1862.] DRAFTING. 321 thousand men had volunteered in the war for the Union, but scarcely seven hundred thousand were then left in the service. So many men had been lost in the bloody battles of 1862 and from sickness and other causes that a large number were needed to fill up the ranks, but enthusiasm for the war had died out and few volunteers came forward to take the places of the fallen and disabled. Congress therefore passed an act (March 3) for the enrollment of all able-bodied citizens, irrespective of color, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years; and in May a draft of three hundred thousand men was ordered to be made from this enrollment. The picture shows the manner in which the draft was made. The names of all persons enrolled in the place from which soldiers were to be drafted were written on cards and put into a large round tin box arranged to turn like a wheel. The cards were thoroughly mixed up by turning the wheel round a few times, when a person, blindfolded, put his hand in through the door, and drew out one of the cards. This was handed to an officer, who read the name aloud, and it was then recorded in a book by the clerk. This was repeated until enough names had been drawn to make up the quota or number needed from that place. The passage of the conscription act created a great deal of ill-feeling, especially among the lower classes. It permitted those drafted to buy a substitute on payment of three hundred dollars, and this was claimed to be unfair, because, while the rich man if drafted could easily buy himself off, the poor man 13 who was unfortunate enough to be chosen would have to go Riots occurred also in Jersey City, Troy, Boston, and in some SPRINGFIELD RIFLE CARTRIDGE. 5 CHAPTER XXVIII. VICKSBURG. VICKSBURG.ITS GREAT IMPORTANCE.-GRANT'S PLANS.-CAPTURE OF HOLLY SPRINGS, SHERMAN DEFEATED.-FORT HINDMAN TAKEN.-ARRIVAL OF GRANT.-CANAL DIGGING.—Joseph E. JOHNSTON.-RUNNING THE BATTERIES.-GRIERSON'S RAID.-GRANT LANDS AT BRUINSBURG.-BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON.-GRAND GULF EVACUATED. SHERMAN JOINS GRANT. TAKING A REST.-BATTLE OF RAYMOND.-CAPTURE OF JACKSON.-A GOOD UNION MAN. JEFF DAVIS'S BOOK.-BATTLE OF CHAMPION HILLS.-BATTLE OF BIG BLACK RIVER. -BRIDGE BUILDING.-VICKSBURG SURROUNDED. -TWO REPULSES.---CALIBRE 54. CAVE LIFE, -MINES AND COUNTERMINES.-SCARCITY OF FOOD.-GRANT AND PEMBERTON.-THE SURRENDER.-EFFECTS OF THE BOMBARDMENT.-THE HOTEL DE VICKSBURG.-THE VICKSBURG CITIZEN.-WHAT WAS GAINED AT VICKSBURG.-GRANT AND THE STEAMBOAT MEN. SOON after General 'Grant succeeded General Halleck in command of the Army of the Tennessee, he began to turn his attention to the capture of Vicksburg. Before the war Vicksburg was a little city of between four and five thousand population, but its position on the Mississippi River soon made it one of the most important places in the Confederacy. Its situation can be best understood from the map, which gives a view of the city and the country around it, as far on the east as Jackson, the capital of the State. The Confederates drew a large part of their supplies of cattle and grain, needed for food for their armies, from Western Louisiana and Texas. When they controlled the whole of the Mississippi River from Columbus, Kentucky, to New Orleans, a brisk trade was carried on by steamboats on the Mississippi and the rivers flowing into it from the west; but after the fall of Memphis and New Orleans, the Union gunboats patrolled all the upper and lower parts of the Mississippi, and the Confederates were confined to the part between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the latter about twenty-five miles above Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As their supplies had to be brought across the river between these two places, it became of the greatest importance that they should be held, and both Vicksburg and Port Hudson had been strongly fortified. It was no less important that the Union troops should capture these places both to cut off its food supplies from the Confederacy and to open the great Mississippi to navigation. We have seen how Farragut steamed up the river with his fleet, bombarded Vicksburg for many days, and finally passed and repassed the batteries. At that time the defences were unfinished and only a few guns were mounted, but the Confederates labored earnestly at the works, and by the end of 1862 had made a second "Gibraltar" of it. Besides its river batteries, it was surrounded by a long line of fortifications on the land side, capable of holding many thousand men. The Confederate forces for the defence of Vicksburg were under the command of Lieutenant-General John C. Pember ton, who had succeeded Van Dorn. Grant's plan for taking Vicksburg was to have Sherman go down with his force in boats from Memphis and make an attack on the place in connection with the gunboat fleet. General McClernand was ordered at the same time to go down from Cairo and aid Sherman, while Grant himself was to move against Pemberton, who was then in the rear of Vicksburg. As both Grant and Sherman had more men than Pemberton, it was hoped that Sherman would be able to capture Vicksburg, while Grant held Pemberton in check. But just as Sherman had started down the Mississippi, Grant met with a disaster which spoiled his plan. He had made 1862.] HOLLY SPRINGS DISASTER. 325 Holly Springs, a small town on the line of the Mississippi Central Railroad, his chief depot of supplies, and had gathered there all the food and medicines needed for his army. Grant knew the great importance of keeping clear his connection with this place, and he took care to repair the railroad as he moved toward Vicksburg; but Van Dorn, with a force of Confederate cavalry, made a long raid round the east of Grant's army and captured Holly Springs (Dec. 20) and the two thousand men who were guarding it. All the railroad buildings and the immense storehouses, filled with clothing and other supplies, were burned; the government property alone was valued at more than two million dollars. This great loss forced Grant to fall back to Holly Springs, and to get more supplies from Memphis. He then determined to give up the movement by land against Vicksburg and to send his army in boats down the Mississippi. Grant's retreat enabled Pemberton to use most of his force against Sherman, who, not knowing of the disaster at Holly Springs, had landed his troops near the mouth JOHN C. PEMBERTON. of the Yazoo River, which flows into the Mississippi just above. Vicksburg. Sherman found the Confederate lines of works behind the city were strong, while the country was swampy and so cut up by creeks and bayous as to make it very difficult to approach. He made an attack on the works, but found it impossible to take them, and after suffering a loss of nearly two thousand men, he made up his mind to wait for Grant. In the beginning of January, General McClernand came, and being the senior officer, took command. The name of the army was then changed from Army of the Tennessee to Army of the Mississippi. At General Sherman's request, a naval and military expedition was sent up the Arkansas River against Fort |