had to be constructed. Moving by night as well as by day, with labor incessant, and extraordinary privations endured by men and officers, such as have been rarely paralleled in any campaign, not a murmur of complaint has been uttered. A few days continuance of the same zeal and constancy will secure to this army crowning victories over the rebellion.

More difficulties and privations are before us; let us endure them manfully. Other battles are to be fought; let us fight them bravely. ♫ grateful country will rejoice at our success, and history will record it with immortal honor.

U. S. GRANT, Major-General Commanding.

On the morning of the 12th, General Logan's division encountered the enemy strongly posted near Raymond, under command of General Gregg. Brisk skirmishing began at once, followed by a general engagement of three hours' hard fighting, when the enemy withdrew toward Jackson. Clinton was occupied by the Seventeenth Corps. On the 13th this Corps' advance was made simultaneously with that of the Fifteenth Army Corps, by way of Raymond on the Jackson turnpike road.

General Joseph E. Johnston, who commanded at Jackson, met the advance of Grant's forces outside of the city. After a spirited contest he was defeated, and retreated northward, leaving the city in the hands of the Union. forces, abandoning eighteen guns and 286 prisoners in the hands of the Federals.

Leaving Sherman to garrison Jackson, General Grant ordered McPherson to march to Bolton on the direct road to Vicksburg, to meet a threatened attack from General Pemberton, who was in command at Vicksburg. Orders were also issued to McClernand and Blair to concentrate at the same point; Grant's object being to turn and defeat Pemberton before Johnston and his army could join him. General Johnston, after the battle of Jackson, had entrenched himself on the north about fifteen miles from the city. General Grant, with an inferior force numerically

knew that it was of the utmost moment to prevent this union of the rebel forces. Having learned that Pemberton had a force of 25,000 men at Edward's Station, Grant ordered Sherman to join him as soon as possible, first destroying all public property at Jackson, and at once made a disposition of his forces.

The Confederates had chosen an admirable position for defence, their left resting on Champion's Hill, over which the road to Edward's Ferry runs. This hill rises sixty or seventy feet above the surrounding country; its sides are covered with a thick underbrush, and seamed with ravines, while its summit is bare, and afforded an admirable position for artillery. At 11 o'clock in the morning the battle of Champion's Hill was begun and was stubbornly con

tested with varying results, when a brilliant and successful flank movement of Logan's division, on Pemberton's left threatening to cut off his line of retreat, carried dismay to the hearts of the rebel forces, and by four in the afternoon their rout was complete. This battle virtually decided the fate of Vicksburg. Pursuing the enemy at da light the

next morning, he was found strongly entrenched at Big Black River. Animated by their success of the previous day, the Union forces, without waiting for orders, rushed across a bayou, here twenty or more feet wide, in the midst of a murderous fire, which swept down many of their number. So sudden had been the attack of the assaulting party that the astonished rebels did not wait to defend their position, but broke and fled precipitately, an entire brigade falling into the hands of the Federals. The Confed. erate army, now little better than a mob, fled to Vicksburg, where their unexpecte arrival and demoralized condition carried dismay and terror to its inhabitants.

The loss to the Fede als had been nearly three thousand in the two engagements; the Confederate loss over nine thousand in killed, wounded, and prisoners, besides thirtyeight cannon and large quantities of commissary stores.

Early the next morning the Union army was moving on Vicksburg fifteen miles distant, and the investment of the place began. Scarcely three weeks had passed since the campaign was opened; for thirteen days the men had had only six days' rations, and such supplies as the country afforded. In eighteen days Grant had marched 200 miles, had fought five battles, in which he had taken 6,500 prisoners; killed and wounded 6,000 more; taken twentyseven cannon and sixty-one pieces of field artillery. He had compelled the evacuation of Grand Gulf, had seized the capital of the State of Mississippi, and destroyed its network of railroads for thirty miles in all directions. His losses were 698 killed, 3,407 wounded, and 230 missing.

As the crowning result of all this, he had invested the city and its garrison that had so long defied the advance of the Union armies; all this had been accomplished against the advice of his Generals, and the orders of his superiors.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SIEGE OF VICKSBurg.

By the morning of the 19th, the investment of Vicksburg was complete; Sherman occupying the right of the line, McPherson the center, and McCler and the left. General Grant at once ordered an assault upon the Confederate works, which two days afterward was renewed, both attempts being unsuccessful. In his official reports he states his reasons for the assault as follows:

"There were many reasons to determine me to adopt this course. I believed an assault from the position gained by this time could be made successfully. It was known that Johnston was at Canton, with the force taken by him from Jackson, reinforced by other troops from the east, and that more were daily reaching him. With the force I had, a short time must have enabled him to attack me in the rear, and possibly succeed in raising the siege. Possession of Vicksburg at that time would have enabled me to turn upon Johnston, and drive him from the State, and possess myself of all the railroads and practical military highways, thus effectually securing to ourselves all territory west of the Tombigbee, and this before the season was too far advanced for campaigning in this latitude. I would have saved government sending large reinforcements, much needed elsewhere; and, finally the troops themselves were impatient to possess Vicksburg, and would not have worked in the trenches with the same zeal (believing it unnecessary) that they did after their failure to carry the enemy's works."

The artillery fire was terrific, and played havoc with the enemy's works. The gallant soldiers again and again attempted to scale the heights, but nothing mortal could

withstand the leaden hail from the enemy's entrenchments, and before night the troops were withdrawn.

"The assault," says General Grant, "was gallant in the extreme on the part of all the troops, but the enemy's position was too strong, both naturally and artificially, to be taken in that way. At every point assaulted, and at all of them at the same time, the enemy was able to show all the force his works could cover. The assault failed, I regret to say, with much loss on our side in killed and wounded; bnt without weakening the confidence of the troops in their ability ultimately to succeed."

Says Sherman: "These several assaults, made simultaneously, demonstrated the strength of the natural and artificial defenses of Vicksburg, that they are garrisoned by a strong force, and that we must resort to regular approaches."

Finding that Vicksburg could not be taken by storm, General Grant began a regular siege, and pressed it with ever increasing effort. He received invaluable aid from the fleet of Admiral Porter, who kept up an incessant bombardment of the unfortunate town. Space forbids a description of the operations of this siege. From its commencement to its close it was one continued roar of battle, through which, notwithstanding the constant exposure to the fire of the foe, forts were erected, and trenches dug. For forty-six days the work continued unceasingly.

While thus engaged General Grant was exposed to an attack from Johnston in his rear. To General Sherman was assigned the task to look after Johnston. The amount of labor performed was prodigious; opposite the rebel works, works of equal magnitude were erected, twelve miles of trenches dug, eighty-nine batteries erected. By the last of June two hundred and twenty guns were in position. The defense was conducted with as much determination as the assault was pressed.