CHAPTER VII.

THE ADVANCE TO VICKSBURG.

By general orders from the War Department, dated Oc. tober 16, 1862, General Grant was assigned to the "Department of the Tennessee," which was now extended to include the State of Mississippi, in which was Vicksburg. General Grant formally assumed his new command on the 25th of October, although he had virtually held it since the departure of Halleck for Washington. In November Grant removed his headquarters from Jackson to LaGrange, that he might be in a better position to support Sherman who was then at Memphis preparing for his movement on Vicksburg.

On the 20th of December the Confederate General Van Dorn succeeded in capturing from the Federal forces, through the cowardice of General Murphy, the important post of Holly Springs, which had been made the principal base of supplies for Grant's army. Its loss prevented Grant's co-operation with Sherman in his movement against Vicksburg, which promised to be successful.

Vicksburg is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi, twelve miles below the mouth of the Yazoo. All that the Confederacy had of engineering skill and experience was exhausted in rendering it the Gibraltar of America. It was out of the question to capture the town by the river front, and the rear had been made almost as impregnable. Already three attempts had been made by the Federals to

capture this stronghold. Commodore Farragut, after his capture of New Orleans, had ascended the river as far as Grand Gulf, a short distance below Vicksburg, but accomplished nothing. On the 8th of June, soon after the capture of Memphis, a second attack was made, and for a time the batteries at Grand Gulf were silenced, but the low state of the water obliged the fleet to return down the river. General Williams had attempted to dig a canal across

ADMIRAL FARRAGUT.

the peninsula opposite Vicksburg, hoping to turn the waters of the Mississippi into it, allowing the Union gunboats and transports to pass below Vicksburg. Unfortunately for the success of this plan, the low condition of the water compelled him to abandon the undertaking, and the Confederates at once filled up the canal.

It had long been pre

dicted that the Mississippi Valley would be the seat of the future Empire of America. Napoleon, when negotiating the cession of Louisiana, said: "The nation which controls the Valley of the Mississippi, will eventually rule the world." De Tocqueville, in his writings, says: "It is the most magnificent dwelling-place prepared by God for man's abode." The river enriches an area of nearly one million and a half of square miles, six times the area of the Empire of France. Fifty-seven rivers, many of them a thou

sand miles in length, contribute to swell its waters. The Indians called it the "Father of Waters." General Sherman once said, "The possession of the Mississippi River is the possession of America." Jefferson Davis said to the citizens of Mississippi at Jackson, "Assist in preserving the Mississippi River, that great artery of the Confederacy, and thus conduce more than in any other way, to the perpetuation of the Confederacy, and the success of the cause." Vallandigham, in his speech declaring the inability of the government to conquer the Rebellion, and the determination of the Northwest to go with the South, said: "There is not one drop of rain that falls over the whole vast expanse of the Northwest that does not find its home in the bosom of the Gulf." Unlike Vallandigham in his views, yet recognizing the importance of this vast inland sea to the people of the Northwest, the brave and eloquent General Logan said: "If the rebels undertake to control the Mississippi, the men of the Northwest will hew their way to the Gulf, and make New Orleans a fish-pond."

By the retreat of Grant, the Confederates were enabled to reinforce Vicksburg, and fortify Port Hudson on the Louisiana side of the river, in order to blockade the river against the fleet under Farragut from below. General Sherman, unaware of the mishap to General Grant, had moved his army in front of the Confederate works at Vicksburg, and on December 28 and 29, he made several brilliant and determined assaults on the enemy's lines, but all in vain, the Union forces being compelled to return. After his defeat at Vicksburg, General Sherman planned the capture of Arkansas Port, on the Arkansas River, which on the 10th of January, 1863, after a gallant defence, surrendered with nearly 5,000 prisoners. After this success, Sherman returned to the vicinity of Vicksburg in order to co-operate with General Grant.

Recognizing the importance of the possession of Vicksburg to the National cause, General Grant, early in the new year, determined to make a second campaign against it. He had become convinced that its capture could only be accomplished by a combined land and river force. General Grant's immediate army, some 50,000 strong, was withdrawn from Northern Mississippi, and transferred to the Mississippi River for the reduction of Vicksburg, the headquarters being at Memphis.

On the 29th of January, having pushed his preparations forward rapidly, he landed his army at Young's Point and Milliken's Bend, above Vicksburg, making his headquarters at the latter place. He at once set to work to reopen the canal dug by General Williams; a sudden rise in the river washed the works away, and the enterprise ended in failure.

While employed at Milliken's Bend, he also cut a short canal from a point seventy miles above Vicksburg to a sheet of water called Lake Providence, which was formerly the bed of the river. This lake through a bayou was connected with Swan Lake and the Tensas River; through the latter river, boats could pass into the Black River and thence into the Red River, which enters the Mississippi far below Vicksburg. Just as success seemed assured a drouth came. There was no water in the bayous, and the enterprise was abandoned. Undismayed by these reverses, he now turned his attention to the east side of the river.

At a point nearly opposite Helena, there is, but a few hundred yards from the eastern shore of the river, a considerable body of water called Moon Lake. From the southern extremity of this sheet of water Yazoo Pass leads into the Coldwater River, this into the Yazoo through the Tallahatchie. Grant's engineers deemed it possible, by cut

ting a canal into Moon Lake, that a way might be opened for the transports, through these winding streams into the Yazoo far above the Confederate entrenchments so as to enable the landing of the army in the rear of Vicksburg. On the 2d of February the waters of the river were admitted into the canal, and cut a channel so deep and wide that the largest steamers could pass through into Moon Lake. During these operations, the rebels had been fully informed of the Union army's plans, and had accumulated vast ob structions lower down the river, filling the streams with felled trees. After long and tedious work the Union troops opened a passage to the Coldwater, entering it on the 2d of March with twenty-two light transports conveying 4,500 men under the command of General Ross. This river is about 100 feet wide and runs through a dense and solitary wilderness, a distance of about forty miles, when it enters the Tallahatchie, a broad and deep stream. This difficult navigation was successfully accomplished, and the fleet entered the Tallahatchie. General Grant, encouraged by his success, ordered General Quinby with his division to reinforce General Ross.

The rebels had erected a strong battery at the mouth of the Tallahatchie, called Fort Pemberton, which General Ross was unable to capture. On the 16th of March, General Grant sent General Sherman with Stuart's division, assisted by Admiral Porter with five ironclads and four mortar-boats, through Steele's Bayou, intending to reach. the Yazoo River sixty miles above its mouth; this accomplished, he could then attack Fort Pemberton from the General Ross' forces being in critical position at the time. Owing to shallow water, barricaded by felled trees and other obstructions, and unlooked for strength of the enemy at all defensive points, the further prosecution of the

rear.