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withstand the leaden hail from the enemy's entrenchments, and before night the troops were withdrawn.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

On May 25 General Grant wrote General Banks who was then operating below Fort Hudson:

hold the enemy

"I feel that my force is abundantly strong to where he is, or to whip him if he should come out. The place is so strongly fortified, however, that it cannot be taken without either a great sacrifice of life or by a regular siege. I have determined to adopt the latter course, and save my men. The great danger now to be apprehended is, that the enemy may collect a force outside, and attempt to rescue the garrison."

On the 31st he again wrote:

"It is now certain that Johnston has already collected a force from twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand strong, at Jackson and Canton, and is using every effort to increase it to forty thousand. With this, he will undoubtedly attack Haines' Bluff, and compel me to abandon the investment of the city, if not reinforced before he can get here."

General Grant had been reinforced by Lauman's division and four regiments from Memphis, two divisions of the Sixteenth Army Corps, Major-General C. C. Washburn commanding, Herron's division from the Department of the Missouri, two divisions from the Ninth Corps, under command of Major-General Parke. Sherman's corps held the extreme right, McPherson the center, and General Ord, now in command of General McClernand's corps, McClernand having been relieved, on McPherson's left, while Herron held the extreme left. General Blair held Haines' Bluff and the country between the Yazoo and the Big Black River. He was also ordered to watch the movements of Johnston and hold all fords on the Big Black.

Every disposition was made by Grant to meet either a sortie from the invested town or from an attack in the rear. The latter part of June the enemy's ammunition had become exhausted, as also his commissary supplies;

not only the garrison but the entire population were threatened with famine, the troops were reduced to eating mule meat; yet they still hoped that Johnston would come to their relief. Owing to the constant bombardment of the town the inhabitants were compelled to seek safety in caves dug in the steep banks where streets passed through.

General Grant about this time formed an expedition to resist an advance of Johnston, he having been apprised of

General

his threatened advance with a very large force. Sherman was placed in command. In his notes to General Sherman, accompanying the order for this advance movement, General Grant spoke of several letters written by the imprisoned garrison to their wives and friends. These letters had been found on a captured rebel courier. He says: "They seem to put a great deal of faith in the Lord and Joe Johnston, but you must whip Johnston at least fifteen miles from here." He also issued the following order to General Parke, it shows the same decided de

termination to whip the rebel chief, should he make the attempt to raise the siege:

June 22, 1863.

GENERAL PARKE:-Sherman goes out from here with five brigades, and Osterhaus' Division subject to his orders besides. In addition to this, another division, 5,000 strong, is notified to be in readiness to move on notice. In addition to this, I can spare still another divi. sion, 6,000 strong, if they should be required. We want to whip Johnston at least fifteen miles off, if possible.

U. S. GRANT, Major-General.

The result of this movement was, that General Johnston finding Grant in force and ready to give battle, gave up all hopes of rescuing the doomed city, and retreated to Jackson.

On the 25th of June the sappers and miners had pushed their work to completion and the mines were ready to be sprung, the utmost secrecy having been observed, the work being performed after dark. Everything being in readiness for the explosion a mine which had been dug under an important part of the enemy's works was fired. In this mine two thousand two hundred pounds of powder were placed. Its explosion was to be the signal for a simultaneous attack from every gun on land and in the fleet-through the gorge cut by the explosion several thousand men were to rush to gain an advance position.

In a dispatch of the same date a correspondent gives a brief sketch of the explosion:

This morning the work was completed, an immense quantity of gunpowder was stored in the cavity prepared to receive it, and the fuse train was laid. At noon the different regiments of the Seventeenth Corps, selected to make the assault upon the breach when it should have been effected, were marshaled in long lines upon the near slopes of the hills immediately confronting the doomed rebel fortifications, where, disposed for the attack, they impatiently awaited the denouement. The rebels seemed to discover that some movement