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Jackson during the night," hurrying of the Yazoo-a feat now incapable
across Pearl river, and burning the of repetition, by reason of the gene-
bridges behind him; retreating ral drouth and consequent shallow-
through Brandon to Morton. Sher-ness of those streams. The 29th
man did not pursue in force beyond North Carolina, Col. Chrisman, with
Brandon; but, having thoroughly a battery, holding Yazoo City, de-
broken up the railroads for miles in camped on the approach of our boats;
every direction, and destroyed every but the De Kalb was sunk by a tor-
thing in Jackson that could be use- pedo when nearly opposite the city;
ful to the enemy, fell back by Clinton while the coveted steamboats made
across the Big Black." Johnston off, and but one of them was cap-
reports his loss in Jackson at 71 tured. Herron's cavalry being sent
killed, 504 wounded, and about 25 after the fugitives, however, they
missing; but adds: "Desertions were all-22 in number-burnt or
during the siege and on the march sunk, either at this time or when
[retreat] were, I regret to say, fre- Walker was sent back by Com. Por-
quent."
ter to bring away the guns, &c., of the
De Kalb; so that the Yazoo was
thenceforth clear of Rebel vessels.
Herron captured and brought away
300 prisoners, 6 heavy guns, 250
small arms, 800 horses, and 2,000
bales of Confederate cotton. He
moved" across, by order, from Yazoo
City to Benton and Canton, in sup-
port of Sherman's advance to Jack-
son; but countermarched immedi-
ately," on information of Johnston's
flight from Jackson, and, rëembark-
ing, returned" to Vicksburg.

Having perfected the occupation and insured the retention of Vicksburg, Gen. Grant embarked" an expedition, under Gen. F. J. Herron, to move down the river to the aid of Gen. Banks in the siege of Port Hudson; but our men were scarcely on board when tidings of Gardner's surrender caused the order to be countermanded, and Herron directed to proceed instead up the Yazoo. This involved a debarkation and rëembarkation on vessels of lighter draft; which being promptly effected, Herron set forth on his new errand;" his transports preceded by the iron-clad De Kalb and two 'tin-clad' [lightly and partially shielded] gunboats, under Captain Walker.

The object of this expedition was the capture of a large fleet of steamboats, which had been run up this river for safety and use, and which had escaped Porter's expedition by running far up one of the branches July 25.

88 July 16-17. 90 July 10-11.

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89

91 July 12.

** July 18-19.

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ATTACKS ON MILLIKEN'S BEND AND HELENA.

319

Col. Glasgow, numbered 160; the | a fire, while attempting to outflank residue were negroes, very recently our right. Thus the fight was mainenlisted, and organized as the 9th tained with little loss till noon; when and 11th Louisiana and 1st Missis- the Rebels, having the worst of it, sippi. Against this post, a Rebel drew off, under a heavy fire from our force from the interior of Louisiana, troops and gunboats, but without said to consist of six regiments under being pursued. Some of the newsGen. Henry McCulloch, numbering paper correspondents state, what 2,000 to 3,000, advanced" from Rich- Dennis's report conceals, that our mond, La., driving in the 9th Louis- Blacks, impelled to charge the Rebels iana and two companies of cavalry in their flight, were led directly who had been out on a reconnois- under the fire of our gunboats, by sance, and pursuing them nearly up which they were far worse cut up to our earthworks at the Bend, where than by the Rebels. Hence, our they were stopped by nightfall, and heavy loss of 127 killed, 287 woundlay on their arms, not doubting that ed, beside some 300 missing at the they would go in with a rush next close of the action; most of whom morning. probably turned up afterward. As Dennis estimates the Rebel loss at about 150 killed and 300 wounded, it is probable that the fire of the gunboats, while it frightened only the Rebels, killed more of our men than of theirs.

But, just at dark, a steamboat passed, enabling Dennis to send to Admiral Porter for aid; when the gunboats Choctaw and Lexington were sent down from Helena; the former arriving just as the Rebels, at 3 A. M., advanced to the assault, with cries of "No quarter!" to negroes and officers of negro troops, rushing upon and over our intrenchments, before the green, awkward Blacks had been able to fire more than one or two rounds. A hand-tohand fight of several minutes, with bayonets and clubbed muskets, ensued; wherein combatants were mutually transfixed and fell dead: the struggle resulting favorably to the Rebels, who had flanked our works and poured in a deadly enfilading fire, which compelled our men to give ground and retire, still fighting, behind the levee. And now the Choctaw opened on the exulting foe with such effect as to compel them also to shrink behind their side of the levee, keeping up

95 June 6.

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therein. Yet it was left unassailed till near the close of the siege of Vicksburg, ere which, Lt.-Gen. Holmes, commanding in Arkansas, had solicit ed" of Lt.-Gen. Kirby Smith, chief of the trans-Mississippi department, permission to attack it; which was readi ly granted. Meantime, the Confederate Secretary of War had not merely sanctioned the enterprise, but suggested and urged it. Thus authorized and stimulated, Holmes left' Little Rock for Clarendon, which he had designated as the rendezvous for his forces. Fagan, with a part of his men, was promptly on hand; but Sterling Price, owing to heavy rains and consequent high water, was unable to arrive till four days afterward.100 The attempt at surprise was thus baffled; Maj.-Gen. B. M. Prentiss, commanding at Helena, being seasonably aware of his peril, and fully on the alert to repel it. He had 3,800 effectives, behind strong earthworks mounted with serviceable guns, with the main approaches well covered by abatis. The gunboat Tyler, Lt.-Com'g J. M. Pritchett, was on hand, and played a very efficient part in the defense. And, though Helena lies on a flat adjoining the river, its outworks had been judiciously located on the bluffs a mile back, where deep ravines and steep ridges favor the defensive and impede the bringing up of artillery by their assailants. Brig.-Gen. F. Salomon, 1,101 who had in good part planned and constructed them, was in immediate command of our exterior defenses.

Holmes-who had been grossly deceived both as to the strength of our works and the number of their

98 June 14, 1863. ❞ June 26. 100 June 30.

defenders-had never a reasonable chance of success. His only ground of rational hope was that he might be confronted by a coward, a traitor, or an idiot; and that did not happen to be the case.

Two years of sanguinary conflict had begun to tell on the resources of the Confederates. Here were Price, and Parsons, and Marmaduke, with what the waste of war had left of their Missourians; Holmes had evidently swept Arkansas to swell the brigades of Fagan, McRae, and Walker; yet he reports his total force at 7,646; or about twice the number he vainly struggled to overcome. He needed twice that number to give his attack a fair chance of success.

His dispositions appear to have been judicious; his movements well timed; and his soldiers, in the main, tenacious as well as brave. The Rebels were rarely deficient in a charge; but they often failed where endurance was required. In this instance, beside Sterling Price—eminently loved and trusted by the Missourians-the Rebel Governor of Arkansas, Harris Flanagan, and his Adjutant-General, Col. Gordon Rear, were on the field, acting as volunteer aids to Holmes.

Having arrived within five miles. of Helena on the morning of the 3d, with his front well covered by cavalry, who permitted no one to pass them riverward, no matter on what pretext, he rested his men till midnight; when they were moved forward to within a mile or so of the outworks, where they halted till daybreak, and then pushed on.

Price, with the brigades of Par

101 Brother of the then Governor of Wisconsin.

HOLMES'S FAILURE AT HELENA.

sons and McRae, numbering 3,095, was directed to assault and carry Graveyard hill (Battery C); and he did it, under a tempest of grape, canister, and musketry, repelling its defenders and capturing some of their guns. But he found them shotwedged or divested of frictionprimers, so as to be useless; while his own, necessarily left behind in the charge, were now brought up with difficulty; meantime, our batteries on either hand were playing upon his exposed infantry, who were falling rapidly and uselessly. To escape this fire, hundreds of them pushed forward, without orders or organization—a mere mob-and, being wholly unsupported, were plowed through and through by shot and shell from front and flanks, until the survivors, unable even to flee, were obliged to surrender; few of them escaping. Of his 3,095 men, Price reports a total loss this day of 1,111, or more than a third: 105 killed, 504 wounded, 502 missing.

Fagan had a smaller force-only four infantry regiments-yet was assigned what proved the harder task: to assault and carry the fort on Hindman's hill (Battery D). Leaving his artillery where he first encountered obstructions, he rushed his men up ravines and precipices, over abatis, driving our sharp-shooters out of their rifle-pits, under a heavy, constant, and deadly fire, till no obstacle remained between them and the fort they were ordered to take, just as they were relieved of a heavy enfilading fire by Price's capture of our works on Graveyard hill. This fort, Fagan now attempted to carry by assault; but the utmost efforts of his men, stimulated by the VOL. II.-21

321

frantic entreaties of their officers, only sufficed to pile the ground with their bleeding bodies. One Arkansas regiment, in attempting to force its way into the fort, lost its Colonel, Lt.-Colonel, and over 100 men, taken prisoners. The remainder were driven back to the last line of riflepits, whence Fagan sent for assistance-in vain. Meantime, the guns of the fort kept busily at work; fatigue, thirst, and heat--for the day proved intensely warm-told upon the thinned ranks of the Rebels; yet they held their ground until, at 11 A. M., orders came from Holmes for a general retreat, which were willingly obeyed.

Marmaduke-who had 1,750 men was ordered to take the fort on Righton hill, on the north, in which he failed; being exposed to a heavy flanking fire from artillery and musketry sheltered behind the levee. He lays the blame of his failure on Walker, who, with a cavalry brigade, was still farther to the north, and who (Marmaduke says) kept about half a mile back-an assertion countenanced by undisputed facts. Very likely, his knowledge that to advance was sheer foolhardiness kept him back. His loss was trifling; that of Marmaduke but 67.

Holmes, in his report, frankly admits his defeat, and makes his loss 173 killed, 687 wounded, 776 missing; total, 1,636-over 20 per cent. of his force. Prentiss makes our prisoners 1,100, and says he buried nearly 300 Rebels; while our loss was less than 250 in all. There was no pursuit by our still inferior force, and no capture of guns; but Helena was thenceforth free from Rebel molestation.

XV.

THE DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF-PORT HUDSON-TEXAS.

The possession thus easily acquired was as easily maintained to the close of that year: Gen. Banks, at the request of Renshaw, sending down from New Orleans the 42d Massachusetts, Col. Burrill; whereof three companies, numbering 260 men, were actually debarked,' and encamped on the wharf, the residue being still on their way; while our gunboats Westfield, Clifton, Harriet Lane, Owasco, Coryphæus, and Salem (disabled), lay at anchor in the harbor-Renshaw in chief command. Some of these boats had been down the coast during the summer, and exchanged compliments with the Rebel batteries at Corpus Christi and Lavacca," without inflicting or receiving much if any harm. Since then, they had lain quiet in the harbor; their commander maintaining the most intimate and cordial relations with the leading Rebels adjacent, who were in and out of Galveston at their conveni

GALVESTON has one of the very few tolerable harbors which indent the continental shore line of the Mexican Gulf. The sand, everywhere impelled landward by the prevailing winds and currents, and almost everywhere forming a bank or narrow strip of usually dry beach closely skirting the coast, is here broken through by the very considerable waters of the rivers Trinity and San Jacinto, with those of Buffalo bayou, which unitedly form Galveston Bay; and the city of Galveston is built on the sand-spit here called Galveston Island, just south-west of the outlet of the Bay. It is the natural focus of the commerce of the larger, more fertile, more populous half of Texas, and by far the most considerable place in the State; having had, in 1860, regular lines of steamers running to New York, to New Orleans, and to the smaller Texan ports down the coast, with a population of 5,000, a yearly export of nearly half a mil-ence; having a pretty full use of lion bales of cotton, and a very con- that port without the trouble of desiderable trade. Plunged, with the fending it. rest of the State, into the whirlpool of Secession, it had many Unionists among its people, who welcomed the rëappearance of the old flag when their city, after being once idly summoned' to surrender, was at length occupied, without resistance, by a naval force consisting of four steam gunboats under Commander Renshaw the Rebel municipal as well as military authorities retiring to the main land.

2

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Maj.-Gen. Magruder having, about this time, succeeded to the chief command in Texas, reports that he found matters along the coast in a very unsatisfactory state-the harbors virtually or actually in Federal possession, from the Sabine to Corpus Christi, and the valley of the Rio Grande almost abandoned. So, after stopping but a day or two in Houston, he went down to Virginia Point, opposite Galveston; thence coolly * Aug. 16-18.

3 Dec. 28.

5 Oct. 31.

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