and improper treatment, but a Court of Inquiry investigated them and unanimously voted them disproved.

General Price in his report of the battle says: "The history of this war contains no bloodier pages, perhaps, than that which will record this fiercely contested battle. The strongest expressions fall short of my admiration of the gallant conduct of the officers and men under my command." The Federal loss was officially reported as 355 killed, 1,841 wounded, and 324 captured or missing. The Confederate loss was 505 killed, 2,150 wounded, and 1,812 captured or missing.

Van Dorn waited further developments while resting at Holly Springs. In the meantime, General Grant had massed a heavy force, somewhat over 80,000 men, at points along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and moved south toward the interior of Mississippi. Holly Springs was taken November 13th, and the whole day was spent in skirmishing with the Confederate cavalry. Grant's main army camped at Water Valley, where the country was rich in breadstuffs and forage. This he seized and sent to Holly Springs, where he accumulated an immense depot of supplies, hastening every necessary preparation to continue his march southward. Jackson, Vicksburg, and the railroads were doomed unless his progress could be arrested. There was no force in front to oppose him, and the only hope was to interrupt his communications. General Van Dorn, on the night of December 15th, quietly withdrew the cavalry, about 2,500 men, from the Federal front and marched for Holly Springs. Early in the morning of the 19th he surprised and captured the garrison, a brigade of infantry and a portion of the Seventh Illinois Cavalry. The vast accumulation of supplies, valued at a million and a half dollars, was burned by Van Dorn, except the small quantity used in arming and equipping his command.

The second expedition for the capture of Vicksburg had been carefully and skilfully planned, but like the first, it resulted in failure. General Grant with an army of 30,000

men moved as far south as Grenada, Mississippi, forcing back the inferior force of General Van Dorn and following the line of the Illinois Central Railroad parallel to Mississippi River, thus threatening the rear of Vicksburg. General W. T. Sherman moved from Memphis with a force of 32,000 men, in 94 transports accompanied by the river gunboat fleet of 31 vessels mounting nearly 150 guns, commanded by Acting Rear-admiral Porter.

To oppose these two formidable armies the Confederates could bring into active duty only 22,000 men in the field under General Van Dorn, and 6,000 men in the garrison at Vicksburg under General Martin L. Smith, the whole being under the command of General John C. Pemberton. The force in the field opposing the advance of Grant was in reality a part of the garrison of Vicksburg, and necessary to the complete defence of the fortifications.

It was Sherman's purpose to keep his expedition as secret as possible, to surprise Vicksburg while thus inadequately defended and to take the place by sudden assault; or, failing in this, to besiege it by land and water, while Grant's army in cooperation pressed Van Dorn with the double purpose of preventing reinforcement of the garrison and of pushing back the Confederate forces and forming a junction with Sherman in the rear of Vicksburg.

This plan was defeated by three unexpected events. The first was the raid of General N. B. Forrest into West Tennessee, which destroyed the railroad by which Grant received his supplies and left him without communications for eleven days, and without supplies for a much longer period. The second was the destruction by General Van Dorn of the stores which Grant had accumulated at Holly Springs. His accumulated stores and his source of supplies being thus unexpectedly destroyed at the same time, Grant was compelled to retreat at the very moment when he expected to advance to cooperate with Sherman. The third event was equally unexpected. Sherman's movement was not so secretly conducted as to escape the notice of the

Confederate spies. Leaving Memphis on December 20th, he entered the mouth of Yazoo River on December 26th, and landed at Johnson's farm, near the mouth of Chickasaw Bayou. From this point General Sherman expected an easy march to the defences of Vicksburg, about twelve miles distant. At that time there were no entrenchments except the immediate defences of the city, and at Snyder's Bluff, on the Yazoo, thirteen miles from the city. Says General Stephen D. Lee: "Not a spade of dirt had been thrown up along this entire line (Vicksburg to Snyder's Bluff), and there were no entrenchments, nor covered batteries."

On December 25th, the day on which Sherman arrived at the mouth of Yazoo River, and when his intentions became evident, General Martin L. Smith, commanding at Vicksburg, determined not to await an investment of the city, but to oppose the enemy in the field. He placed General Stephen D. Lee, recently promoted to that rank, in command of all the forces that could be spared from the city fortifications, and sent him to meet Sherman.

With the quick eye of military genius, Lee chose his ground. From Vicksburg the long line of bluffs, about two hundred feet in height, which skirts the Mississippi on the east, diverges from the river, and does not again reach it to the north until Memphis is reached. The bluffs leave Mississippi River about two miles above Vicksburg, and trend northeastward in a nearly straight line, touching Yazoo River about eighteen miles from its mouth and thirteen miles from Vicksburg, at a point named Snyder's Bluff called Haines's Bluff by the Federal officers. A triangle is thus formed, bounded by Yazoo River from its mouth to Snyder's Bluff, the line of bluffs from Snyder's Bluff to Vicksburg, and Mississippi River from Vicksburg to the mouth of the Yazoo. Snyder's Bluff was fortified, and its heavy guns commanded the navigation of the Yazoo at that point. The triangle above mentioned is low and flat, and subject to overflow. It is intersected by bayous and almost made up of lakes and swamps.

From the point where Sherman landed it was necessary, in order to reach Vicksburg, to cross this low land and then to ascend the bluffs. Lee rapidly distributed his small force along the line of battle, twelve miles in length, from Vicksburg to Snyder's Bluff, and hastily constructed defences to command the few narrow passes of dry land which afforded the only practicable routes to Vicksburg, and to strengthen the natural barrier of the bluffs. The widest crossing on dry land, and the best route to Vicksburg, was along Chickasaw Bayou, which ran from Yazoo River to the foot of the bluffs at the centre of the Confederate line of battle, about six and a half miles from the city.

Skirmishing began on the 26th and continued during the 27th, by which time General Sherman had developed his lines and had sent the gunboats to assail Snyder's Bluff. On the 28th, he pressed his line forward, and some severe fighting occurred. Having brought his guns into position, he prepared to make a vigorous assault the next day on the Confederate lines posted on the bluff. During all this time he had been held in check by a small force of 3,000 men commanded by General Lee.

On December 29th Sherman moved to the main assault his four divisions, commanded respectively by General A. J. Smith, General Morgan L. Smith, General G. W. Morgan, and General Frederick Steele. The main attack was made on the Confederate centre at Chickasaw Bayou, where General Lee was present in person, and a strong assault was also made near a place called "The Mound," about four miles from Vicksburg. The fighting began at noon and ended about four o'clock. The Federals were repulsed along the entire line, with the most severe loss in front of Chickasaw Bayou.

General Lee had received a reinforcement of two regiments on the 28th. More began coming in on the 29th and 30th. These reinforcements came from Van Dorn's army, now relieved from pressure by Grant's retreat. The entire force engaged on the Confederate side was fifteen

regiments and four batteries, not exceeding 8,000 men. A large portion of these did not arrive in time to bear the brunt of the battle. Sherman had at hand 32,000 men, with a fleet of gunboats. The strategy of the Confederates rendered the gunboats practically useless and foiled the largely superior land force. General Sherman's loss was 191 killed, 982 wounded, 756 missing; total, 1,929. The entire Confederate loss was 63 killed, 134 wounded, 10 missing; total, 207.

Some

General Sherman remained a few days in camp. desultory skirmishing ensued and an expedition was planned against Snyder's Bluff, but was subsequently abandoned. On January 2, 1863, Sherman reembarked and steamed to the mouth of the Yazoo. There General John A. McClernand arrived and assumed command under orders from the government at Washington. Thus ended the second attack on Vicksburg. It would be difficult to cite a feat of arms more decisive and brilliant than the bloody and signal repulse of this formidable expedition.