up by a bursting shell, others had their clothing torn off and their faces blackened with gunpowder, but were unhurt. The people learned in time how to dodge the shells, and even ladies ventured to walk the streets during the thickest of the bombardment. But generally, when a shell was seen coming the soldiers would cry, "Rats, to your holes!" and everybody around would scamper into the caves and bomb-proofs to await the explosion. Most of the shells fell into the earth and blew out craters like the cone of a volcano, but not so much damage was done to the houses as was expected. Many of them were shot through by cannon-balls, some had a corner blown out, and some had their walls cracked and bulged; and it is said that there was not a pane of glass left within five miles of the Courthouse. Some of the inhabitants had amused themselves by collecting all the fragments of shells that had fallen in their grounds, and in some places as much as a ton of iron had been thus piled up. During the last days of the siege some of the mules were killed and served as rations. It is said that the soup made from the meat was very good, and some of the ladies ate it without knowing what it was. Although reduced to such fare, the Confederates did not lose their spirits, but cracked many jokes at the expense of their new food. The following burlesque bill of fare was found by the Union soldiers in one of their camps: HOTEL DE VICKSBURG. Bill of Bare for July, 1863. SOUP. Mule Tail. BOILED. Mule Bacon with poke greens. ROAST. Mule sirloin. Mule rump stuffed with rice. VEGETABLES. Peas and rice. Mississippi water, vintage of 1492, superior, $3. 339 Meals at all hours. Gentlemen to wait upon themselves. Any inat tention on the part of servants will be promptly reported at the office. JEFF DAVIS & CO., Proprietors. CARD. The proprietors of the justly celebrated Hotel de Vicksburg, having enlarged and refitted the same, are now prepared to accommodate all who may favor them with a call. Parties arriving by the river or Grant's inland route, will find Grape, Canister & Co.'s carriages at the landing or any depot on the line of intrenchments. Buck, Ball & Co. take charge of all baggage. No effort will be spared to make the visit of all as interesting as possible. In a copy of the Vicksburg Citizen, printed in the city only two days (July 2) before the surrender, the editor speaks of at that late day there was no talk of surrender, and the editor wrote as boastfully as if Grant and the Union army were of no consequence whatever. He said: "The great Ulysses-the Yankee generalissimo surnamed Grant has expressed his intention of dining in Vicksburg on Saturday next, and celebrating the Fourth of July by a grand dinner, and so forth. When asked if he would invite General Joe Johnston to join him, he said, 'No! for fear there will be a row at the table.' Ulysses must get into the city before he dines in it. The way to cook a rabbit is, first catch the rabbit,' &c." When the Union soldiers entered Vicksburg they found the type from which this had been printed still standing in the office of the Citizen. Some printers among them set up the following, put it in the column after the above, and printed a few more copies of the paper: "Two days bring about great changes. The banner of the Union floats over Vicksburg. General Grant has 'caught the rabbit,' he has dined in Vicksburg, and he did bring his dinner with him. The Citizen lives to see it." The fruits of Grant's great victory were twenty-seven thousand prisoners, including fifteen generals, more than a hundred cannons, sixty thousand small-arms, and many engines and railway cars and other material. Some of the cannons were very fine ones of English make, of the Whitworth, Armstrong, and Brooks patterns. The entire loss of the Confederates from the time that Grant landed at Bruinsburg to the fall of the city was more than fifty thousand, while the Union loss was fewer than nine thousand. But the value of the capture of Vicksburg is not to be figured by the mere numbers of prisoners and guns taken. What is of far greater importance, it opened the Mississippi River once more to navigation from the free States to the Gulf of Mexico, and cut the Confederacy into two parts. The Confederate leaders felt that it was a terrible blow to their hopes, especially as it happened at the same time with the great defeat at Gettysburg, which will be told about hereafter. They tried to lay the blame on General Johnston, but that officer shows in his report that none of his orders were obeyed, and that he had no means of aiding the garrison. General Grant won great fame by his conduct of the siege, and was made a major-general in the regular army. Generals Sherman and 1863.] GRANT AND THE STEAMBOAT MEN. 341 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." ©A 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.-CORPS 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 THE 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 |