CHAPTER XIV

CAMPAIGNS OF 1863-OPERATIONS AGAINST
MISSISSIPPI RIVER

GENERAL GRANT's campaign against Vicksburg, which began early in November, 1862, after an interruption of some length, was resumed in 1863. After the fall of Holly Springs, General Grant had sent troops and wagons into the country for fifteen miles on each side of the railroad with orders to collect food and forage. The interruption in his communications with the north had cut him off from a great part of his command, and had so interfered with his plans as to disarrange them entirely. Orders had been issued for dividing the army into four corps, of which McClernand was to command one. McClernand was then in Springfield, and failed to arrive in time to have all the corps move together. General Grant returned to Holly Springs to remain until railroad connection with Memphis was reestablished, and then, on the 10th of January, returned to Memphis.

General Sherman had started down the Mississippi from Memphis with 20,000 men, and at Helena had received. reinforcements of 12,000 more. McClernand had arrived on the 2d of January and had taken charge of these troops a part of his own corps, the Thirteenth, and all Sherman's. Informed of General Grant's withdrawal to Holly Springs, Sherman and McClernand agreed that they could accomplish nothing then at Vicksburg, and returned

to Arkansas River, up which stream about fifty miles was Arkansas Post, defended by a few thousand Confederates. The gunboats and transports met with no opposition until the fort was reached; this, on the 11th of January, after three days' bombardment, was captured, together with 17 guns and 5,000 prisoners. The fall of Arkansas Post removed a very important element of the Confederate defence, as this fort with its garrison would have been able greatly to harass operations on Mississippi River, by operating in the rear of the invading army. McClernand then returned to Napoleon at the mouth of Arkansas River. Here, after a few days, prompted by the lack of confidence in McClernand's ability, General Grant assumed command in person, and ordered McClernand and the whole force to Young's Point and Milliken's Bend, while he returned to Memphis to take precautionary measures against another surprise. Returning a few days later to Young's Point, the actual campaign and siege of Vicksburg was begun.

General Grant's own idea of the best way to enter on this campaign then was that Memphis should be taken as a base, but he feared the effect of making so long a backward move and decided that nothing was left but to go forward. In the first month of 1863, therefore, the troops settled down opposite Vicksburg to await the final result. General McClernand was directed to widen and deepen the cut-off canal begun by General Williams in pursuance of Butler's orders in the previous year. Four thousand men were put to work on it and labored at the task incessantly until a sudden rise broke their protecting dam and stopped the work. The Confederates had not let the work go on without taking precautions. They were firmly of the opinion that the canal would be a failure, but had established a battery commanding its entire length, and soon drove out the two dredges that were doing the work of thousands of men. Even had the canal been completed, the Federals could have made no effective use of it, because of its running almost at right angles to the bluffs on the

THE

NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

Astor, Lenox and Tiiden

Foundations.

505

east bank, where this battery had been established. Finding the canal a failure, General Grant then sent an expedition via Lake Providence and Bayou Macon, which did not meet with success. Then came the attempt to get an expedition through by Yazoo Pass and Hushpuccanaugh Bayou, removing obstructions to the navigation of the Yazoo Pass and Cold Water-little streams running from Mississippi River into the Tallahatchie. By this expedition, it was hoped to reduce Fort Pemberton and flank the Vicksburg defences. But the plan was frustrated by Fort Pemberton, a cotton-bale fort which had been made by Captain P. Robinson, of the Confederate States Engineers, on the overflowed bottom lands of Tallahatchie and Yallabusha Rivers, near their junction. Here, General Loring with three guns and 1,500 men turned back a large land and naval force.

This attempt proving as conspicuous a failure as had the canal, an effort was next made by General Sherman and Admiral Porter to pass around Vicksburg by way of Steele's Bayou and by the network of bayous and creeks north of the Yazoo to reach Sunflower and Yazoo Rivers and thus to gain a point above Haines's Bluff. This movement was thwarted by the effective work of the Confederate sharpshooters and by Colonel Ferguson with a section of field artillery and a few men. After this failure the expedition was ordered back to the west side of the river, above Vicksburg, where it arrived March 27, 1863. In the meantime, Admiral Porter had had a narrow escape from capture. He had gone some distance up Duck Creek with his fleet, and an adventurous party passed in after him to fell trees in the stream and prevent his return. He found the woods full of sharpshooters who sheltered themselves behind trees and stumps and shot every Federal who came within range. Things looked so critical at one time that Admiral Porter was on the verge of blowing up his gunboats and escaping to Mississippi River through the swamps. Land forces, however, were sent to his rescue and enabled him to escape.