fer of Hooker's troops from the Rapidan to the Tennessee, more than a thousand miles, in a week, the coming up of Sherman from the Big Black, the battle of Chattanooga, the planting of the national flag on the crest of the Alleghanies at Lookout, the expulsion of the Confederates from the fastnesses of those mountains, the wintry march of Sherman to Knoxville, and the raising of the siege of that place these furnish the materials of a romantic and noble. story.

Though the actual operations of the Western Army were not precisely such as had been intended in Washington, they assumed a signally imposing and satisfactory charac ter. Their issue was the possession of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the northern portion of the Gulf States; for the forays and excursions subsequently made, chiefly by the Confederate cavalry, were without military significancea remark which applies even to Hood's final and disastrous sortie.

Change in the purposes of its commanders.

Very important consequences followed the translation of Grant and Sherman from the line of the Mississippi to Chattanooga, to which I must refer before I close these preliminary remarks. So long as these officers were restricted to the task of opening the Mississippi and consolidating the na tional possession of it, they gave to that task their undi vided attention, and all their proposed movements had reference to the thorough completion of their work. Im mediately after the fall of Vicksburg, we find them projecting operations both on the right and left banks of the river-expediti toward Shreveport on one side, and toward Mobile on the other. But after the battle of Chattanooga, when Grant had been raised to the chief military command, their sphere of duty was increased; it was no longer the minor problem of completing the work on the Mississippi with which they had to deal, but the great and fundamental one-the military overthrow of the Confed

eracy. The movements they had heretofore proposed now fell into neglect, and in their place appeared those grand manoeuvres which brought the war to a close.

The Western Army

Conceding, therefore, to the foregoing considerations the weight which they appear to possess, I shall leads in the decision consider the movements of the Western arof the campaigns. mies in 1863 as having the precedence of all others. The various events to be described fall at once spontaneously into their proper places-the siege of Vicksburg, the opening of the river, the march of Rosecrans to Chattanooga, the capture of that place, the battle of Chickamauga, the transfer of Grant from the Mississippi, the relief of Chattanooga, the great and decisive battle of that name, and the raising of the siege of Knoxville. With that I consider that this act of the Great Drama closes.

Then, in the next section, I shall relate the struggles of the Army of the Potomac with the Army of Northern Virginia.

CHAPTER LXVI.

ADVANCE OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE. THE SECOND VICKS-
BURG CAMPAIGN.-SIEGE AND FALL OF VICKSBURG.-THE OPEN-
ING OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER ACCOMPLISHED.

Grant, after several unsuccessful attempts on the west and east banks of the Missis-
sippi to gain access to Vicksburg, commenced a second and formal campaign.
He marched his army down the west bank of the Mississippi, crossed the river at
Bruinsburg, defeated the Confederates in five battles, captured the capital of the
State of Mississippi, shut up the Confederate army in the fortifications of Vicks-
burg, besieged it, and eventually compelled it to surrender unconditionally.
Sherman forced the Confederate General Johnston to retreat to Meridian. Port
Hudson was surrendered, and the Mississippi opened throughout its entire length.

THE capture of New Orleans by Farragut had opened the Lower Mississippi; the victories of Shiloh and Memphis had removed all obstructions down to Vicksburg.

Vicksburg occupies a high bluff immediately below the mouth of the Yazoo. A railroad eastward connects it with all the roads of the South, and one westward was in course of construction toward Shreveport.

Importance of

The point of intersection of this west-east line of railroads with the Mississippi, the strategic diVicksburg to the rectrix of the North American continent, was Confederacy. therefore of vital importance to the Confederacy. The loss of Vicksburg meant not only the surrender of the great river, but also the bisection of the Confed erate territory.

Accordingly, no pains had been spared to render this position impregnable. Batteries had been placed at every available point, and at the time now under consideration the defenses were held by a powerful army under Pemberton.

Though other points on the river toward New Orleans were guarded, and one of them, Port Hudson, had been

strengthened by formidable works, they could only be considered as presenting a subordinate character-the fall of Vicksburg necessarily implied their surrender. Practically, therefore, all that was necessary for the reopening of the Mississippi throughout its entire length was the capture or neutralization of that strong-hold.

tralizing it.

The capture or neutralization-for either was possible. Possibility of neu- Looking at the map, it may be seen that in front of Vicksburg the Mississippi makes a sharp bend, forming the peninsula on which De Soto stands. Now if a canal were cut across this tongue of land, a direct passage being given to the river current, Vicksburg would be thrown inland, its military capabilities be rendered useless-it would be neutralized.

Construction of
Williams's canal.

When General Williams came up the river with Farragut in the summer of 1862, he undertook to cut such a canal, and for that purpose gathered more than 1200 negroes from the adjacent plantations. His intention was to make a water-way of such width that vessels might pass through it out of reach of the guns of Vicksburg. Owing to an error committed in locat ing its mouth, the canal proved to be a failure the river was not diverted from its course. Toward the close of that year Grant commenced his first operations for the reduction of Vicksburg. These were checked by the capture and destruction of his dépôt at Holly Springs, and by the repulse of Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou (vol. ii., p. 321). The Army of the Tennessee at this time consisted of four corps: the 13th (McClernand), the 15th (Sherman), the 16th (Hurlbut), the 17th (McPherson). On the return of the successful expedition from Arkansas my of the Tennessee, Post, Grant ordered it back to Young's Point, the nearest landing west and north of Vicksburg, with the intention of operating from the river. By degrees, however, he saw that a decisive blow could only be delivered from the south. He therefore spared no pains

Grant, with the Ar

prepares to attack Vicksburg.