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 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
Black; but General Grant would not, for reasons other than military,
take any course which looked like, a step backward; and he himself
concluded on the river movement below Vicksburg, so as to appear
like connecting with General Banks, who at the same time was
besieging Port Hudson from the direction of New Orleans.
Preliminary orders had already been given, looking to the digging
of a canal, to connect the river at Duckport with Willow Bayou, back
of Milliken's Bend, so as to form a channel for the conveyance of
supplies, by way of Richmond, to New Carthage; and several steam
dredge-boats had come from the upper rivers to assist in the work.
One day early in April, I was up at General Grant's headquarters,
and we talked over all these things with absolute freedom. Charles
A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, was there, and Wilson, Rawlins,
Frank Blair, McPherson, etc. We all knew, what was notorious, that
General McClernand was still intriguing against General Grant, in
hopes to regain the command of the whole expedition, and that
others were raising a clamor against General Grant in the news
papers at the North. Even Mr. Lincoln and General Halleck seemed to
be shaken; but at no instant of time did we (his personal friends)
slacken in our loyalty to him. One night, after such a discussion, and
believing that General McClernand had no real plan of action shaped
in his mind, I wrote my letter of April 8, 1863, to Colonel Rawlins,
which letter is embraced in full at page 616 of Badeau's book, and
which I now reproduce here:

HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS,

CAMP NEAR VICKSBURG, April 8,1868.

Colonel J. A. RAWLINS, Assistant Adjutant-General to

General GRANT.

SIR: I would most respectfully suggest (for reasons

which I will not name) that General Grant call on his
corps commanders for their opinions, concise and
positive, on the best general plan of a campaign.
Unless this be done, there are men who will, in any
result falling below the popular standard, claim that
their advice was unheeded, and that fatal consequence
resulted therefrom. My own opinions are:

First. That the Army of the Tennessee is now far in

advance of the other grand armies of the United
States.

Second. That a corps from Missouri should forthwith

be moved from St. Louis to the vicinity of Little Rock,
Arkansas; supplies collected there while the river is
full, and land communication with Memphis opened via
Des Arc on the White, and Madison on the St. Francis
River.

Third. That as much of the Yazoo Pass, Coldwater, and

Tallahatchie Rivers, as can be gained and fortified, be
held, and the main army be transported thither by land
and water; that the road back to Memphis be secured
and reopened, and, as soon as the waters subside,
Grenada be attacked, and the swamp-road across to
Helena be patrolled by cavalry.

Fourth. That the line of the Yalabusha be the base

from which to operate against the points where the
Mississippi Central crosses Big Black, above Canton;
and, lastly, where the Vicksburg & Jackson Railroad
crosses the same river (Big Black). The capture of
Vicksburg would result.

Fifth. That a minor force be left in this vicinity, not to

exceed ten thousand men, with only enough
steamboats to float and transport them to any desired
point; this force to be held always near enough to act
with the gunboats when the main army is known to be
near Vicksburg—Haines's Bluff or Yazoo City.

Sixth. I do doubt the capacity of Willow Bayou (which I

estimate to be fifty miles long and very tortuous) as a
military channel, to supply an army large enough to
operate against Jackson, Mississippi, or the Black River
Bridge; and such a channel will be very vulnerable to a
force coming from the west, which we must expect.
Yet this canal will be most useful as the way to convey
coals and supplies to a fleet that should navigate the
lower reach of the Mississippi between Vicksburg and
the Red River.

Seventh. The chief reason for operating solely by

water was the season of the year and high water in
the Tallahatchie and Yalabusha Rivers. The spring is
now here, and soon these streams will be no serious
obstacle, save in the ambuscades of the forest, and
whatever works the enemy may have erected at or
near Grenada. North Mississippi is too valuable for us
to allow the enemy to hold it and make crops this year.

I make these suggestions, with the request that

General Grant will read them and give them, as I know
he will, a share of his thoughts. I would prefer that he
should not answer this letter, but merely give it as
much or as little weight as it deserves. Whatever plan
of action he may adopt will receive from me the same
zealous cooperation and energetic support as though
conceived by myself. I do not believe General Banks
will make any serious attack on Port Hudson this
spring. I am, etc.,

W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General.
 Full Size

This is the letter which some critics have styled a "protest." We

never had a council of war at any time during the Vicksburg
campaign. We often met casually, regardless of rank or power, and
talked and gossiped of things in general, as officers do and should.
But my letter speaks for itself—it shows my opinions clearly at that
stage of the game, and was meant partially to induce General Grant
to call on General McClernand for a similar expression of opinion,
but, so far as I know, he did not. He went on quietly to work out his
own designs; and he has told me, since the war, that had we
possessed in December, 1862, the experience of marching and
maintaining armies without a regular base, which we afterward
acquired, he would have gone on from Oxford as first contemplated,
and would not have turned back because of the destruction of his
depot at Holly Springs by Van Dorn. The distance from Oxford to the
rear of Vicksburg is little greater than by the circuitous route we
afterward followed, from Bruinsburg to Jackson and Vicksburg,
during which we had neither depot nor train of supplies. I have
never criticised General Grant's strategy on this or any other
occasion, but I thought then that he had lost an opportunity, which
cost him and us six months' extra-hard work, for we might have
captured Vicksburg from the direction of Oxford in January, quite as
easily as was afterward done in July, 1863.
General Grant's orders for the general movement past Vicksburg,
by Richmond and Carthage, were dated April 20, 1863. McClernand
was to lead off with his corps, McPherson next, and my corps (the
Fifteenth) to bring up the rear. Preliminary thereto, on the night of
April 16th, seven iron-clads led by Admiral Porter in person, in the
Benton, with three transports, and ten barges in tow, ran the
Vicksburg batteries by night. Anticipating a scene, I had four yawl-
boats hauled across the swamp, to the reach of the river below
Vicksburg, and manned them with soldiers, ready to pick up any of
the disabled wrecks as they floated by. I was out in the stream when
the fleet passed Vicksburg, and the scene was truly sublime. As soon
as the rebel gunners detected the Benton, which was in the lead,
they opened on her, and on the others in succession, with shot and
shell; houses on the Vicksburg side and on the opposite shore were
set on fire, which lighted up the whole river; and the roar of cannon,
the bursting of shells, and finally the burning of the Henry Clay,
drifting with the current, made up a picture of the terrible not often
seen. Each gunboat returned the fire as she passed the town, while
the transports hugged the opposite shore. When the Benton had got
abreast of us, I pulled off to her, boarded, had a few words with
Admiral Porter, and as she was drifting rapidly toward the lower
batteries at Warrenton, I left, and pulled back toward the shore,
meeting the gunboat Tuscumbia towing the transport Forest Queen
into the bank out of the range of fire. The Forest Queen, Captain
Conway, had been my flag-boat up the Arkansas, and for some time
after, and I was very friendly with her officers. This was the only
transport whose captain would not receive volunteers as a crew, but
her own officers and crew stuck to their boat, and carried her safely
below the Vicksburg batteries, and afterward rendered splendid
service in ferrying troops across the river at Grand Gulf and
Bruinsburg. In passing Vicksburg, she was damaged in the hull and
had a steam-pipe cut away, but this was soon repaired. The Henry
Clay was set on fire by bursting shells, and burned up; one of my
yawls picked up her pilot floating on a piece of wreck, and the bulk
of her crew escaped in their own yawl-boat to the shore above. The
Silver Wave, Captain McMillan, the same that was with us up Steele's
Bayou, passed safely, and she also rendered good service afterward.
Subsequently, on the night of April 26th, six other transports with
numerous barges loaded with hay, corn, freight, and provisions,
were drifted past Vicksburg; of these the Tigress was hit, and sunk
just as she reached the river-bank below, on our side: I was there
with my yawls, and saw Colonel Lagow, of General Grant's staff, who
had passed the batteries in the Tigress, and I think he was satisfied
never to attempt such a thing again. Thus General Grant's army had
below Vicksburg an abundance of stores, and boats with which to
cross the river. The road by which the troops marched was very bad,
and it was not until the 1st of May that it was clear for my corps.
While waiting my turn to march, I received a letter from General
Grant, written at Carthage, saying that he proposed to cross over
and attack Grand Gulf, about the end of April, and he thought I
could put in my time usefully by making a "feint" on Haines's Bluff,
but he did not like to order me to do it, because it might be reported
at the North that I had again been "repulsed, etc." Thus we had to
fight a senseless clamor at the North, as well as a determined foe
and the obstacles of Nature. Of course, I answered him that I would
make the "feint," regardless of public clamor at a distance, and I did
make it most effectually; using all the old boats I could get about
Milliken's Bend and the mouth of the Yazoo, but taking only ten
small regiments, selected out of Blair's division, to make a show of
force. We afterward learned that General Pemberton in Vicksburg
had previously dispatched a large force to the assistance of General
Bowers, at Grand Gulf and Port Gibson, which force had proceeded
as far as Hankinson's Ferry, when he discovered our ostentatious
movement up the Yazoo, recalled his men, and sent them up to
Haines's Bluff to meet us. This detachment of rebel troops must
have marched nearly sixty miles without rest, for afterward, on
reaching Vicksburg, I heard that the men were perfectly exhausted,
and lay along the road in groups, completely fagged out. This
diversion, made with so much pomp and display, therefore
completely fulfilled its purpose, by leaving General Grant to contend
with a minor force, on landing at Bruinsburg, and afterward at Port
Gibson and Grand Gulf.
In May the waters of the Mississippi had so far subsided that all
our canals were useless, and the roads had become practicable.
After McPherson's corps had passed Richmond, I took up the route
of march, with Steele's and Tuttle's divisions. Blair's division
remained at Milliken's Bend to protect our depots there, till relieved
by troops from Memphis, and then he was ordered to follow us. Our
route lay by Richmond and Roundabout Bayou; then, following
Bayou Vidal we struck the Mississippi at Perkins's plantation. Thence
the route followed Lake St. Joseph to a plantation called Hard Times,
about five miles above Grand Gulf. The road was more or less
occupied by wagons and detachments belonging to McPherson's
corps; still we marched rapidly and reached Hard Times on the 6th
of May. Along the Bayou or Lake St. Joseph were many very fine
cotton plantations, and I recall that of a Mr. Bowie, brother-in-law of
the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, of Baltimore. The house was very
handsome, with a fine, extensive grass-plot in front. We entered the
yard, and, leaving our horses with the headquarters escort, walked
to the house. On the front-porch I found a magnificent grand-piano,
with several satin-covered arm-chairs, in one of which sat a Union
soldier (one of McPherson's men), with his feet on the keys of the
piano, and his musket and knapsack lying on the porch. I asked him
what he was doing there, and he answered that he was "taking a
rest;" this was manifest and I started him in a hurry, to overtake his
command. The house was tenantless, and had been completely
ransacked; articles of dress and books were strewed about, and a
handsome boudoir with mirror front had been cast down, striking a
French bedstead, shivering the glass. The library was extensive, with
a fine collection of books; and hanging on the wall were two full-
length portraits of Reverdy Johnson and his wife, one of the most
beautiful ladies of our country, with whom I had been acquainted in
Washington at the time of General Taylor's administration. Behind
the mansion was the usual double row of cabins called the
"quarters." There I found an old negro (a family servant) with
several women, whom I sent to the house to put things in order;
telling the old man that other troops would follow, and he must
stand on the porch to tell any officers who came along that the
property belonged to Mr. Bowie, who was the brother-in-law of our
friend Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Baltimore, asking them to see that no
further harm was done. Soon after we left the house I saw some
negroes carrying away furniture which manifestly belonged to the
house, and compelled them to carry it back; and after reaching
camp that night, at Hard Times, I sent a wagon back to Bowie's
plantation, to bring up to Dr. Hollingsworth's house the two portraits
for safe keeping; but before the wagon had reached Bowie's the
house was burned, whether by some of our men or by negroes I
have never learned.
At the river there was a good deal of scrambling to get across,
because the means of ferriage were inadequate; but by the aid of
the Forest Queen and several gunboats I got my command across
during the 7th of May, and marched out to Hankiuson's Ferry
(eighteen miles), relieving General Crocker's division of McPherson's
corps. McClernand's corps and McPherson's were still ahead, and
had fought the battle of Port Gibson, on the 11th. I overtook General
Grant in person at Auburn, and he accompanied my corps all the
way into Jackson, which we reached May 14th. McClernand's corps
had been left in observation toward Edwards's Ferry. McPherson had
fought at Raymond, and taken the left-hand road toward Jackson,
via Clinton, while my troops were ordered by General Grant in
person to take the right-hand road leading through Mississippi
Springs. We reached Jackson at the same time; McPherson fighting
on the Clinton road, and my troops fighting just outside the town, on
the Raymond road, where we captured three entire field-batteries,
and about two hundred prisoners of war. The rebels, under General
Joe Johnston, had retreated through the town northward on the
Canton road. Generals Grant, McPherson, and I, met in the large
hotel facing the State-House, where the former explained to us that
he had intercepted dispatches from Pemberton to Johnston, which
made it important for us to work smart to prevent a junction of their
respective forces. McPherson was ordered to march back early the
next day on the Clinton road to make junction with McClernand, and
I was ordered to remain one day to break up railroads, to destroy
the arsenal, a foundery, the cotton-factory of the Messrs. Green,
etc., etc., and then to follow McPherson.
McPherson left Jackson early on the 15th, and General Grant
during the same day. I kept my troops busy in tearing up railroad-
tracks, etc., but early on the morning of the 16th received notice
from General Grant that a battle was imminent near Edwards's
Depot; that he wanted me to dispatch one of my divisions
immediately, and to follow with the other as soon as I had
completed the work of destruction. Steele's division started
immediately, and later in the day I followed with the other division
(Tuttle's). Just as I was leaving Jackson, a very fat man came to see
me, to inquire if his hotel, a large, frame building near the depot,
were doomed to be burned. I told him we had no intention to burn
it, or any other house, except the machine-shops, and such buildings
as could easily be converted to hostile uses. He professed to be a
law-abiding Union man, and I remember to have said that this fact
was manifest from the sign of his hotel, which was the "Confederate
Hotel;" the sign "United States" being faintly painted out, and
"Confederate" painted over it! I remembered that hotel, as it was
the supper-station for the New Orleans trains when I used to travel
the road before the war. I had not the least purpose, however, of
burning it, but, just as we were leaving the town, it burst out in
flames and was burned to the ground. I never found out exactly who
set it on fire, but was told that in one of our batteries were some
officers and men who had been made prisoners at Shiloh, with
Prentiss's division, and had been carried past Jackson in a railroad-
train; they had been permitted by the guard to go to this very hotel
for supper, and had nothing to pay but greenbacks, which were
refused, with insult, by this same law-abiding landlord. These men, it
was said, had quietly and stealthily applied the fire underneath the
hotel just as we were leaving the town.
About dark we met General Grant's staff-officer near Bolton
Station, who turned us to the right, with orders to push on to
Vicksburg by what was known as the upper Jackson Road, which
crossed the Big Black at Bridgeport. During that day (May 16th) the
battle of Champion Hills had been fought and won by McClernand's
and McPherson's corps, aided by one division of mine (Blairs), under
the immediate command of General Grant; and McPherson was then
following the mass of Pemberton's army, disordered and retreating
toward Vicksburg by the Edwards's Ferry road. General Blair's
division had come up from the rear, was temporarily attached to
McClernand's corps, taking part with it in the battle of Champion
Hills, but on the 17th it was ordered by General Grant across to
Bridgeport, to join me there.
Just beyond Bolton there was a small hewn-log house, standing
back in a yard, in which was a well; at this some of our soldiers were
drawing water. I rode in to get a drink, and, seeing a book on the
ground, asked some soldier to hand it to me. It was a volume of the
Constitution of the United States, and on the title-page was written
the name of Jefferson Davis. On inquiry of a negro, I learned that
the place belonged to the then President of the Southern
Confederation. His brother Joe Davis's plantation was not far off;
one of my staff-officers went there, with a few soldiers, and took a
pair of carriage-horses, without my knowledge at the time. He found
Joe Davis at home, an old man, attended by a young and
affectionate niece; but they were overwhelmed with grief to see
their country overran and swarming with Federal troops.
We pushed on, and reached the Big Black early, Blair's troops
having preceded us by an hour or so. I found General Blair in
person, and he reported that there was no bridge across the Big
Black; that it was swimming-deep; and that there was a rebel force
on the opposite side, intrenched. He had ordered a detachment of
the Thirteenth United States Regulars, under Captain Charles Ewing,
to strip some artillery-horses, mount the men, and swim the river
above the ferry, to attack and drive away the party on the opposite
bank. I did not approve of this risky attempt, but crept down close
to the brink of the river bank, behind a corn-crib belonging to a
plantation house near by, and saw the parapet on the opposite bank.
Ordering a section of guns to be brought forward by hand behind
this corn-crib, a few well-directed shells brought out of their holes
the little party that was covering the crossing, viz., a lieutenant and
ten men, who came down to the river-bank and surrendered. Blair's
pontoon-train was brought up, consisting of India-rubber boats, one
of which was inflated, used as a boat, and brought over the
prisoners. A pontoon-bridge was at once begun, finished by night,
and the troops began the passage. After dark, the whole scene was
lit up with fires of pitch-pine. General Grant joined me there, and we
sat on a log, looking at the passage of the troops by the light of
those fires; the bridge swayed to and fro under the passing feet, and
made a fine war-picture. At daybreak we moved on, ascending the
ridge, and by 10 a.m. the head of my column, long drawn out,
reached the Benton road, and gave us command of the peninsula
between the Yazoo and Big Black. I dispatched Colonel Swan, of the
Fourth Iowa Cavalry, to Haines's Bluff, to capture that battery from
the rear, and he afterward reported that he found it abandoned, its
garrison having hastily retreated into Vicksburg, leaving their guns
partially disabled, a magazine full of ammunition, and a hospital full
of wounded and sick men. Colonel Swan saw one of our gunboats
lying about two miles below in the Yazoo, to which he signaled. She
steamed up, and to its commander the cavalry turned over the
battery at Haines's Bluff, and rejoined me in front of Vicksburg.
Allowing a couple of hours for rest and to close up the column, I
resumed the march straight on Vicksburg. About two miles before
reaching the forts, the road forked; the left was the main Jackson
road, and the right was the "graveyard" road, which entered
Vicksburg near a large cemetery. General Grant in person directed
me to take the right-hand road, but, as McPherson had not yet got
up from the direction of the railroad-bridge at Big Black, I sent the
Eighth Missouri on the main Jackson road, to push the rebel
skirmishers into town, and to remain until relieved by McPherson's
advance, which happened late that evening, May 18th. The battalion
of the Thirteenth United States Regulars, commanded by Captain
Washington, was at the head of the column on the right-hand road,
and pushed the rebels close behind their parapets; one of my staff,
Captain Pitzman, receiving a dangerous wound in the hip, which
apparently disabled him for life. By night Blair's whole division had
closed up against the defenses of Vicksburg, which were found to be
strong and well manned; and, on General Steele's head of column
arriving, I turned it still more to the right, with orders to work its
way down the bluff, so as to make connection with our fleet in the
Mississippi River. There was a good deal of desultory fighting that
evening, and a man was killed by the aide of General Grant and
myself, as we sat by the road-side looking at Steele's division
passing to the right. General Steele's men reached the road which
led from Vicksburg up to Haines's Bluff, which road lay at the foot of
the hills, and intercepted some prisoners and wagons which were
coming down from Haines's Bluff.
All that night McPherson's troops were arriving by the main
Jackson road, and McClernand'a by another near the railroad,
deploying forward as fast as they struck the rebel works. My corps
(the Fifteenth) had the right of the line of investment; McPherson's
(the Seventeenth) the centre; and McClernand's (the Thirteenth) the
left, reaching from the river above to the railroad below. Our lines
connected, and invested about three-quarters of the land-front of
the fortifications of Vicksburg. On the supposition that the garrison
of Vicksburg was demoralized by the defeats at Champion Hills and
at the railroad crossing of the Big Black, General Grant ordered an
assault at our respective fronts on the 19th. My troops reached the
top of the parapet, but could not cross over. The rebel parapets were
strongly manned, and the enemy fought hard and well. My loss was
pretty heavy, falling chiefly on the Thirteenth Regulars, whose
commanding officer, Captain Washington, was killed, and several
other regiments were pretty badly cut up. We, however, held the
ground up to the ditch till night, and then drew back only a short
distance, and began to counter-trench. On the graveyard road, our
parapet was within less than fifty yards of the rebel ditch.
On the 20th of May, General Grant called the three corps
commanders together, viz., McClernand, McPherson, and Sherman.
We compared notes, and agreed that the assault of the day before
had failed, by reason of the natural strength of the position, and
because we were forced by the nature of the ground to limit our
attacks to the strongest parts of the enemy's line, viz., where the
three principal roads entered the city.
It was not a council of war, but a mere consultation, resulting in
orders from General Grant for us to make all possible preparations
for a renewed assault on the 22d, simultaneously, at 10 a.m. I
reconnoitred my front thoroughly in person, from right to left, and
concluded to make my real attack at the right flank of the bastion,
where the graveyard road entered the enemy's intrenchments, and
at another point in the curtain about a hundred yards to its right
(our left); also to make a strong demonstration by Steele's division,
about a mile to our right, toward the river. All our field batteries
were put in position, and were covered by good epaulements; the
troops were brought forward, in easy support, concealed by the
shape of the ground; and to the minute, viz., 10 a.m. of May 22d,
the troops sprang to the assault. A small party, that might be called
a forlorn hope, provided with plank to cross the ditch, advanced at a
run, up to the very ditch; the lines of infantry sprang from cover, and
advanced rapidly in line of battle. I took a position within two
hundred yards of the rebel parapet, on the off slope of a spur of
ground, where by advancing two or three steps I could see every
thing. The rebel line, concealed by the parapet, showed no sign of
unusual activity, but as our troops came in fair view, the enemy rose
behind their parapet and poured a furious fire upon our lines; and,
for about two hours, we had a severe and bloody battle, but at every
point we were repulsed. In the very midst of this, when shell and
shot fell furious and fast, occurred that little episode which has been
celebrated in song and story, of the boy Orion P. Howe, badly
wounded, bearing me a message for cartridges, calibre 54,
described in my letter to the Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
This boy was afterward appointed a cadet to the United States Naval
Academy, at Annapolis, but he could not graduate, and I do not now
know what has become of him.
After our men had been fairly beaten back from off the parapet,
and had got cover behind the spurs of ground close up to the rebel
works, General Grant came to where I was, on foot, having left his
horse some distance to the rear. I pointed out to him the rebel
works, admitted that my assault had failed, and he said the result
with McPherson and McClernand was about the same. While he was
with me, an orderly or staff-officer came and handed him a piece of
paper, which he read and handed to me. I think the writing was in
pencil, on a loose piece of paper, and was in General McClernand's
handwriting, to the effect that "his troops had captured the rebel
parapet in his front," that, "the flag of the Union waved over the
stronghold of Vicksburg," and asking him (General Grant) to give
renewed orders to McPherson and Sherman to press their attacks on
their respective fronts, lest the enemy should concentrate on him
(McClernand). General Grant said, "I don't believe a word of it;" but
I reasoned with him, that this note was official, and must be
credited, and I offered to renew the assault at once with new troops.
He said he would instantly ride down the line to McClernand's front,
and if I did not receive orders to the contrary, by 3 o'clock p.m., I
might try it again. Mower's fresh brigade was brought up under
cover, and some changes were made in Giles Smith's brigade; and,
punctually at 3 p.m., hearing heavy firing down along the line to my
left, I ordered the second assault. It was a repetition of the first,
equally unsuccessful and bloody. It also transpired that the same
thing had occurred with General McPherson, who lost in this second
assault some most valuable officers and men, without adequate
result; and that General McClernand, instead of having taken any
single point of the rebel main parapet, had only taken one or two
small outlying lunettes open to the rear, where his men were at the
mercy of the rebels behind their main parapet, and most of them
were actually thus captured. This affair caused great feeling with us,
and severe criticisms on General McClernand, which led finally to his
removal from the command of the Thirteenth Corps, to which
General Ord succeeded. The immediate cause, however, of General
McClernand's removal was the publication of a sort of congratulatory
order addressed to his troops, first published in St. Louis, in which
he claimed that he had actually succeeded in making a lodgment in
Vicksburg, but had lost it, owing to the fact that McPherson and
Sherman did not fulfill their parts of the general plan of attack. This
was simply untrue. The two several assaults made May 22d, on the
lines of Vicksburg, had failed, by reason of the great strength of the
position and the determined fighting of its garrison. I have since
seen the position at Sevastopol, and without hesitation I declare that
at Vicksburg to have been the more difficult of the two.
Thereafter our proceedings were all in the nature of a siege.
General Grant drew more troops from Memphis, to prolong our
general line to the left, so as completely to invest the place on its
land-side, while the navy held the river both above and below.
General Mower's brigade of Tuttle's division was also sent across the
river to the peninsula, so that by May 31st Vicksburg was completely
beleaguered. Good roads were constructed from our camps to the
several landing-places on the Yazoo River, to which points our boats
brought us ample supplies; so that we were in a splendid condition
for a siege, while our enemy was shut up in a close fort, with a large
civil population of men, women, and children to feed, in addition to
his combatant force. If we could prevent sallies, or relief from the
outside, the fate of the garrison of Vicksburg was merely a question
of time.
I had my headquarters camp close up to the works, near the
centre of my corps, and General Grant had his bivouac behind a
ravine to my rear. We estimated Pemberton's whole force in
Vicksburg at thirty thousand men, and it was well known that the
rebel General Joseph E. Johnston was engaged in collecting another
strong force near the Big Black, with the intention to attack our rear,
and thus to afford Pemberton an opportunity to escape with his
men. Even then the ability of General Johnston was recognized, and
General Grant told me that he was about the only general on that
side whom he feared. Each corps kept strong pickets well to the
rear; but, as the rumors of Johnston's accumulating force reached
us, General Grant concluded to take stronger measures. He had
received from the North General J. G. Parker's corps (Ninth), which
had been posted at Haines's Bluff; then, detailing one division from
each of the three corps d'armee investing Vicksburg, he ordered me
to go out, take a general command of all, and to counteract any
movement on the part of General Johnston to relieve Vicksburg. I
reconnoitred the whole country, from Haines's Bluff to the railroad
bridge, and posted the troops thus:
Parke's two divisions from Haines's Bluff out to the Benton or ridge
road; Tuttle's division, of my corps, joining on and extending to a
plantation called Young's, overlooking Bear Creek valley, which
empties into the Big Black above Messinger's Ferry; then McArthurs
division, of McPherson's corps, took up the line, and reached to
Osterhaus's division of McClernand's corps, which held a strong
fortified position at the railroad-crossing of the Big Black River. I was
of opinion that, if Johnston should cross the Big Black, he could by
the favorable nature of the country be held in check till a
concentration could be effected by us at the point threatened. From
the best information we could gather, General Johnston had about
thirty or forty thousand men. I took post near a plantation of one
Trible, near Markham's, and frequently reconnoitred the whole line,
and could see the enemy engaged in like manner, on the east aide of
Big Black; but he never attempted actually to cross over, except with
some cavalry, just above Bear Creek, which was easily driven back. I
was there from June 20th to the 4th of July. In a small log-house
near Markham's was the family of Mr. Klein, whose wife was the
daughter of Mrs. Day, of New Orleans, who in turn was the sister of
Judge T. W. Bartley, my brother-in-law. I used frequently to drop in
and take a meal with them, and Mrs. Klein was generally known as
the general's cousin, which doubtless saved her and her family from
molestation, too common on the part of our men.
One day, as I was riding the line near a farm known as Parson
Fog's, I heard that the family of a Mr. Wilkinson, of New Orleans,
was "refugeeing" at a house near by. I rode up, inquired, and found
two young girls of that name, who said they were the children of
General Wilkinson, of Louisiana, and that their brother had been at
the Military School at Alexandria. Inquiring for their mother, I was
told she was spending the day at Parson Fox's. As this house was on
my route, I rode there, went through a large gate into the yard,
followed by my staff and escort, and found quite a number of ladies
sitting on the porch. I rode up and inquired if that were Parson
Fox's. The parson, a fine-looking, venerable old man, rose, and said
that he was Parson Fox. I then inquired for Mrs. Wilkinson, when an
elderly lady answered that she was the person. I asked her if she
were from Plaquemine Parish, Louisiana, and she said she was. I
then inquired if she had a son who had been a cadet at Alexandria
when General Sherman was superintendent, and she answered yes.
I then announced myself, inquired after the boy, and she said he
was inside of Vicksburg, an artillery lieutenant. I then asked about
her husband, whom I had known, when she burst into tears, and
cried out in agony, "You killed him at Bull Run, where he was
fighting for his country!" I disclaimed killing anybody at Bull Run; but
all the women present (nearly a dozen) burst into loud lamentations,
which made it most uncomfortable for me, and I rode away. On the
3d of July, as I sat at my bivouac by the road-side near Trible's, I
saw a poor, miserable horse, carrying a lady, and led by a little negro
boy, coming across a cotton-field toward me; as they approached I
recognized poor Mrs. Wilkinson, and helped her to dismount. I
inquired what had brought her to me in that style, and she answered
that she knew Vicksburg, was going to surrender, and she wanted to
go right away to see her boy. I had a telegraph-wire to General
Grant's headquarters, and had heard that there were symptoms of
surrender, but as yet nothing definite. I tried to console and
dissuade her, but she was resolved, and I could not help giving her a
letter to General Grant, explaining to him who she was, and asking
him to give her the earliest opportunity to see her son. The distance
was fully twenty miles, but off she started, and I afterward learned
that my letter had enabled her to see her son, who had escaped
unharmed. Later in the day I got by telegraph General Grant's notice
of the negotiations for surrender; and, by his directions, gave
general orders to my troops to be ready at a moment's notice to
cross the Big Black, and go for Joe Johnston.
The next day (July 4, 1863) Vicksburg surrendered, and orders
were given for at once attacking General Johnston. The Thirteenth
Corps (General Ord) was ordered to march rapidly, and cross the Big
Black at the railroad-bridge; the Fifteenth by Mesainger's, and the
Ninth (General Parker) by Birdsong's Ferry-all to converge on Bolton.
My corps crossed the Big Black during the 5th and 6th of July, and
marched for Bolton, where we came in with General Ord's troops;
but the Ninth Corps was delayed in crossing at Birdsong's. Johnston
had received timely notice of Pemberton's surrender, and was in full
retreat for Jackson. On the 8th all our troops reached the
neighborhood of Clinton, the weather fearfully hot, and water
scarce. Johnston had marched rapidly, and in retreating had caused
cattle, hogs, and sheep, to be driven into the ponds of water, and
there shot down; so that we had to haul their dead and stinking
carcasses out to use the water. On the 10th of July we had driven
the rebel army into Jackson, where it turned at bay behind the
intrenchments, which had been enlarged and strengthened since our
former visit in May. We closed our lines about Jackson; my corps
(Fifteenth) held the centre, extending from the Clinton to the
Raymond road; Ord's (Thirteenth) on the right, reaching Pearl River
below the town; and Parker's (Ninth) the left, above the town.
On the 11th we pressed close in, and shelled the town from every
direction. One of Ords brigades (Lauman's) got too close, and was
very roughly handled and driven back in disorder. General Ord
accused the commander (General Lauman) of having disregarded his
orders, and attributed to him personally the disaster and heavy loss
of men. He requested his relief, which I granted, and General
Lauman went to the rear, and never regained his division. He died
after the war, in Iowa, much respected, as before that time he had
been universally esteemed a most gallant and excellent officer. The
weather was fearfully hot, but we continued to press the siege day
and night, using our artillery pretty freely; and on the morning of
July 17th the place was found evacuated. General Steele's division
was sent in pursuit as far as Brandon (fourteen miles), but General
Johnston had carried his army safely off, and pursuit in that hot
weather would have been fatal to my command.
Reporting the fact to General Grant, he ordered me to return, to
send General Parkes's corps to Haines's Bluff, General Ord's back to
Vicksburg, and he consented that I should encamp my whole corps
near the Big Black, pretty much on the same ground we had
occupied before the movement, and with the prospect of a period of
rest for the remainder of the summer. We reached our camps on the
27th of July.
Meantime, a division of troops, commanded by Brigadier-General
W. Sooy Smith, had been added to my corps. General Smith applied
for and received a sick-leave on the 20th of July; Brigadier-General
Hugh Ewing was assigned to its command; and from that time it
constituted the Fourth Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps.
Port Hudson had surrendered to General Banks on the 8th of July
(a necessary consequence of the fall of Vicksburg), and thus
terminated probably the most important enterprise of the civil war—
the recovery of the complete control of the Mississippi River, from its
source to its mouth—or, in the language of Mr. Lincoln, the
Mississippi went "unvexed to the sea."
I put my four divisions into handsome, clean camps, looking to
health and comfort alone, and had my headquarters in a beautiful
grove near the house of that same Parson Fox where I had found
the crowd of weeping rebel women waiting for the fate of their
friends in Vicksburg.
The loss sustained by the Fifteenth Corps in the assault of May
19th, at Vicksburg, was mostly confined to the battalion of the
Thirteenth Regulars, whose commanding officer, Captain
Washington, was mortally wounded, and afterward died in the hands
of the enemy, which battalion lost seventy-seven men out of the two
hundred and fifty engaged; the Eighty-third Indiana (Colonel
Spooner), and the One Hundred and Twenty seventh Illinois
(Lieutenant-Colonel Eldridge), the aggregate being about two
hundred.
In the assaults of the 22d, the loss in the Fifteenth Corps was
about six hundred.
In the attack on Jackson, Mississippi, during the 11th-16th of July,
General Ord reported the loss in the Thirteenth Army Corps seven
hundred and sixty-two, of which five hundred and thirty-three were
confined to Lauman's division; General Parkes reported, in the Ninth
Corps, thirty-seven killed, two hundred and fifty-eight wounded, and
thirty-three missing: total, three hundred and twenty-eight. In the
Fifteenth Corps the loss was less; so that, in the aggregate, the loss
as reported by me at the time was less than a thousand men, while
we took that number alone of prisoners.
In General Grant's entire army before Vicksburg, composed of the
Ninth, part of the Sixteenth, and the whole of the Thirteenth;
Fifteenth, and Seventeenth Corps, the aggregate loss, as stated by
Badeau, was:
Killed: ....................... 1243
Wounded:....................... 7095
Missing: ...................... 535

Total: ........................ 8873

Whereas the Confederate loss, as stated by the same author,
Surrendered at Vicksburg .............. 32000
Captured at Champion Hills............. 3000
Captured at Big Black Bridge .......... 2000
Captured at Port Gibson................ 2000
Captured with Loring .................. 4000
Killed and wounded .................... 10000
Stragglers............................. 3000

Total.................................. 56000
Besides which, "a large amount of public property, consisting of
railroads, locomotives, cars, steamers, cotton, guns, muskets,
ammunition, etc., etc., was captured in Vicksburg."
The value of the capture of Vicksburg, however, was not measured
by the list of prisoners, guns, and small-arms, but by the fact that its
possession secured the navigation of the great central river of the
continent, bisected fatally the Southern Confederacy, and set the
armies which had been used in its conquest free for other purposes;
and it so happened that the event coincided as to time with another
great victory which crowned our arms far away, at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. That was a defensive battle, whereas ours was
offensive in the highest acceptation of the term, and the two,
occurring at the same moment of time, should have ended the war;
but the rebel leaders were mad, and seemed determined that their
people should drink of the very lowest dregs of the cup of war, which
they themselves had prepared.
The campaign of Vicksburg, in its conception and execution,
belonged exclusively to General Grant, not only in the great whole,
but in the thousands of its details. I still retain many of his letters
and notes, all in his own handwriting, prescribing the routes of
march for divisions and detachments, specifying even the amount of
food and tools to be carried along. Many persons gave his adjutant
general, Rawlins, the credit for these things, but they were in error;
for no commanding general of an army ever gave more of his
personal attention to details, or wrote so many of his own orders,
reports, and letters, as General Grant. His success at Vicksburg justly
gave him great fame at home and abroad. The President conferred
on him the rank of major-general in the regular army, the highest
grade then existing by law; and General McPherson and I shared in
his success by receiving similar commissions as brigadier-generals in
the regular army.
But our success at Vicksburg produced other results not so
favorable to our cause—a general relaxation of effort, and desire to
escape the hard drudgery of camp: officers sought leaves of absence
to visit their homes, and soldiers obtained furloughs and discharges
on the most slender pretexts; even the General Government seemed
to relax in its efforts to replenish our ranks with new men, or to
enforce the draft, and the politicians were pressing their schemes to
reorganize or patch up some form of civil government, as fast as the
armies gained partial possession of the States.
In order to illustrate this peculiar phase of our civil war, I give at
this place copies of certain letters which have not heretofore been
published:

[Private.]

WASHINGTON, August 29, 1868.

Major-General W. T. SHERMAN, Vicksburg, Mississippi

My DEAR GENERAL: The question of reconstruction in

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, will soon come up
for decision of the Government, and not only the
length of the war, but our ultimate and complete
success, will depend upon its decision. It is a difficult
matter, but I believe it can be successfully solved, if
the President will consult opinions of cool and discreet
men, who are capable of looking at it in all its bearings
and effects. I think he is disposed to receive the advice
of our generals who have been in these States, and
know much more of their condition than gassy
politicians in Congress. General Banks has written
pretty fully, on the subject. I wrote to General Grant,
immediately, after the fall of Vicksburg, for his views in
regard to Mississippi, but he has not yet answered.

I wish you would consult with Grant, McPherson, and

others of cool, good judgment, and write me your
views fully, as I may wish to use them with the
President. You had better write me unofficially, and
then your letter will not be put on file, and cannot
hereafter be used against you. You have been in
Washington enough to know how every thing a man
writes or says is picked up by his enemies and
misconstrued. With kind wishes for your further
success,

I am yours truly,

H. W. HALLECK

[Private and Confidential.]

HEADQUARTERS, FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS,

CAMP ON BIG BLACK, MISSISSIPPI, September 17
1863
H. W. HALLECK, Commander-in-Chief, Washington, D.
C.

DEAR GENERAL: I have received your letter of August

29th, and with pleasure confide to you fully my
thoughts on the important matters you suggest, with
absolute confidence that you will use what is valuable,
and reject the useless or superfluous.

That part of the continent of North America known as

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, is in my judgment
the key to the whole interior. The valley of the
Mississippi is America, and, although railroads have
changed the economy of intercommunication, yet the
water-channels still mark the lines of fertile land, and
afford cheap carriage to the heavy products of it.

The inhabitants of the country on the Monongahela,

the Illinois, the Minnesota, the Yellowstone, and
Osage, are as directly concerned in the security of the
Lower Mississippi as are those who dwell on its very
banks in Louisiana; and now that the nation has
recovered its possession, this generation of men will
make a fearful mistake if they again commit its charge
to a people liable to misuse their position, and assert,
as was recently done, that, because they dwelt on the
banks of this mighty stream, they had a right to
control its navigation.

I would deem it very unwise at this time, or for years

to come, to revive the State governments of Louisiana,
etc., or to institute in this quarter any civil government
in which the local people have much to say. They had
a government so mild and paternal that they gradually
forgot they had any at all, save what they themselves
controlled; they asserted an absolute right to seize
public moneys, forts, arms, and even to shut up the
natural avenues of travel and commerce. They chose
war—they ignored and denied all the obligations of the
solemn contract of government and appealed to force.

We accepted the issue, and now they begin to realize

that war is a two-edged sword, and it may be that
many of the inhabitants cry for peace. I know them
well, and the very impulses of their nature; and to deal
with the inhabitants of that part of the South which
borders on the great river, we must recognize the
classes into which they have divided themselves:

First. The large planters, owning lands, slaves, and all

kinds of personal property. These are, on the whole,
the ruling class. They are educated, wealthy, and
easily approached. In some districts they are bitter as
gall, and have given up slaves, plantations, and all,
serving in the armies of the Confederacy; whereas, in
others, they are conservative. None dare admit a
friendship for us, though they say freely that they were
at the outset opposed to war and disunion. I know we
can manage this class, but only by action. Argument is
exhausted, and words have lost their usual meaning.
Nothing but the logic of events touches their
understanding; but, of late, this has worked a
wonderful change. If our country were like Europe,
crowded with people, I would say it would be easier to
replace this class than to reconstruct it, subordinate to
the policy of the nation; but, as this is not the case, it
is better to allow the planters, with individual
exceptions, gradually to recover their plantations, to
hire any species of labor, and to adapt themselves to
the new order of things. Still, their friendship and
assistance to reconstruct order out of the present ruin
cannot be depended on. They watch the operations of
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