SERVICES OF PORTER'S FLEET 621 hands, he made that event doubly sure by calling re-enforcements to his army. His effective men, after the assault, did not exceed twenty thousand in number, but to these were very soon added the divisions of General Lauman and four regiments from Memphis, with the divisions of Generals A. J. Smith and Kimball, of the Sixteenth corps. These were assigned to the command of General Washburne. On the 11th of June General Herron arrived with his division from the Department of Missouri, and on the 14th two divisions of the Ninth corps came, under General Parke. Now the investment of Vicksburg was made absolute, with Sherman's corps on the extreme right, McPherson's next, and extending to the railway, and Ord's (late McClernand's) on the left, the investment in that direction being made complete by the divisions of Herron and Lauman, the latter lying across Stout's Bayou, and touching the bluffs on the river. Parke's corps, and the divisions of Smith and Kimball, were sent to Haines's Bluff, where fortifications commanding the land side had been erected to confront any attempt that Johnston might make in that direction. Meanwhile Admiral Porter had made complete and ample arrangements for the most efficient co-operation on the river, and his skill and zeal were felt throughout the siege. While his heavier vessels and the mortars and great Parrott guns on the scows already mentioned were doing effective work in the immediate operations of the siege,' his smaller vessels were patrolling the river, to keep its banks clear of guerrillas, who were gathering in strength on the western side, and to prevent supplies reaching Vicksburg. And so skillfully were his vessels handled during the close siege, that only one of them was badly disabled,' and, with the exception of the casualties on that vessel, he lost only six or seven men killed and wounded.3 For a month General Grant closely invested Vicksburg. Day after day he drew his lines nearer and nearer, crowning hill after hill with batteries, and mining assiduously in the direction of the stronger works of his foe, with the intention of blowing them high in air. Day and night, with only slight intermissions, his heavy guns and those of Porter were hurling shot and shell with fearful effect into the city, and its suburbs within the lines, 1 For forty-two days the mortar-boats were at work without intermission. During that time they fired 7,000 mortar shells, and the gun-boats fired 4,500 shells.-Porter's Report. 2 The Cincinnati, Lieutenant George M. Bache commanding. She had been prepared with bales of hay and cotton, and sent to assist in silencing a troublesome water battery. After being fired at several times by "Whistling Dick," as she moved down without being hit, she went on with a full head of steam toward the position assigned her, under the fire of all the river batteries. At length a ball entered her magazine, and caused it to be drowned, and she began to sink. Shortly afterward her starboard tiller was carried away. Her commander ran her ashore at the peninsula, where she sunk. In attempting to swim ashore from her, about fifteen of her people were drowned. Twenty-five were killed and wounded. The Cincinnati went down with her colors nailed to the stump of her mast She was afterward raised. Report of Admiral D. D. Porter, dated “Black Hawk, July 4, 1963." The printing-press on board the flagship was employed for other than official business. To while away the tedious hours of the officers and men, a journal was printed on a broad-side, entitled, The Black Hawk Chronicle, and contained notices of the events of the siege on land and water as it progressed, often in a strain of wit and humor that must have been agreeable to the readers. The first number, issued on the 8th of June, is before the writer. It is well printed on dull yellow paper, in two columns. "Terms, 2,000 dollars per annum in Confederate notes, or equal weight in cordwood." It informed the public, "that no special reporter belonged to the establishment," and therefore nothing but the truth might be expected. The contents were composed generally of short items. In noticing the disaster to the Cincinnati, the editor said:-"On the morning of May 27, the gun-boat Cincinnati,' packed with all kinds of fenders, went down to co-operate with General Sherman in an attack on a water battery and riflepits. Said battery, having grown during the night, sent some ugly customers after our gun-boat, which vessel retired on finding the place too hot for her, having first received three or four shots in her bottom. Not wishing to be annoyed by the enemy, she wisely sunk in three fathoms of water, out of reach of the enemy's shot, when the officers and crew coolly went in to bathe." 622 LIFE IN THE BESIEGED CITY. making it hell for the inhabitants, and the soldiers too, who sought shelter for limb and life in caves dug in the steep banks where streets passed through the hills. In these the women and children of whole families, free and bond, found protection from the iron hail that perforated the houses, plowed the streets, and even penetrated to these subterranean habitations, where gentle women were waiting and praying for deliverance, and where children were born.' It was a terrible ordeal, and yet during that long siege very few persons, not in the army, lost their lives. Pemberton's only hope for deliverance was in the ability of Johnston to compel Grant to raise the siege. With that hope he held out against a mul 1 The streets of Vicksburg are cut through the hills, and houses are often seen far above the street passengers. In the perpendicular banks formed by these cuttings, and composed of clay, caves were dug at the begin CAVE-LIFE IN VICKSBURG. ning of the siege, some of them sufficiently large to accommodate whole families, and in some instances communicating with each other by corridors. Such was the character of some made on Main Street, opposite the house of Colonel Lyman J. Strong, for the use of his family and others, and of which the writer made the accompanying sketch, in April, 1866. The caves were then in a partially ruined state, as were most of them in and around Vicksburg, for rains had washed the banks away, or had caused the filling of the caves. In this picture the appearance of the eaves in their best estate is delineated, with furniture, in accordance with descriptions given to the writer by the inhabitants. A graphic account of events in these crypts is given in a little volume entitled, My Cave-Life in Vicksburg, by a Lady, published in New York in 1864. It was written by the wife of a Confederate officer who was in the besieged city, and lived in one of these caves with her child and servants. The picture in the text above gives a good idea of the external appearance of these caves, in the suburbs of the city. It is from a sketch made by the writer on the old Jackson road, where the Second Mississippi regiment was stationed during a portion of the siege. In the view the spectator is looking down toward Vicksburg. A plain, and the bluffs on the border of the Mississippi, are seen in the distance. CONFEDERATE TROOPS IN LOUISIANA. 623 a June, 1868. titude of temptations to yield.' On the 14th Johnston sent him word that all he could attempt to do was to save the garrison, and suggested, as a mode of extrication and conjunction, a simultaneous attack upon Grant's line at a given point by his own troops without, and Pemberton's within. He asked the latter to designate the point of attack, north of the railroad (nearer Johnston's communications); and he then informed him that General Taylor (whom Banks, as we have seen,' had driven from the heart of Louisiana, and who was gathering forces there again) would endeavor, with eight thousand men from Richmond, in that State, to open communication with him from the west side of the river. Already that commander had sent between two and three thousand troops, under General Henry McCulloch (brother of Ben., who was killed at Pea Ridge), to strike a blow. It was leveled at a little force, chiefly of colored troops, called the "African brigade," stationed at Milliken's Bend, under General Elias S. Dennis, composed of about fourteen hundred3 effective men, of whom all but one hundred and sixty (the Twenty-third Iowa) were negroes. McCulloch's blow fell first, though lightly, on the Ninth Louisiana (colored), commanded by Colonel H. Lieb, who went out on a reconnoissance from Milliken's Bend toward Rich 1863. mond, on the 6th of H. LIEB. horse and foot, pursued nearly up to the earthworks at the Bend. It was now night, and the Confederates lay on their arms, expecting to make an easy conquest of Dennis's force in the morning. The latter was on the alert, and when, at three o'clock, the Con June 7. 1 The misfortunes of Pemberton, before he was driven into Vicksburg by Grant, had been construed by some into crimes. He was even accused of treasonable intentions-of "selling Vicksburg." These charges reached him. Stung by them, he took a public occasion to repel them. After the failure of Grant's assault on the 22d, he made a speech to the citizens and soldiers. "You have heard," he said, "that I am incompetent and a traitor, and that it was my intention to sell Vicksburg. Follow me, and you will see the cost at which I will sell Vicksburg. When the last pound of beef, bacon, and flour-the last grain of corn, the last cow and hog, and horse and dog, shall have been consumed, and the last man shall have perished in the trenches, then, and only then, will I sell Vicksburg." 2 See page 600. 3 These were the Twenty-third Iowa, white; and Ninth and Eleventh Louisiana and First Mississippi, colored. 624 BATTLE OF MILLIKEN'S BEND. federates rushed to the assault, with the cry of "No quarter!"" they were met by a volley that made them recoil for a moment, but before the inexperienced blacks could fire more than another volley, they had rushed over the intrenchments. Then occurred a most sanguinary hand-to-hand fight for several minutes, with bayonets and clubbed muskets, the colored troops contesting every inch of ground with the greatest obstinacy, and answering the question often asked, "Will the negroes fight?" with a distinct affirmative, and in repetition of what had been done a few days before at Port Hudson.* Combatants were found after the struggle close together, mutually transfixed, the white and the black face-the master and the slave-close together and equal in death. The Confederates drove the Nationals from their works to the levée, where a sharp contest was kept up until noon. Fortunately for the Nationals, Porter had received word the night before of the investment of Milliken's Bend, and had ordered the gun-boats Choctaw and Lexington to the aid of the garrison. This order was obeyed. They joined the troops in the struggle, and at meridian the Confederates were repulsed, and were pursued a short distance, with a loss estimated at one hundred and fifty killed and three hundred wounded. The National loss was one hundred and twentyseven killed, two hundred and eighty-seven wounded, and about three hundred missing. A week later, the Confederates were driven out of Richmond by an expedition from Young's Point, composed of the command of General Mowry, and the marine brigade under General R. W. Ellet. a June, 1863. Grant pressed the siege with vigor as June wore away. Johnston was beyond the Big Black, chafing with impatience to do something to save the beleaguered garrison, but in vain, for he could not collect troops sufficient for the purpose, while Pemberton, still hoping for succor, fought on, and suffered with the heart-sickness of hope deferred. Finally, on the 21st, he sent a messenger to Johnston, who had moved out from Canton as far as Vernon, near the Big Black, recommending him to move north of the railroad toward Vicksburg, to keep the attention of the Nationals attracted to that side, while the garrison should move down the Warrenton read at the proper time, break through the investing line, and, crossing the Big Black at Hankinson's Ferry, escape. Evidently doubting the success of his proposed movement, Pemberton suggested to Johnston, the next day, the propriety of abandoning Vicksburg, and proposing to Grant the passing out of all the troops "with their arms and equipage." Johnston declined taking this step, because he said it would be a confession of weak 1 It is asserted, upon what seems good authority, that orders went out from the chief conspirators at Richmond, after the promulgation of the President's Proclamation of Emancipation, to give no quarter to colored troops, and the officers commanding them. That certainly was the practice in several instances. In the fight here just recorded, the Confederates seem to have made it their special business to kill the officers commanding the colored troops. The casualties among them showed this. 2 Up to about this time there had been no good opportunity to try the mettle of the negroes in open battle Those upon whom this first trial fell were, like all the others, inexperienced and raw recruits, having had very little time for discipline or drill. The valor with which they fought here, and at Port Hudson a few days before, satisfied the loyal public, and the Confederates, that the negro henceforth would be a power in military opera tions. The writer met Colonel Lieb at Vicksburg in April, 1866, who informed him that his experience at Milliken's Bend at the time we are considering, and ever afterward, with negro troops, satisfied him that there is no better material for soldiers than they. Colonel Lieb had held distinguished rank in military service in Europe, and had much experience in the discipline of troops. • See Report of General Elias S. Dennis to J. A. Rawlins, Assistant Adjutant-General, June 16, 1868. MINING THE CONFEDERATE WORKS. 625 ness on his part, but told Pemberton that when it should become necessary to make terms, they might be considered as made under his authority. As Pemberton had assured him that he had sufficient supplies of short rations to last unt. the first week in July, Johnston hoped something might yet occur by which the garrison might be saved. • June 22, 1863. We have observed that Johnston moved out to Vernon. This was noticed by Grant's vigilant scouts, when he ordered Sherman to proceed with five brigades and oppose his further advance. With these, and some re-enforcements, Sherman constructed defenses from Haines's Bluff to the Big Black that defied Johnston, and he was obliged to look for another approach to Vicksburg to co-operate with Pemberton in an effort on the part of the latter to escape. He took position between Brownsville and the river, and on the night of the third of July he sent a messenger with a note to Pemberton, informing him that a diversion would be made to enable the latter to cut his way out. The message was intercepted by General Ewing,' and two days afterward such news reached Johnston from Vicksburg that he fell back in haste to Jackson. Toward the close of June the most important of Grant's mines was completed. It extended under Fort Hill Bastion, on the right of the old Jackson road, in front of McPherson, under whose direction it was constructed. The trench had been excavated in the usual zig-zag way, by workmen behind an immense gabion, which was rolled before as a protection, with a movable redoubt formed of gabions behind. them, armed with a cannon, and manned by artillerists and sharp-shooters to keep the garrison behind. their parapets. Min ing and counter-mining MCPHERSON'S SAPPERS AT FORT HILL.2 June. had been going on for some time, but this was the first that was ready for destructive work. Between four and five o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th' it was fired. The explosion was terrific. The garrison, expecting the event, were partly removed, and but few were injured. But a great breach was made. A part of the face of the fort was thrown 1 This message (the original), written on a small piece of paper, was, until lately, in possession of the writer. It was found on the person of the spy, folded into a small space, and concealed between the cloth and the lining of the breast of his coat. 2 This little picture illustrates the manner of approach to the fort by the sappers and miners. The ground is given as it appeared when the writer visited the spot, in April, 1866, and made a sketch from the ditch. The men and their implements have been introduced to illustrate the subject. To the reader, uninformed in military terms, it may be proper to say that gabion is a French name given to cylindrical baskets of various sizes, made of small branches of trees. open at both ends, and used to revet the interior slopes of batteries, the cheeks of embrasures, and to form the parapet of trenches. The baskets, when used, are filled with earth. For an illustration, see the tail-piece on page 376 of this volume. VOL. II.-78 |