THE NATIONALS REPULSED. 619 ance. Believing his winnings thus far to be permanent, McClernand sent the dispatch to Grant already mentioned, to which the latter replied by telling him to order up McArthur, of his own (McClernand's) corps, to his assistBefore receiving this order McClernand had sent another dispatch similar to the first, and this was soon followed by a third, in which he said, "We have gained the enemy's intrenchments at several points, but are brought to a stand;" and in a postscript informed Grant that his troops were all engaged, and he could not "withdraw any to re-enforce others." Grant, who was in a commanding position, "could not see his possession of the forts," he said, "nor the necessity for re-enforcements, as represented in his dispatches," and expressed to both Sherman and McPherson his doubts of their correctness; yet, unwilling to allow any opportunity to capture the post to escape, he ordered Quinby's division of McPherson's corps to report to McClernand. He also made the diversion in his favor already mentioned, which, Grant said, "resulted in the increase of our mortality list full fifty per cent., without advancing our position or giving us other advan tages. Two hours later, McClernand informed Grant that he had lost no ground; that some of his men were in two of the forts, which were commanded by the rifle-pits in the rear, and that he was hard pressed. He had really gained no substantial advantage. He attributed his failure to do so to a lack of proper support, McArthur being some miles distant when Grant's order came to call him up, and Quinby not arriving until twilight.' Meanwhile Osterhaus and Hovey, on the left of McClernand, had been unsuccessful in their assaults. Porter had joined in the fight from the river with his mortars and gun-boats, increasing the horrors of the day in the city. Night closed in with positive defeat and heavy loss to the National 991 1 See Grant's Report, July 6, 1863. 3 2 In a congratulatory address to his troops, General McClernand reflected upon General Grant and the dis position of his troops at the time of the assault. The commanding-general, perceiving in this great danger to the harmony and efficiency of the army, and unwilling to allow such a phase of insubordination to become a precedent, relieved General McClernand from command, on the 15th of June, and assigned it to General E. O. C. Ord. Grant had requested Porter to shell the hill batteries at Vicksburg on the morning of the assault, from h If-past nine until half-past ten o'clock, to annoy the garrison while the army should attack. Accordingly, in the morning the Mound City, Benton, Tuscumbia, and Carondelet were sent down the river, and made an attack at the prescribed time on the hill batteries, opposite the canal, and soon silenced them. Porter then pushed three of them up to the water batteries, leaving the Tuscumbia to keep the hill batteries still. They had a furious fight with the water batteries, and were repulsed after receiving several wounds. "This," said the Admiral, "was the hottest fight the gun-boats had ever been under, the water batteries being more on a level with them than usual." Yet he did not have a man killed, and only a few were wounded. His vessels, fighting bow on, were not much damaged.-Report of Admiral Porter to the Secretary of the Navy, May 23, 1563. We have remarked that the day of the assault was a terrible one in Vicksburg. The following notice of it, from the diary of a citizen during the siege, from the 17th of May to the 4th of July, gives a vivid picture of those horrors: “Friday, May 22.-The morning of this day opened in the same manner as the previous one had closed. There had been no lull in the shelling all night, and as daylight approached, it grew more rapid and furious. Early in the morning, too, the battle began to rage in the rear. A terrible onslaught was made on the center first, and then extended farther to the left, where a terrific struggle took place, resulting in the repulse of the attacking party. Four gun-boats also came up to engage the batteries. At this time the scene presented an awfully sublime and terrific spectacle-three points being attacked at once, to wit, the rifle-pits, by the army in the rear: the city, by the mortars opposite; and the batteries, by the gun-boats. Such cannonading and shelling has perhaps scarcely ever been equaled, and the city was entirely untenable, though women and children were on the streets. It was not safe from behind or before, and every part of the city was alike within range of the Federal guns. The gun-boats withdrew after a short engagement, but the mortars kept up shelling, and the arinies continued fighting all day. Several desperate charges were made in force against the lines, without accomplishing their object. It would require the pen of a poet to depict the awful sublimity of this day's work. The incessant booming of cannon, and the beng of small armus, intermingled with the howling of shells and the whistling of Minié balls, made the day truly most hideous." 620 VICKSBURG REGULARLY BESIEGED. army,' and at eight o'clock in the evening the troops were recalled from the inore advanced and exposed positions, leaving pickets to hold the ground which had been absolutely gained. "After the failure of the 22d," Grant said in his report, "I determined upon a regular siege." The post was completely invested. The Nationals held military possession of the peninsula opposite Vicksburg, and Admiral Porter, with his fleet and floating batteries (scows bearing 13-inch mortars and 100-pounder Parrott guns, moored under the banks securely, where they could throw shells into the city), firmly held the water in front of the town. The beleaguered garrison was composed of only about fifteen thousand effective men, out of about thirty thousand within the lines, as Grant was officially informed five days after the assault, with short rations for only a month, and their commander calling earnestly on Johnston for aid. But the latter was almost powerless to help. "I am too weak to save Vicksburg," he wrote to Pemberton on the 29th," in reply to a dispatch that May, 1863. reached him. "Can do no more than attempt to save you and your garrison." General Frank K. Gardner, at Port Hudson, to whom, so early as the 19th, Johnston had sent orders to evacuate that place and join Pemberton, was now also calling for help, and telling 6 May 21. his chief that National troops were about to cross the Mississippi at Bayou Sara, above him, and that the whole of Banks's force at Baton Rouge was on his front. Johnston could only repeat his orders for the evacuation, and say, "You cannot be re-enforced. Do not allow yourself to be invested. At every risk save the troops, and if practicable move in this direction." This did not reach Gardner, for be FRANK K. GARDNER. fore he could receive it Port Hudson was invested, and the sad fruits of Jefferson Davis's interference with Johnston's orders were fast ripening. And all that Johnston could do for Pemberton, at that time, was to send him, by smugglers, about forty thousand percussion caps.3 When the victory at Champion Hills was won, Grant declared that the capture of Vicksburg was then secured. Yet he relaxed no vigilance or efforts. Now, when he felt certain that the post must soon fall into his 1 The National loss was almost 3,000 men. 2 On the 27th of May Pemberton sent out a courier with a dispetch to Johnston, in which he said:-"I have 15,000 men in Vicksburg, and rations for thirty days-one meal a day. Come to my aid with 80,000 men. If you cannot do this within ten days, you had better retreat. Ammunition is almost exhausted, especially percussion caps." The courier (Douglas, of Illinois, who was tired of the Confederate service) carried this dispatch to Grant, by which the poverty and weakness of his antagonist were revealed. 3 General Joseph E. Johnston's Report to S. Cooper, November 1, 1863. In the Diary of a Confederate in Pemberton's army, then in the city, quoted in the Rebellion Record, the writer said, May 28th:-"We have been on half rati ns of coarse corn bread and poor beef for ten days." On the 1st of June he wrote:-"We are now eating bean bread, and half rations of that." He recorded that the beef gave out on the 10th of June, and that they were "drawing a quarter of a pound of bacon to the man." SERVICES OF PORTER'S FLEET. 621 hands, he made that event doubly sure by calling re-enforcements to his army. His effective men, after the assault, did not exceed twenty thousand in number, but to these were very soon added the divisions of General Lauman and four regiments from Memphis, with the divisions of Generals A. J. Smith and Kimball, of the Sixteenth corps. These were assigned to the command of General Washburne. On the 11th of June General Herron arrived with his division from the Department of Missouri, and on the 14th two divisions of the Ninth corps came, under General Parke. Now the investment of Vicksburg was made absolute, with Sherman's corps on the extreme right, McPherson's next, and extending to the railway, and Ord's (late McClernand's) on the left, the investment in that direction being made. complete by the divisions of Herron and Lauman, the latter lying across Stout's Bayou, and touching the bluffs on the river. Parke's corps, and the divisions of Smith and Kimball, were sent to IIaines's Bluff, where fortifications commanding the land side had been erected to confront any attempt that Johnston might make in that direction. Meanwhile Admiral Porter had made complete and ample arrangements for the most efficient co-operation on the river, and his skili and zeal were felt throughout the siege. While his heavier vessels and the mortars and great Parrott guns on the scows already mentioned were doing effective work in the immediate operations of the siege,' his smaller vessels were patrolling the river, to keep its banks clear of guerrillas, who were gathering in strength on the western side, and to prevent supplies reaching Vicksburg. And so skillfully were his vessels handled during the close siege, that only one of them was badly disabled,' and, with the exception of the casualties on that vessel, he lost only six or seven men killed and wounded.3 For a month General Grant closely invested Vicksburg. Day after day he drew his lines nearer and nearer, crowning hill after hill with batteries, and mining assiduously in the direction of the stronger works of his foe, with the intention of blowing them high in air. Day and night, with only slight intermissions, his heavy guns and those of Porter were hurling shot and shell with fearful effect into the city, and its suburbs within the lines, 1 For forty-two days the mortar-boats were at work without intermission. During that time they fired 7,000 mortar shells, and the gun-boats fired 4,500 shells.-Porter's Report. 2 The Cincinnati, Lieutenant George M. Bache commanding. She had been prepared with bales of hay and cotton, and sent to assist in silencing a troublesome water battery. After being fired at several times by "Whistling Dick," as she moved down without being hit, she went on with a full head of steam toward the position assigned her, under the fire of all the river batteries. At length a ball entered her magazine, and caused it to be drowned, and she began to sink. Shortly afterward her starboard tiller was carried away. Her commander ran her ashore at the peninsula, where she sunk. In attempting to swim ashore from her, about fifteen of her people were drowned. Twenty-five were killed and wounded. The Cincinnati went down with her colors nailed to the stump of her mast She was afterward raised. 3 Report of Admiral D. D. Porter, dated “Black Hawk, July 4, 1863." The printing-press on board the flagship was employed for other than official business. To while away the tedious hours of the officers and men, a journal was printed on a broad-side, entitled, The Black Hawk Chronicle, and contained notices of the events of the siege on land and water as it progressed, often in a strain of wit and humor that must have been agreeable to the readers. The first number, issued on the 8th of June, is before the writer. It is well printed on dull yellow paper, in two columns. Terms. 2,000 dollars per annum in Confederate notes, or equal weight in cordwood." It informed the public, "that no special reporter belonged to the establishment," and therefore nothing but the truth might be expected. The contents were composed generally of short items. In noticing the disaster to the Cincinnati, the editor said:-"On the morning of May 27, the gun-boat 'Cincinnati,' packed with all kinds of fenders, went down to co-operate with General Sherman in an attack on a water battery and riflepits. Said battery, having grown during the night, sent some ugly customers after our gun-boat, which vessel retired on finding the place too hot for her, having first received three or four shots in her bottom. Not wishing to be annoyed by the enemy, she wisely sunk in three fathoms of water, out of reach of the enemy's shot, when the officers and crew coolly went in to bathe." 622 LIFE IN THE BESIEGED CITY. making it hell for the inhabitants, and the soldiers too, who sought shelter for limb and life in caves dug in the steep banks where streets passed through the hills. In these the women and children of whole families, free and bond, found protection from the iron hail that perforated the houses, plowed the streets, and even penetrated to these subterranean habitations, where gentle women were waiting and praying for deliverance, and where children were born. It was a terrible ordeal, and yet during that long siege very few persons, not in the army, lost their lives. Pemberton's only hope for deliverance was in the ability of Johnston to compel Grant to raise the siege. With that hope he held out against a mul 1 The streets of Vicksburg are cut through the hills, and houses are often seen far above the street passenIn the perpendicular banks formed by these cuttings, and composed of clay, caves were dug at the begin CAVE-LIFE IN VICKSBURG. ning of the siege, some of the m sufficiently large to accommodate whole families, and in some 'nstances communicating with each other by corridors. Such was the character of some made on Ma'n Street, opposite the house of Colonel Lyman J. Strong, for the use of his family and others, and of which the writer made the accompanying sketch, in April. 16 The caves were then in a partially ruined state, as were most of them in and around Vicksburg, for rains had washed the banks away, or had caused the filling of the caves. In this picture the appearance of the caves in their best estate is delineated, with furniture, in accordance with descriptions given to the writer by the inhabitants. A graphic account of events in these crypts is given in a little volume entitled, My Care-Life in Vicksburg, by a Lady, published in New York in 1564. It was written by the wife of a Confederate officer who was in the besieged city, and lived in one of these caves with her child and servants. The picture in the text above gives a good idea of the external appearance of these caves, in the suburbs of the city. It is from a sketch made by the writer on the old Jackson road, where the Second Mississippi regiment was stationed during a portion of the siege. In the view the spectator is looking down toward Vicksburg. A plain, and the bluffs on the border of the Mississippi, are seen in the distance. CONFEDERATE TROOPS IN LOUISIANA. 623 titude of temptations to yield.' On the 14th Johnston sent him word that all he could attempt to do was to save the garrison, and sug- June, 1963. gested, as a mode of extrication and conjunction, a simultaneous attack upon Grant's line at a given point by his own troops without, and Pemberton's within. He asked the latter to designate the point of attack, north of the railroad (nearer Johnston's communications); and he then informed him that General Taylor (whom Banks, as we have seen,' had driven from the heart of Louisiana, and who was gathering forces there again) would endeavor, with eight thousand men from Richmond, in that State, to open communication with him from the west side of the river. Already that commander had sent between two and three thousand troops, under General Henry McCulloch (brother of Ben., who was killed at Pea Ridge), to strike a blow. It was leveled at a little force, chiefly of colored troops, called the "African brigade," stationed at Milliken's Bend, under General Elias S. Dennis, composed of about fourteen hundred3 effective men, of whom all but one hundred and sixty (the Twenty-third Iowa) were negroes. McCulloch's blow fell first, though lightly, on the Ninth Louisiana (colored), commanded by Colonel H. Lieb, who went out on a reconnoissance from Milliken's Bend toward Rich 1863. mond, on the 6th of H. LIEB. horse and foot, pursued nearly up to the earthworks at the Bend. It was now night, and the Confederates lay on their arms, expecting to make an easy conquest of Dennis's force in the morning. The latter was on the alert, and when, at three o'clock, the Con June 7. 1 The misfortunes of Pemberton, before he was driven into Vicksburg by Grant, had been construed by some into crimes. He was even accused of treasonable intentions-of "selling Vicksburg." These charges reached him. Stung by them, he took a public occasion to repel them. After the failure of Grant's assault on the 22d, he made a speech to the citizens and soldiers. "You have heard," he said, "that I am 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." 2 See page 600. 3 These were the Twenty-third Iowa, white; and Ninth and Eleventh Louisiana and First Mississippi, colored. |