BANKS INVESTS PORT HUDSON. 601 the former place. Banks was preparing for these movements, when, on the 12th of May, he received a letter from Grant, dated two days before, informing him that he had crossed the Mississippi in force, and had entered on the campaign along the line of the Big Black River, which resulted so gloriously. He asked Banks to join him in this new movement against Vicksburg; but the latter, wanting sufficient transportation on the Red River, and unwilling to leave New Orleans and the "repossessed" territory of Louisiana at the mercy of the strong garrison at Port Hudson, and the possible force General Taylor might gather, declined. He sent General Dwight to Grant with satisfactory proof of the wisdom of his decision, and on the 14th and 15th. of May he put his army in motion at Alexandria for an investment of Port Hudson. Grant having sent word back by Dwight that he would endeavor to spare Banks five thousand men for an effort to capture that stronghold, all the transports at hand were laden with troops, and the remainder were marched to Simm's Port. There they crossed the Atchafalaya, and moved down the west side of the Mississippi to a point opposite Bayou Sara, where they crossed on the night of the 23d, and proceeded to invest Port Hudson from the north on the following day." At the same time General C. C. Augur, marching up from Baton Rouge, invested it on the a May 24, south with three thousand five hundred men. 1868. Here we will leave General Banks for a while, and follow General Grant in his campaign on the flank and rear of Vicksburg. We left Grant late in April, with troops, transports, and gun-boats, below Vicksburg, prepared to cross and open a new series of operations against that stronghold. At that time some of his cavalry which had been left in Tennessee were engaged in a most extensive and destructive raid through Mississippi, spreading terror everywhere in the region of its track. The story may be thus briefly told, though in its details it presents one of the most remarkable events on record. On the 17th of April, Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson, of the Sixth Illinois cavalry, left La Grange, Tennessee, with his own regiment, and the Seventh Illinois and Second Iowa, the latter commanded respectively by Colonels. Edward Prince and Edward Hatch, marched southward, sweeping rapidly through Ripley, New Albany, Pontatoc, Houston, Clear Spring, Starkville, and Louisville, to Newton, in the heart of the rich western portion of Mississippi, and behind all of the Confederate forces with which Grant had to contend. These horsemen were scattered in detachments, as much as prudence would allow, striking the Confederate forces which had been hastily gathered here and there to oppose them, breaking up railways and bridges, severing telegraph-wires, wasting public property, and, as much as possible, diminishing the means of transportation of the Confederates in their efforts C. C. AUGUR. to aid the army at Vicksburg. Their marches were long and very severe each day, often through tangled swamps, dark and rough forests, and across swollen streams and submerged plains. At Newton, being below Jackson, they turned sharply to the southwest toward Raleigh, and pushed rapidly through that town to Westfield and Hazelhurst. They halted at Gallatin, where they captured a 32-pounder rifled Parrott gun, with fourteen hundred pounds of gunpowder, on the way to Grand Gulf. They pushed on to Union Church, a little behind Natchez, where they had a skirmish, when, turning back, they struck the New Orleans and Jackson railway a little north of Brookhaven, and proceeded to burn the station-house, cars, and bridges at the latter place. Then they went to Bogue Chitto with a similar result, and pressing southward to Greensburg, in Louisiana, they marched rapidly westward on the Osyka and Clinton road to Clinton, fighting Confederates that lay in ambush at Amite River, and losing LieutenantColonel Blackburn, of the Seventh Illinois, who was mortally wounded. BENJAMIN H. GRIERSON. The 2d of May was the last day of the great raid. They marched early, burned a Confederate camp at Sandy Creek Bridge, and, a little later, captured Colonel Stewart and forty-two of his cavalry on Comite River. This was the crowning act of their expedition, and at noon on that day" the troops that remained with Grierson, wearied and worn, and their horses almost exhausted, entered Baton Rouge, in the midst of the plaudits of Banks's troops stationed there. 4 May 2, 1863. Grierson had sent back the Second Iowa and about one hundred and seventy-five men of other regiments, and with a little less than one thousand men he made the raid, one of the most remarkable on record. In the space of sixteen days they had ridden six hundred miles in a succession of forced marches, often in drenching rain, and sometimes without rest for two days, through a hostile country, over ways most difficult to travel, fighting men and destroying property. They killed and wounded about one hundred of the foe, captured and paroled full five hundred, destroyed three thousand stand of arms, and inflicted a loss on the Confederates of property valued at about six millions of dollars. Grierson's loss was twenty-seven men and a number of horses. Twenty-five horses were drowned in crossing an overflowed swamp, eight miles wide, on the Okanoxubee River. The smallness of his loss of men and horses was remarkable, considering the hazards, fatigues, and privations they had encountered. Detachments sent out here and there to destroy were chased and attacked by some of the thousands sent for the purpose from Vicksburg and Jackson, and sometimes they would be compelled to ride sixty miles in a day, over blind, rough, and miry roads, in order to regain the main body. During the twenty-eight hours preceding their arrival at Baton Rouge, the whole body had traveled GRANT'S ARMY CROSSES THE MISSISSIPPI. 603 seventy-six miles, engaged in four skirmishes, and forded the Comite River, in which many of the horses were compelled to swim. Grierson's experience caused him to declare that the Confederacy was but "a shell," and subsequent events justified the opinion. Grant's first movement toward the Big Black region was to direct Porter' to make a naval attack on the batteries of Grand Gulf. This was done on the morning of the 29th of April," and after a contest of five hours and a half the lower batteries were silenced. The upper ones were too high to be much affected. that were moved from point to point, N RIVER MEMPHIS VICKSBURG OGRAND GULF UNION CH. BROOKHAVEN NATCHEZ LA GRANGE RAND JUNCE HERNANDO CANTON NEW ALBAN PONTOTOC HOUSTON CORINTH CLEAR SPRINGO STARKVILI LOUISVILL DECATUR JACKSON NEWTON? MONTROSE RALEIGH WESTVILLE PHILA- MERID. IAN ENTERPRISE a 1563. The Confederates had field-batteries and the sharp-shooters who filled the rifle-pits on the hill-sides were extremely mischievous to the people on the gunboats. It was evident that the post could not be taken; so at a little past noon Grant ordered a cessation of the battle, and directed Porter to run by the batteries with gun-boats and transports, as he had done at Vicksburg and Warrenton, while the army should move down to a point opposite Rodney, where it might cross without much opposition. At six o'clock that evening Porter again attacked the batteries, and under cover of the fire all the transports passed by in good condition. Three of Porter's gun-boats were much injured in the fight and in the passage of the batteries, and he lost twenty-four men killed and fifty-six wounded. The injured vessels were soon repaired and made ready for active service. Informed by a negro that there was a good road from Bruinsburg (half-way between Grand Gulf and Rodney) to Port Gibson or the Bayou Pierre, in rear of Grand Gulf, Grant decided to cross at that point. At daylight the next morning the gun-boats and transports commenced ferrying the troops. So soon as the Thirteenth corps, under McClernand, was landed, it was pushed forward toward Port Gibson with three days' rations, followed by the Seventeenth corps under McPherson, which had lately come down from beautiful Lake Providence,' as fast as it crossed the river. The advance was met by a Confederate force the next morning at two o'clock, eight miles from Bruinsburg, where the foe was pressed back, but was not pursued until daylight. McClernand then pushed on GRIERSON'S RAID. May 1. 1 The picture on page 604, giving a view of a portion of the shore of Lake Providence, a little west of the Mississippi, in Upper Louisiana, is from the pencil of Henri Lovie. The fine building in the foreground was the head-quarters of General McPherson during the time his troops were encamped on the lake. It was the resi dence of Dr. Sellers. 604 BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON. to the parting of roads, four miles from Port Gibson, each running along a ridge with deep hollows on each side. There he was confronted by a strong force from Vicksburg, under General John Bowen, with troops advan tageously posted on the two roads and the broken ridges around them. McClernand's troops were divided for the occasion. On his right were the divisions of Generals Hovey, Carr, and Smith, and on his left that of General Osterhaus. The former, superior in numbers pressed the foe on its front steadily back to Port Gibson, while the latter was unable to move forward until he was re-enforced by a brigade of General Logan's division of the advance of McPher son's corps. Another brigade of the same division was sent to the help of McClernand, and after a long and severe struggle the Confederates were repulsed, late in the afterNight coming on, the VIEW ON LAKE PROVIDENCE noon, with heavy loss, and pursued to Port Gibson. Nationals halted and rested on their arms, expecting to renew the contest in the morning. But the Confederates had fled across Bayou Pierre during the night, burned the bridges over the two forks of the bayou behind them, and retreated toward Vicksburg. So ended THE BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON. The bridges were rebuilt and the pursuit of the Confederates was continued. Meanwhile Porter was directed to assail Grand Gulf again, but on approaching it, on the 3d of May, he found it deserted. The Confederates there, flanked by the Nationals at Port Gibson, had joined with the defeated troops in their flight toward Vicksburg. The Nationals followed them closely to Hankinson's Ferry, on the Big Black, skirmishing and taking prisoners on the way.' Grant at once made arrangements for a change of his base of supplies from Bruinsburg to Grand Gulf. In the mean time General Sherman, with the Fifteenth corps, had been operating on the Yazoo again. He had been left above Vicksburg, with the expectation of soon following McClernand and McPherson down the west side of the Mississippi. On the 28th of April Grant sent him word that he intended to attack Grand Gulf the next day, and suggested that he should make a feint simultaneously on Haines's Bluff. Sherman was quick to act, and at ten o'clock on the morning of the 29th he started from Milliken's Bend for the mouth of the Yazoo, with Blair's division, in ten steamers. There he found three iron-clads' and several unarmed gun-boats, under Cap 1 The National loss in the Battle of Port Gibson (called by some the Battle of Thompson's Hill) was 840 men, of whom 130 were killed and the remainder wounded. They captured three guns, four flags, and 580 prisoners. 2 Black Hawk, DeKalb, and Choctaw. MARCH OF THE ARMY TOWARD JACKSON. 605 a May 6, 1863. tain Breese, in readiness to go forward. They passed up the river and spent the night at the mouth of the Chickasaw Bayou. Early the next morning they went within range of the batteries at Haines's Bluff, and for four hours the armored gun-boats and the Tyler assailed the fortifications there. Then there was a lull in the fight until toward evening, when Blair's brigade was landed on the south side of the Yazoo, as if to attack. The bombardment was resumed and kept up until dark, when the troops were quietly re-embarked. The assault and menace, with reconnoissances, were repeated the next day, when Sherman received an order from Grant to hasten with his troops down the west side of the river to Grand Gulf. Sherman kept up his menaces until evening, when he quietly withdrew his whole force to Young's Point, whence Blair's division was sent to Milliken's Bend, there to remain until other troops, expected from above, should arrive. The divisions of Tuttle and Steele marched rapidly down the west side of the Mississippi to Hard Times, crossed the river there, and on the following day joined Grant's troops at May 8 Hankinson's Ferry, on the Big Black. Sherman's feint was entirely successful in keeping re-enforcements from the Confederates at Port Gibson. Grant, as we have observed, had expected to send troops down the river to assist Banks in operations against Port Hudson, intending, in the mean time, to remain at Grand Gulf, and collect there ample supplies of every kind. Circumstances compelled him to change his purpose, and on the 7th of May he moved his army forward on two nearly parallel roads on the eastern side of the Big Black River. These columns were led respectively by Generals. McClernand and McPherson, and each was followed by portions of Sherman's corps, which had been divided for the purpose. The immediate destination of the army was the important railway that connects Vicksburg with Jackson, the capital of the State of Mississippi, and also that capital itself, immediately in the rear of Vicksburg. Grant intended to have McClernand and Sherman strike the railway between the stations of Bolton and Edwards, while McPherson, bending his course more to the east, should march rapidly upon Jackson by way of Raymond and Clinton, destroy the railway and telegraph lines, seize the capital, commit the public property there to the flames, and then push westward and rejoin the main force. Very little serious opposition to the Nationals was experienced until the morning of the 12th of May, when the van of each column was approaching the railway. On the previous evening Grant had telegraphed to Halleck that he was doubtless on the verge of a general engagement; that he should communicate with Grand Gulf no more, unless it should be necessary to send a train with a heavy escort, and that he might not hear from him again in several weeks. He and his army were now committed to the perilous but extremely important task of capturing Vicksburg. That night McClernand's corps was on and near the Baldwin's Ferry road, and not far from the Big Black River; Sherman's, in the center of the forming line, and accompanied by General Grant, was at and beyond Auburn; and McPherson's was eight miles to the right, a little in advance of Utica, in the direction of Raymond. When, early in the morning of the 12th, the troops moved forward, they began to encounter stout resistance. The most formidable opposition was |