GENERAL McCLERNAND AND GENERAL GRANT. 291 HEAD QUARTERS THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS, GENERAL:-What appears to be a systematic effort to destroy my usefulness and reputation as a commander, makes it proper that I should address you this note. It is reported, among other things, as I understand, that I attacked the enemy's works, on the 22d ult., without authority; again, that I attacked too late; again, that I am responsible for your failure and losses; again, that I am arrested and being sent North; again, that my command is turned over to another officer; and again, that you have personally assumed command of it. These reports are finding their way from the landings up the river. I hardly need say to you that all these reports are false; that I obeyed orders in attacking; that my attack was more prompt, and in a large measure more successful, than any other; that the ultimate failure of the general attack, and losses attending the failure, were, under the circumstances, unavoidable consequences of obstacles found to be insurmountable, and in spite of a determined effort on my part to carry and hold the works in obedience to your express and peremptory order. I may add that I am not yet under arrest, or being sent away, or superseded in my command. All these things being known to you, and these false reports being brought to your notice, it remains for you to determine whether truth, justice, and generosity do not call on you for such a declaration as will be conclusive in the matter. Your obedient servant, JOHN A. MOCLERNAND, Major-General Commanding. Major-General U. S. GRANT, Commanding Department Tennessee. To this General Grant replied as follows: HEAD-QUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, Major-General J. A. MOCLERNAND, Commanding Thirteenth Army Corps: GENERAL:-Inclosed I send you what purports to be your congratulatory address to the Thirteenth Army Corps. I would respectfully ask if it is a true copy. If it is not a correct copy, furnish me one by bearer, as required both by regulations and existing orders of the Department. Very respectfully, U. S. GRANT, Major-General. General McClernand was absent at the time General Grant's dispatch reached his head-quarters, and did not return until the 15th of June. As soon as he came back, and had read General Grant's communication, he at once telegraphed the following reply thereto : Major-General GRANT: HEAD-QUARTERS THIRTEENTH ARMY COEPS, & NEAR VICKSBURG, June 15, 1868. I have just returned. The newspaper slip is a correct copy of my congratulatory order, No. 72. I am prepared to maintain its statements. I regret that my adjutant did not send you a copy promptly, as he ought, and I thought he had. JOHN A. MOCLERNAND, Major-General Commanding. This, of course, settled the matter as to the authenticity of the document in question; and as the order implied a direct censure of the commanding general, and an indirect breach of the sixth Article of War, General Grant, rightly appreciating the urgent necessity of the case, with the desire to save his army even at the cost of his friend, immediately issued a special order, of which the following is an extract: HEAD-QUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, [Special Orders, No. 164.]—Extract. Major-General John A. McClernand is hereby relieved from the command of the Thirteenth Army Corps. He will proceed to any point he may select in the State of Illinois, and report by letter to head-quarters of the army for orders. Major-General E. O. C. Ord is hereby appointed to the command of the Thirteenth Army Corps, subject to the approval of the President, and will immediately assume charge of the same. Major-General U. S. GRANT. On receipt of this order, General McClernand turned over his command to General Ord. That no ill feeling existed between the commanders is evident from the concluding paragraph of General McClernand's report of the part taken by himself and his corps in the Vicksburg campaign. The report is dated two days after he was removed from command, and closes with these words: "Sympathizing with the general commanding the noble Army of the Tennessee, in the loss of so many brave men, killed and wounded, I cannot but congratulate him in my THE BOAST OF GENERAL PEMBERTON. 233 thankfulness to Providence upon the many and signal successes which have crowned his arms in a just cause." It had been reported in the rebel army that General Pemberton had "sold" the battle-fields of Champion's Hill and Big Black River Bridge. After the repulse of the Union assault upon the works at Vicksburg, he made a brief but pithy speech to his command: "You have heard that I was 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." The bold words indicate the determination with which the rebels intended to resist the advance of General Grant, and the reduction of their fortified city. In the mean time Colonel Corwyn's brigade of Union cavalry was making very successful raids into Alabama, etc., destroying lines of communication, factories, mills, workshops, ammunition, ordnance stores, dépôts of supplies, and other valuable property belonging to the rebel government, or its military authorities. Private property, however, was almost universally respected, with the exception of such supplies as were needful for his command, and for which proper receipts were given. CHAPTER XV. THE SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG. General Grant falls Back.-The slower work of a Siege.-The Troops Ready for it.-Anecdotes of General Grant.-Amusing Scenes.-Various Movements.— The Sapping and Mining.—Mine Exploded.—An Exciting Struggle.—The Siege goes on. The Rebels begin to feel the Death-grasp of General Grant.-General Pemberton opens Correspondence.-The Surrender of the City. AFTER the failure of the assault, General Grant determined to resort to the slow, but certain method of a regular siege. The troops, having seen the necessity of it, performed their part with cheerfulness. But The advance of each corps was pushed up as close as possible to the rebel works, which were nearly invested by the troops already under General Grant's command. still there were points at which portions of the rebel garrison would slip out, and supplies be taken into their fortress. The communication between General Johnston, who was at Canton, Miss., and General Pemberton, at Vicksburg, was but partially interrupted; and, while this leak existed, it was impossible to reduce the place by siege. General Herron's command was, therefore, withdrawn from northwestern Arkansas, and added to the force at the extreme left of the Union lines. This secured the complete investment of the fortified city. The position of the army at the end of May was as follows: General Grant was well up to the rebel fortifications, and was daily enlarging and strengthening his own. The extreme left, occupied by General Herron, was so situated topographically as to require less formidable opposing works than at any other point; but even there they were on a scale sufficiently important to meet successfully any demonstration the rebels might make in that direction. The Thirteenth Army Corps had the perfect range of the MOVEMENTS AROUND VICKSBURG. 295 forts opposite their position, and kept down the rebel sharpshooters, and prevented the successful working of their artillery. The Seventeenth Corps planted a heavy battery of siegeguns within a hundred yards of the fort, and expected to do excellent service in battering down the earthworks. Advantage had been taken of the topographical peculiarities of the ground, and a covered pathway constructed, through which the cannoneers could pass to and fro without danger from the sharpshooters. The Fifteenth Corps, on the extreme right, was equally busy. General Tuttle had built a fort, the guns of which enfiladed one of the enemy's most important, and, to us, destructive positions. This, of course, rendered it practically useless, and, had it not been for the line of rifle-pits on the Vicksburg side, which commanded the interior, it might have been stormed and carried any time. General Blair held Haines's Bluff, and the country between the Yazoo and the Big Black River. There the fated city stands, in the ring of Union cannon and bayonets, while the unyielding, taciturn, patient commander settles down, the last of May, for a summer residence there. If he can continue his visit to Pemberton longer than the latter wishes him to, or can stay at home himself, then he will have to leave his castle, and let his outdoor and unwelcome visitor go in and help himself to what may remain. Subterranean pathways are dug for the gunners, and other troops, who thus escape the bullets of the sharpshooters. Around Vicksburg, our men took what rations they could, and then tried to live on the country, which had little to offer. At one time, their movements were so rapid that there was no time to cook, if they had food. A hardbread or a corn pone would command a dollar at any moment. Some one found a negro with a half peck of meal, and six men, with bayonets, mounted guard over the fire while the bread was baking for General Grant's luxurious repast. After these privations, one of the officers, who was coming down, brought a basket of ale to the general and his staff. General Grant expressed his thanks, |