XIV. OPERATIONS AGAINST VICKSBURG. son, having in 1862 pronounced it indispensable to the Confederacy that the control of the Mississippi should not be surrendered to Federal power 3 Union commanders above. Gen. Grant's department of West Tennessee having been so enlarged' as to include Mississippi, he at once commenced preparations for an advance; transferring, soon after, his headquarters from Jackson to Lagrange; whence he pushed out* Gen. McPherson, with 10,000 infantry, and 1,500 cavalry, under Col. Lee, to Lamar, driving back the Rebel cavalry. At length, all things being ready, Grant impelled' a movement of his army down the great Southern Railroad from Grand Junction through Holly Springs to Oxford; our cavalry advance, 2,000 strong, being pushed forward to Coffeeville, where it was suddenly confronted and attacked by Van Dorn, with a superior infantry force, by whom it was beaten back three miles, with a loss of 100 men. VICKSBURG, on the lower Missis- |--Jefferson Davis, in a speech at Jacksippi, about midway between Cairo and its mouth, was the natural center and chief citadel of the Slaveholders' Confederacy. Located on an almost unique ridge of high, rolling-fresh preparations to "repossess " land adjoining the great river, sur- it were early set on foot among the rounded by the richest and best cultivated Cotton region in America, whereof the slave population considerably outnumbered the free, it had early devoted itself, heart and soul, to the Rebel cause. Its natural strength and importance, as commanding the navigation of the great artery of the South-west, were early appreciated; and it was so fortified and garrisoned as to repel-as we have seen—the efforts of our fleets and expeditions, which, after the fall of New Orleans and that of Memphis, assailed it from below and from above respectively and conjointly. Being the chief outlet for the surplus products of the State of Mississippi, connected with Jackson, its capital, 44 miles east, by a railroad, and thus with all the railroads which traverse the State, as also with the Washita Valley, in northern Louisiana, by a railroad to Monroe, while the Yazoo brought to its doors the commerce of another rich and capacious valley, Vicksburg, with 4,591 inhabitants in 1860, was flourishing signally and growing rapidly until plunged headlong into the vortex of Rebellion and Civil War. 6 Grant was, with his main body, still at Oxford, preparing to move on to Jackson and Vicksburg, when Van Dorn struck' a damaging blow at his communications. The railroad having by this time been repaired and operated to Holly Springs, that village had been made our temporary dépôt of arms, provisions, and munitions, which had here been accumu Both parties to the struggle having early recognized its importance 1 See pages 57 and 101. 2 Oct. 16, 1862. Nov. 4. Nov. 8. Nov. 28. 6 Dec. 5. 4 7 ↑ Dec. 20. VAN DORN CAPTURES HOLLY SPRINGS. 287 lated, while the railroad farther south | and paroled 1,800 men and 150 offiwas being repaired, to such an extent cers; but this must include the sick that they were estimated by the ene- and wounded whom they found in my as worth at least $4,000,000. The the hospital. Two locomotives and post was in charge of Col. R. C. Mur- 40 or 50 cars were among the propphy, 8th Wisconsin, who had over erty destroyed; the Rebels coming 1,000 men under his command; while prepared with cans of spirits of turbales of cotton and barrels of flourpentine to hasten the conflagration : by thousands proffered the readiest means of barricading its streets and keeping out ten times his force, until it could be reduced by heavy guns and regular approaches, or at least consumed by volleys of shells. Grant had warned Murphy of his danger the night before, and did not imagine his capture a possibility; but no preparation had been made for resistance, no street barricaded; not even our men posted to resist an assault; when, at daybreak, Van Dorn burst into the town with his wild cavalry, captured the imbecile or traitorous wretch who should have defended it, and burned all but the little plunder his men were able to carry off, including a large hospital full of our sick and wounded soldiers, which his Adjutant had promised to spare. Our cavalry (2d Illinois) refused to surrender, and cut their way out by a resolute charge, in which they lost but 7 men, disabling 30 Rebels. Murphy filled up the measure of his infamy by accepting paroles, with his men; so as to prevent their recapture and relieve the enemy of the trouble of guarding them. The Rebels claim to have captured 8 8 Richmond Dispatch, Jan. 15, 1863. The enraptured writer elsewhere says: "The scene was wild, exciting, tumultuous. Yankees running; tents burning; torches flaming; Confederates shouting; guns popping; sabers clanking; Abolitionists begging for mercy; 'Rebels' shouting exultingly; women, en dishabille, clapping their hands, frantic with joy, crying, 'Kill them! kill them!'-a heterogeneous the burning arsenal blowing up, at 3 P. M., with a concussion which shattered several buildings, while 20 men were wounded by flying balls and shell. The Rebels left at 5, after a stay of ten hours, which they had improved to the utmost: thence proceeding to assail, in rapid succession, Coldwater, Davis's Mill, Middleburg, and Bolivar, farther north; but, though the defenders of each were fewer than Murphy might have rallied to his aid at Holly Springs, each was firmly held, and the raiders easily driven off. Murphy, it need hardly be added, was dismissed from the service in a stinging order' by Gen. Grant-said order "to take effect from Dec. 20th, the date of his cowardly and disgraceful conduct.” several millions' worth of property | defenses had been transformed into The day after the Holly Springs disaster, Gen. W. T. Sherman had left Memphis with the Right Wing of the "Army of the Tennessee"some 30,000 strong-on boats which passed down the Mississippi and 12 miles up the Yazoo to Johnston's Landing, where the troops were debarked," and a general assault was made next day on the well-manned fortifications and batteries which defended Vicksburg on the north. The ground between the Yazoo and the precipitous bluffs whereon the Rebels were fortified, is agreeably (to alligators) diversified by 'swamps,' sloughs,' 'lagoons,' and 'bayous;' and is in the main a profound mire, resting on quicksand. 'Chickasaw ·Bayou,' connecting the two rivers, is its most salient feature; but much of it had been a cedar swamp, or boggy thicket, whereof so much as lay directly in front of the Rebel 10 Nov. 20. abatis, covering rifle-pits. Unknown to Sherman, Grant's recoil from Oxford had liberated the Rebel army previously confronting him; which had forthwith been apprised" of the cloud gathering on the Mississippi. Gen. Pemberton, who was in chief command at Grenada, had at once faced about; and, three days later, having definite advices that Sherman's gunboats had reached the mouth of the Yazoo, he began to send his men southward by rail; following himself next day. Thus, expeditious as were Sherman's movements, most of the Rebel forces in all that region, except Van Dorn and his cavalry, were on hand to resist him. Sherman's army was uniquely Western; and, with the West, the reopening of the Mississippi was an absorbing passion. It was brave, well officered, and ably commanded; while Com. Porter's gunboats were ready to render it every assistance that gunboats could; it encountered none of those unforeseen, fortuitous mischances, against which even Genius is impotent, and Valor fruitless; it fought superbly, and piled the earth with its dead and wounded; yet it failed, simply because such defenses as it was required to assail are, when fairly armed and manned, absolutely impregnable to simple assault. They may be overcome by regular approaches; they may be mastered by the surprise of some unguarded but vital point; they must yield at last to famine, if closely and persistently invested; but to hurl column after column of infantry upon them is simple, useless slaughter. SHERMAN APPROACHES THE YAZOO BLUFFS. 289 Yet this nowise impeaches the gen- | reconnoitered, and found even more eralship of Sherman, who could not difficult than rumor had made them. tell what they were, nor who were Chickasaw bayou was conclusively behind them, until he had given ascertained to be passable but at two them a trial. points-one a narrow levee; the Let us condense the painful de- other a sand-bar-each completely tails: Gen. Sherman was quite aware of the natural strength of the Rebel line of defense, and that the labor of thousands of slaves had for months been devoted to its increase, by the digging of trenches and rifle-pits, the planting of batteries, felling of trees for abatis, &c., &c. But, he reasoned, that line is at least 15 miles long, from Vicksburg to Haines's Bluff; there are but about 15,000 men behind it, which is but 1,000 to the mile; and it must be that a series of vigorous attacks will develop some point whereon an instant and overwhelming superiority of numbers can be made to tell. And so it would, had not the bayous, lagoons, and swamps-but more especially Chickasaw bayou-so protected the entire Rebel front that there were but four points at which it. could be reached from the Yazoo; and these were so covered and enfiladed by hostile batteries, rifle-pits, &c., that approach was all but certain destruction. The knowledge of this impregnability was one of the costly lessons of the war. During the 26th and 27th, our men were debarked without resistance, on the south bank of the Yazoo; and, being formed in four columns, gradually pushed forward, driving back the enemy's pickets, toward the frowning bluffs southward. During the ensuing night, the ground and obstacles in our front were carefully VOL. II.-19 commanded by the enemy's sharpshooters, who were thoroughly covered by their rifle-pits and other defenses; while batteries, trenches, and rifle-pits rose, tier above tier, up the steep bluffs beyond, which were crowned by still heavier batteries. And Gen. Steele, whose division, except Blair's brigade, had been debarked above the junction of the bayou with the Yazoo and the cypress swamp and slough beyond, on advancing next day," found his progress barred by an impassable swamp, traversed only by a long corduroy causeway, so thoroughly swept and enfiladed by Rebel batteries and rifle-pits that he could hardly hope to take across it half the men who made the attempt; which he properly declined, and was justified by Sherman in so doing. Meantime, Gen. Geo. W. Morgan's division had advanced, under cover of a dense fog and the fire of its artillery, against the center of the Rebel defenses: reaching the bank of the bayou where it runs nearest to the bluffs, whereby its progress was completely arrested; but it held its ground through the ensuing night. Gen. Morgan L. Smith's division simultaneously advanced over less favorable ground, considerably to the right; its leader being disabled before noon by a sharp-shooter's bullet through his hip, while reconnoitering; when his command devolved on Gen. David Stuart. A narrow 13 Dec. 28. and assault. Morgan, being well forward, was expected to cross the bayou first, and carry the batteries and heights directly before him; but it was noon before he was ready; and, by this time, Frank Blair's and Thayer's brigades of Steele's division were fully abreast of him and ready to go in; Steele's remaining (Hovey's) brigade being close behind them. sand-spit crossed the bayou in front | enemy-ordered a general advance of this division; but it was so swept and enfiladed by Rebel batteries and rifle-pits, while a difficult abatis forbade egress therefrom on the enemy's side, that to attempt its passage was certain destruction. Nevertheless, Stuart made his dispositions, and was ready to tempt the desperate hazard so soon as Morgan should do likewise. Still farther to the right was A. J. Smith's division, whereof Burbridge's brigade arrived about noon on the 27th; having been dispatched" from Milliken's Bend by Sherman to break up the (uncompleted) Vicksburg and Shreveport Railroad at the Tensas river, burn several long bridges and trestles, and destroy the cotton, corn, &c., there held for the Confederacy-an order which it had thoroughly obeyed. It was now pushed forward to the bayou, with instructions to cannonade the Rebel defenses opposite, while its infantry should hastily construct rafts and cross; A. J. Smith's 2d (Landrum's) brigade holding a key position to the right and rear, having its pickets pushed forward into the abatis in front, with Vicksburg in plain view on its right. During the ensuing night, Steele's division was rëembarked and brought around to the right of the junction of the bayou with the Yazoo, so as to connect closely with Morgan's left; and, all being in readiness, Sherman -having heard nothing as yet of the Holly Springs disaster, though disappointed at the lack of cooperation, or even of tidings, from Grant, being aware that the Rebels in his front were being constantly strengthened, and that time was on the side of his 14 Dec. 21-22. Blair's brigade had been debarked between Morgan's and M. L. Smith's divisions; but, in advancing, it had obliqued to the left, crossing the track of Morgan's division, detaching, by order, two regiments to support his batteries; working its way to the extreme front of Morgan's left, and crossing the Chickasaw bayou in Steele's van, where both banks were covered by tangled abatis, and where the bayou presents a quicksand bed 300 feet wide, containing water 15 feet wide by 3 deep. Through this, Blair led his brigade fairly across, leaving his horse floundering in the quicksand, while he carried two lines of rifle-pits beyond, under a deluge of shot and shell from front and flanks, which struck down a third of his command; among them Col. T. C. Fletcher," 31st Missouri, who, being wounded, fell into the hands of the enemy; while his Lt.-Col., Simpson, was also wounded, and his Major, Jaensen, was killed. Lt.-Col. Dister, 58th Ohio, was also killed here. Col. J. B. Wyman, 13th Illinois, had fallen the day before. De Courcy's brigade of Morgan's division charged on Blair's right; while Thayer, with the 4th Iowa (his other regiments having been 15 Since chosen Governor of Missouri. |
