered to halt and surrender, which he obeyed by firing into the ambuscade. The surprised enemy returned the fire at random, while Alford poured into them double shots in rapid succession, until he routed them and cleared the post. Upon turning to his men he found that all had left but one-the two had put to flight six times their number, and for their soldierly bearing received the applause of the brigade and the thanks of Colonel Cockrell. As early as the middle of June the commissariat began to run low. On the 9th of that month Captain Albert C. Danner, Assistant Quartermaster, makes minute that "the last of our beef has been issued, bread is made only of corn, rice and beans ground and mixed into a meal; we cannot possibly hold out over twenty days even on half rations." One private barrel of wheat-flour was sold for four hundred dollars. As a soup for the sick, lean mules were slaughtered and stewed, and for famished men made a most savory pottage. When the siege commenced it had been announced that there were provisions enough stored away to subsist the army for six months, and in less than one month the sudden reduction and miserable quality of rations issued did not serve to inspire confidence among the men. All the critics of this siege insist that the town could have been amply provisioned; the failure in this respect involved the loss of the city, as well as the loss of health to many a gallant soldier. Anderson details his mournful experience on this subject: "After receiving rather short rations of corn-bread and indifferent beef for a few days, we were somewhat surprised one day to see among the provisions sent up, that the only supply in the way of bread was made of peas. There is no question in regard to this pea bread. It is rather a hard edible, and was made of a well-known product of several of the Southern States, called cow peas, which is rather a small bean cultivated quite extensively as provender for animals. When properly and well prepared it makes a very poor vegetable for the table, though some persons profess to be fond of it. Being introduced as a ration into the army it was always our principal and regular vegetable; occasionally we received rice and sweet potatoes. There was a good supply of this pea in the commissariat at Vicksburg, and the idea grew out of the fertile brain of some official that, if reduced to the form of meal, it would make an admirable substitute for bread. Sagacious and prolific genius! whether general or commissary—originator of this glorious conception! this altogether novel species of the hardest of 'hard tack!' perhaps he never swallowed a particle of it! If he did, the truth and force of these comments will be appreciated. The process of getting the pea into the form of bread was the same as that to which corn is subjected: the meal was ground at a large mill in the city, and sent to the cooks in camp to be prepared. It was accordingly mixed with cold water and put through the form of baking; but the nature of it was such, that it never got done, and the longer it was cooked the harder it became on the outside, which was natural, but, at the same time, it grew relatively softer on the inside, and upon breaking it you were sure to find raw pea-meal in the centre. The cooks protested that it had been on the fire two good hours, but it was all to no purpose; yet on the outside it was so hard, that one might have knocked down a fullgrown steer with a chunk of it."* The great question of edible food occupied almost as much of the attention of the besieged as did the shrieking schrapnel and the thundering shell. In the Daily Citizen, of June 30th, 1863, published in the city by J. M. Swords, on the back of figured wall-paper, the editor says: "General Pemberton has stated he would not surrender as long as a mule or dog was left to subsist on. This possible contingency caused some of our officers yesterday to try mule meat. A couple of the long-eared animals were slaughtered, dressed and cooked, and bountifully partaken of by a large company. We learn the flesh was palatable and decidedly preferable to the stringy beef of a month past, and those who tried the mule meat prefer it for regu lar rations. "The editor of the Citizen wishes to be understood as insinuating that the above officers omitted to extend the customary courtesies to the Press, and therefore broadly assert that mule meat would not 'go bad."" As a fair compensation to the poverty of the mess pot and the skillet, came the many rose-colored rumors that seemed to float in the very atmosphere, freighted with that "Hope which springs eternal in the human breast, "Memoirs," page 337. A system of communications with the outer world was established through the medium of bold and daring couriers, who floated on planks down the river, or glided through the jungles of malarious swamps. By this imperfect mail line Bowen received his commission as major-general. Pemberton got despatches from Johnston, and a myriad of reports followed the arrival of each messenger. On the twenty-eighth of May General Pemberton issued a circular in which he informed the soldiers that General Joseph E. Johnston was at Canton with a large force-Loring at Jackson with ten thousand men, and that the major portion of General Bragg's army was on the move from Tennessee to reinforce Johnston, and ere long relief would be at hand. That it was also reported from the East that General Lee had whipped and driven Hooker over the Potomac, the Federals losing eighty thousand men-that Long Bridge was burned and Arlington Heights in possession of the Virginians. These rumors inspired the army with new feelings, and hope again flamed high. This was supplemented on the eleventh of June by the cheering information, received over the "grapevine telegraph," that Price was certainly in possession of Helena, Arkansas, and held control of the Mississippi; that Bragg was occupying Memphis, and thus had closed Grant's communications with the North; that Lee was undoubtedly shelling Washington City from Arlington Heights; that Kirby Smith was positively known to be at New Carthage, Louisiana; that there was no question of the fact that Semmes, with a formidable fleet of iron-clad vessels, had demolished Farragut, recaptured New Orleans and was moving up the river in concert with Magruder and Dick Taylor, expecting soon to capture Banks and his army, preparatory to finishing Grant and Porter; and finally, that the Lincoln government was suing for peace. But the reports which most persistently kept possession of the mess-talk were of Johnston's immediate advance— toward the last, daily reported more reliably-he had crossed Big Black-demolished Grant's wagon train-defeated Sherman and McClernand-was closely pressing the |