576

NATURAL DEFENSES OF VICKSBURG.

the fleet and army passed up the Yazoo (which, in a great bend, sweeps round within a few miles of Vicksburg') twelve miles, to Johnston's Landing, the troops debarking" at points in that vicinity along the space of three miles, without opposition.

• Dec. 26, 1862

To understand the difficulties in Sherman's way, we must consider, for a moment, the topography of his field of intended operations. The bluffs or

THE BLACK HAWK.

hills on which Vicksburg stands rise a little below the city, and extend northeast twelve or fifteen miles to the Yazoo River, where they terminate in Haines's Bluff. In the rear of the city the ground is high and broken, falling off gradually toward the Big Black River,twelve miles distant. This

range of hills, fronting the Mississippi and the Yazoo, was fortified along its entire length, and the only approach to Vicksburg by land was up their steep faces, through which roads were cut in a manner indicated by the engraving. At the base of these bluffs were rifle-pits. To render the approach still more difficult, there is a deep natural ditch, called Chickasaw Bayou, extending from the Yazoo, below Haines's Bluff, passing along near the base of the bluffs for some distance, and emptying into the Mississippi. Added to this is a deep slough, whose bottom is quicksand, and supposed to have once been a lake which stretched along the foot of the bluffs, and entered the bayou where the latter approached them. These formed a natural moat in front of the fortifications, while on the plain over which Sherman had to approach the bluffs the cypress forests were felled in places, and formed a difficult abatis.

UPPER ENTRANCE TO VICKSBURG.2

Sherman's army was organized in four divisions, commanded respectively by Brigadier-Generals G. W. Morgan, Morgan L. Smith, A. J. Smith, and Frederick Steele. The first three divisions had three brigades each, and the fourth one (Steele's), four. In the plan of attack Steele was assigned to the

1 The Yazoo River is a deep and narrow stream formed by the Tallahatchee and Yallobusha Rivers, which unite in Carroll County, Mississippi. It runs through an extremely fertile alluvial plain.

This is a view on what is called the Valley road, the one entering Vicksburg from the north, nearest the river. At the point where this little sketch was taken was a strong palisade, and near it was a block-house, both of which were well preserved when the writer visited Vicksburg, in April, 1866.

MOVEMENTS AT CHICKASAW BAYOU.

577

command of the extreme left, Morgan the left center, M. L. Smith the right center, and A. J. Smith the extreme right. The latter division not having arrived from Milliken's Bend (where it had remained as a support to a force under Colonel Wright, sent to cut the railway on the west side of the Mississippi, that connects Vicksburg with Shreveport) when Sherman was ready to advance, General Frank P. Blair, of Steele's division, was placed in command on the extreme right. All of these divisions were to converge toward the point of attack on the bluffs at or near Barfield's plantation, where only, it had been ascertained, the bayou could be crossed at two points-one at a sand-bar, and the other at a narrow levee. Both were commanded by Confederate batteries and rifle-pits. The battery at the levee was on an ancient Indian mound,' near the bank of the bayou, and could sweep nearly the whole ground over which the Nationals must advance. Everywhere on that advance the ground was so soft that causeways had to be built for the passage

of the troops and cannon. Difficulties were found to be much greater and more numerous than was anticipated.

• Dec., 1862.

The army was ready to move on the 27th," and the center divisions, including Blair's, marched slowly toward the bluffs, driving the Confederate pickets, silencing a battery on the left where Steele was to join the forward movement, and cheered by the confidence of the commanding general that full success would crown their endeavors. Alas! he did not then know of the disaster at Holly Springs, the recoil of Grant from Oxford, and the heavy re-enforcements which Pemberton had been sending to Vicksburg. He knew that the line that he was to attack was fifteen miles in length, and supposed there were only fifteen thousand men. to man it, and he believed that, with his superior force concentrated at some point, he might break through the line, demolish it in detail, and march triumphantly into Vicksburg. He knew the position to be assailed was a strong one, but he was not aware of the ample preparations, by rifle-pits rising tier above tier upon the slopes, and batteries crowning every hill, to enfilade his troops at every point, and make success almost an impossibility. In ignorance of the strength before him, and expecting Grant's co-operation on the morrow, Sherman reposed on the night of the 27th, his army bivouacking in the cold air without fires.

The army pressed forward on Sunday morning, the 28th, driving the pickets of the Confederates across the bayou. Steele, moving on the extreme left, was soon checked by a slough and cypress swamp, across which there was no passage excepting by a corduroy causeway, enfiladed by the Confederate batteries and rifle-pits. Meanwhile Morgan had advanced under cover of a heavy fog and the fire of his artillery against the ConfedeHe pressed on to a point at the bayou where it approaches

rate center.

1 The little sketch above shows the appearance of the ancient mound when the writer visited it, in 1866. It was about twenty-five feet in height.

VOL. II.-37

578

BATTLE OF CHICKASAW BAYOU.

nearest the bluffs, and where it was impassable. He held his ground there throughout the day and the following night. At the same time M. L. Smith had advanced far to the right, and before noon was disabled by a sharpshooter's ball wounding his hip, when his command devolved on General David Stuart. A. J. Smith pushed forward on the extreme right until his pickets reached a point from which Vicksburg was in full view.

Steele's division was brought around that night to a point a little below the junction of the bayou with the Yazoo, and on the morning of the 29th, General Sherman, aware that the force of the Confederates on his front was rapidly increasing, ordered a general advance of his whole army. Morgan, being nearest the bayou and the bluffs, was expected to cross early and carry the batteries and heights on his front; but at the dawn the Confederates opened a heavy cannonade upon him, and it was almost noon before he thought it prudent to move forward. Meanwhile detachments had been constructing bridges over the bayou, for the purpose of crossing to assail the foe on the bluffs, and when Morgan was ready to move, Blair had come up with his brigade and was ready to go into the fight, with Thayer, of Steele's division, as a support.

Blair had moved forward between the divisions of Smith and Morgan, and obliquing to the left, which exposed him to a severe flank fire, in which Colonel J. B. Wyman, of the Thirteenth Illinois, was killed, he crossed Morgan's track, and there detached two regiments to the support of that commander. With the remainder he worked his way to the front of Morgan's left, near the house of Mrs. Lake, and at the van of Steele he crossed the bayou over a bridge his men had built, and advanced to the slough, whose

YA

SWAMP

STEELE DEO, ZE.

SLOUGH

CHICKAS

STRELE DEC

MORGAN..

IJOHNSON

BAYOU

LAKE

BLAIR

NATIONAL!

ARTILLERY

bottom was a quicksand, and its banks were covered with a snarl of felled trees. Over this they

passed, Blair leaving his horse floundering in the shallow water with its unstable bed. Dashing through the abatis, and followed by Thayer, with only a single regiment (Fourth Iowa) of his brigade then in hand, he pressed across a sloping plateau, captured two lines of rifle-pits, and fought desperately to gain the crest of the hill before him, while De Courcy's brigade of Morgan's command, which had crossed the bayou, charged on his right. But the effort was vain. The assailants suffered terribly, for the hills were swarming with men, bristling with weapons, and ablaze with the fire of murderous guns. It was a struggle of three thousand in open fields below with ten thousand behind intrenchments above. Pemberton, who had arrived and was in command, had been re-enforced by three brigades from Grenada, released by Grant's retrograde movement, and he defied Sherman. Blair and his companions were compelled to

SMITH

UNION

CONFEDERATE

THE BATTLE OF CHICKASAW BAYOU.

1

A NEW PLAN OF OPERATIONS.

579

retreat. He had lost one-third of his brigade, and De Courcy, by a flank charge by the Seventeenth and Twenty-sixth Louisiana, lost four flags, three hundred and thirty-two men made prisoners, and about five hundred small arms. So heavy and active was the force on the bluffs, that all attempts to construct bridges were frustrated, and they were abandoned. General A. J. Smith's advance (Sixth Missouri) had crossed the bayou at a narrow sandbar on the extreme right, but could not advance because of the cloud of sharp-shooters that confronted them. So they lay below the bank until night, and then withdrew. Darkness closed the struggle, when Sherman had lost nearly two thousand men, and his foe only two hundred and seven. Thus ended THE BATTLE OF CHICKASAW BAYOU.

General Sherman was loth to relinquish his effort against Vicksburg. He had ordered another attack on the left after Blair was repulsed, b:::

wisely countermanded it; but that night, while rain was falling copiously, he caused his men to rest on their arms without fire, preparatory to another struggle in the morning. During the night he visited Admiral Porter on board his flag-ship, and concerted a fresh plan of attack, but on the following day," after a careful estimate of his chances for success, and despairing of any co-operation on the part of Grant, he concluded to abandon the attempt to penetrate the Confederate lines, but to try and turn them. He proposed to go stealthily up the Yazoo

a Dec. 20, 1862.

1 In this attack Lieutenant-Colonel Dister, of the Fifty-eighth Ohio, and Major Jaensen, of the Thirty-first Missouri, were killed. Colonel T. C. Fletcher, of the latter regiment, who is now (1867) Governor of Missouri. and his Lieutenant-Colonel, Simpson, were wounded. Fletcher was made a prisoner.

2 This was the appearance of the battle-ground of Chickasaw Bayon when the writer sketched it, just at evening of a warm day in April, 1866. The view is taken from the road (see map on page 578), on the slope of

580

YAZOO EXPEDITION ABANDONED.

with the land and naval forces, and attack and carry Haines's bluff, on their extreme right, while by some diversion on the bayou the Confederates should be prevented from sending re-enforcements there in time to oppose the National army in securing a firm footing. The latter was then to take the remaining Confederate fortifications in flank and reverse, and fight its way to Vicksburg.

a Dec., 1862.

Preparations were made for this flank movement to begin at midnight of the 31st." A dense fog interposed. The enterprise became known to Pemberton, and it was abandoned. Rumors of Grant's retreat to Grand Junction had reached Sherman, and he resolved to return to Milliken's Bend on the Mississippi. The troops were all re-embarked, and ready for departure from the Yazoo, when the arrival of General McCler

1963.

nand, Sherman's senior in rank, was announced. On the 4th of 6 Jan. 2, January that officer assumed the chief command, and the army and navy proceeded to Milliken's Bend. The title of Sherman's force was changed to that of the Army of the Mississippi, and was divided into two corps, one of which was placed under the command of General Morgan, and the other under General Sherman.

Before McClernand's arrival Sherman and Porter had agreed upon a plan for attacking Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post, on the left bank, and at a sharp bend of the Arkansas River,' fifty miles from the Mississippi, while Grant was moving his army to Memphis, preparatory to a descent of the river, to join in the further prosecution of the siege of Vicksburg. McClernand approved of the plan, and the forces moved up the Mississippi to Montgomery Point, opposite the mouth of White River. On the 9th the combined force proceeded up that river fifteen miles, and, passing through a canal into the Arkansas, reached Notrib's farm, three miles below Fort Hindman, at four o'clock in the afternoon, when preparations were made for landing

1863.

the troops. This was accomplished by noon the next day, when Jan. 10, about twenty-five thousand men, under McClernand, Sherman, Morgan, Stewart, Steele, A. J. Smith, and Osterhaus, were ready, with a strong flotilla of armored and unarmored gun-boats, under the immediate command of Admiral Porter, to assail the fort, garrisoned by only five thousand men, under General T. J. Churchill, who had received orders from General T. II. Holmes at Little Rock, then commanding in Arkansas, to "hold on until help should arrive or all were dead." The gun-boats moved slowly on, shelling the Confederates out of their rifle-pits along the levee, and driving every soldier into the fort, and in the mean time the land troops pressed forward over swamps and bayous, and bivouacked that night around Fort Ilindman, without tents or fires, prepared for an assault in the morning.

the bluff which Blair attempted to carry. The Chickasaw Bayou is seen winding through the plain in the foreground. The solitary stem of a tree in the middle marks the place where there was an encounter on the 27th, when some Confederate pickets were captured, and all were driven back. The belt of trees in the distance marks the line of the Yazoo. The Indian mound is not far beyond the most distant point seen in the bayou, on the extreme left.

1 This point is the first high land on the Arkansas, after leaving the Mississippi. There the French had a trading post and a settlement as early as 1683, and gave it the name which it yet bears. The Confederates had strongly fortified it, and named the principal work Fort Hindman, in honor of the Arkansas general. It was a regular square, bastioned and casemated work, with a ditch twenty feet wide and eight deep, and was armed with twelve guns.

The vessels engaged in this bombardment were the iron-clads Cincinnati, De Kalb, and Louisville.