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McPherson also were made brigadier-generals in the regular army.

After the fall of Vicksburg many officers and men were given furloughs-that is, leave of absence-to go home and visit their families. The steamboat men, who had come down the river as soon as it was opened, took advantage of them and charged them high prices for passage up to Cairo, sometimes as much as thirty dollars. General Grant, hearing of this, was very indignant that the soldiers should be treated so, and sent a guard down to stop one of the boats just about leaving, with more than a thousand men and officers on board. He then ordered the captain to pay back to each private soldier all he had charged above five dollars, and to each officer all he had charged above seven dollars, threatening to imprison him and take his boat if he did not obey. The captain did not like it, but the guard was there and he had to pay back the money, amid the cheers of the soldiers for General Grant. "I will teach them," said Grant, "that the men who have perilled their lives to open the Mississippi River for their benefit cannot be imposed upon with impunity."

Do

CA

FIELD GUN.

CHAPTER XXIX.

PORT HUDSON.-CHANCELLORSVILLE.

SHERMAN PURSUES JOHNSTON.-JACKSON BURNED.-SIEGE OF PORT HUDSON.-WHISTLING DICK. -A BLOODY REPULSE.-MULES AND RATS.-THE SURRENDER. THE MISSISSIPPI OPENED.— BRASHEAR CITY.-ON DE LORD'S SIDE, MASSA.-THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.-Corfs BADGES. MOSBY.-CAPTURE OF GENERAL STOUGHTON.-I CAN'T MAKE HORSES.-HOOKER'S ADVANCE.-CHANCELLORSVILLE,-THE WILDERNESS.-FRIGHTENED DEER AND RABBITS.— ROUT OF THE ELEVENTH CORPS.-DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON.-REMEMBER JACKSON.HOOKER STUNNED.-LEE BETWEEN TWO FIRES.-SEDGWICK DRIVEN BACK.-HOOKER'S RETREAT.-STONEMAN'S RAID.-A GALLANT DEED.

THE

HE flag had scarcely been hoisted over Vicksburg when Grant sent Sherman in pursuit of Johnston. The latter, who had only twenty-two thousand poorly-armed men, had marched toward the Big Black River, intending to attack Grant in the rear, but on hearing of the fall of Vicksburg he fell back to Jackson. Sherman with fifty thousand men appeared before that place, shelled it for a few days, and was making preparations to attack it in force when Johnston withdrew in the night (July 16) and retreated eastward to Meridian, Mississippi, more than a hundred miles away. The conduct of the Union troops in Jackson was shameful: houses were plundered, furniture destroyed, books torn to pieces, paintings cut and defaced, and almost everything burned which could not be carried off. The city, one of the most beautiful in the State, was completely ruined.

While Grant was besieging Vicksburg he had been obliged to withdraw most of the troops from many places around, and the Confederates took advantage of the weakness of those places to attack them. The post at Millikin's Bend, on the Mississippi River, was attacked by some Louisiana troops, and all the men there would have been captured if two gunboats had not come to their rescue. Helena, Arkansas, also was attacked by the Confederate General Holmes, but he was defeated with heavy loss by the Union troops under General Prentiss.

The fall of Vicksburg was followed (July 9) by the surrender of Port Hudson, which had been besieged by General Banks at the same time that Grant had invested Vicksburg. Banks, it will be remembered, had succeeded General Butler in com

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mand in New Orleans at the close of 1862. In the following spring he sent an expedition into western Louisiana, defeating the Confederates at several places, and finally driving them from all that part of the State south of Red River. He then returned to the Mississippi River, crossed to Bayou Sara, and laid siege to Port Hudson. At the same time General C. C. Auger marched up from Baton Rouge and joined Banks in the siege. The situation of Port Hudson may be easily understood from the map, in which the village, the Confederate fortifications, and the positions of the Union troops are clearly shown. The town stands on a high bluff at a bend in the river. It was

defended along the water by batteries extending nearly three miles and mounted with heavy guns, and on the land side by a long circle of strong earthworks, rifle-pits, and abatis. While the Union troops surrounded these defences on the land side, Admiral Farragut with the Hartford and other ships and gunboats held the river, both above and below the town, and threw shells into the Confederate works day and night.

On the twenty-seventh of May, Banks, having heard that

the Confederates were leaving Port Hudson, ordered a general assault. The heavy guns kept up a steady fire both from the river and from the land side during the morning, and about ten o'clock the troops attacked with great bravery; but the Confederate works were defended in front by rifle-pits and abatis (shown in the map), and after a severe struggle the Union men were repulsed with a loss of about eighteen hundred killed and wounded. Two regiments of negro troops took part in the assault, and they are said to have fought gallantly. The Confederate loss was only about three hundred. Banks then began a regular siege, and day after day the great guns and mortars rained shot and shell into the works. The bombs from the mortars, falling and bursting at all times, gave the garrison no rest night or day; their medical stores soon gave out, and food began to get scarce, but the brave Confederate commander, General Frank K. Gardner, did not despair, and still hoped for aid from Johnston. One of Banks's guns, which did much damage within the works, was named by the Confederates Whistling Dick," from the peculiar noise made by its shell.

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The country around Port Hudson is very uneven, cut by deep ravines through which the soldiers could creep up unseen quite near to the enemy's works. The men lived in these ravines, scooping out sleeping-places in the banks and making breastworks on the top. Behind and around was a thick magnolia forest. Some of the works of the besiegers were within two to three hundred yards of the Confederate line, so that the men could look into the muzzles of each other's guns, but as the sharpshooters were all the time on the lookout it was not safe to show one's head. Banks had only about twelve thousand able men, and as there was danger that Johnston might attack him in the rear, he determined to make another assault. A despatch sent by General Gardner to General Johnston, saying that he was nearly starved out, fell into General Banks's hands. Hoping to save the further shedding of blood, he wrote a note to Gardner informing him that he knew of his condition and demanding an unconditional surrender of the place in the name of humanity. But Gardner, still hoping that Johnston would come to his aid, refused, and on Sunday, June 14, a second assault was made on the works just at daybreak. But the Confederates were ready for them, and after a bloody struggle, in

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which seven hundred Union men were killed and wounded, the besiegers were repulsed.

After this the siege went on in the usual way. Banks had gained a little ground, and his batteries were brought closer to those of the enemy. Mines had also been dug, and one under the citadel (see map) was ready to be exploded. The garrison was almost without food, and had begun to eat mules and rats. One day the Confederates were puzzled at the sound of loud cheering all along the Union lines; but soon the shouts, "Vicksburg has surrendered!" reached their ears, and they knew that their time had come. Two days afterward (July 9) Port Hudson surrendered to the arms of the Union. More than six thousand prisoners and fifty cannon, besides many small-arms and much ammunition, were among the spoils of the victory. Thus was removed the last hindrance to the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the next week the steamboat Imperial went from St. Louis to New Orleans, the first boat between those cities in two years.

On entering Port Hudson the Union troops were surprised to see how much havoc had been done by the cannon-shot and shell. The ground was plowed into furrows, and in some places trees twice as large round as a man's body had been cut in two. Where the trees were standing, their bark had been almost entirely cut off by rifle balls. The church had been shot through and through, many of the holes being larger than the windows, and the floor was strewn with broken beams, laths, and plaster. All round the earthworks the enemy had burrowed holes in the ground to shelter themselves from the shells or the burning sun. Deep down in the bluffs caves had been dug for magazines, in which the powder was stored, the great thickness of earth above rendering it safe from shells. These caves were reached by long flights of steps, cut out of the earth. Many of the guns had been dismounted by the Union artillery, and still lay where they had been overturned. Among the others a few "Quaker guns" were found.

Meanwhile the Confederates in Louisiana thought they had a good opportunity, while Banks was busy at Port Hudson, to make up for some of their losses. General Dick Taylor, son of President Zachary Taylor, gathered a small force and took Alexandria and Opelousas, and then moved toward New Orleans, hoping either to retake that city or to force Banks to give up