commands became inextricably entangled.

Then followed a period of innumerable skirmishes and individual adventures that accord more with the chronicles of knight errantry than with the annals of modern warfare. This condition of affairs subjected the citizens to great annoyance. The impressments of food, forage, and horses, made by both sides legitimately, under the pressure of military necessity, were bad enough, but the situation was utilized by lawless men to perpetrate outrages condemned by the soldiers of both armies.

During this time, however, a number of brilliant engagements occurred, among which were: Maynardsville, December 3d; Mossy Creek, December 24th and 29th; Dandridge, January 20th, 1864; Dibrell's Hill, January 28th; Shook's Gap, February 20th. Then the Confederate troops were withdrawn and the entire territory of Tennessee remained in possession of the Federal authorities.

General Forrest reached Okalona in the latter half of November and joined his little body of veterans there. Three small cavalry brigades at that time constituted the Confederate force in northern Mississippi. General Forrest wished to throw himself through the Federal line into West Tennessee, and by means of his personal influence on the scattered fighting elements there to bring together an effective offensive force. With barely 500 men and one section of Morton's Battery he pressed on to Bolivar, where he was warmly welcomed. A dozen detachments of from 25 to 200 men each, which had been formed, and all General Richardson's absentees were ordered to come together at once. While Forrest was collecting 1,600 or 1,700 men the Federals had posted 2,000 men on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and columns were advancing from Corinth and Columbus. With a train of forty wagons and teams, and a large band of beef-cattle and hogs, Forrest fought his way through the lines that had been thrown about him, and reached Como, Mississippi, the last of the command arriving on the first day of the year 1864.

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

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.

Four attempts to get to the rear of Vicksburg had failed. When the winter had passed and the spring floods were over and the roads became passable, General Grant changed his plan of operations and strove to cut the Confederate communications between Vicksburg and the east while getting ready to attack the place from the southeast. He planned a movement by land to a point below Vicksburg which he desired to make his base of operations, and this plan included a concerted movement by the fleet and the land forces. On the night of April 16th, six gunboats and a number of transports from Admiral Porter's fleet ran past the Confederate batteries. Gunboats had performed this feat before, but never had it been accomplished by ordinary river steamboats. To protect them as far as possible, cotton bales were piled on deck and barges loaded with coal and supplies were lashed alongside. Confederate pickets had discovered the boats and crossed the river and fired several houses in De Soto so as to light up the river and enable the Confederate guns to play on them. Although this blaze exposed the daring Confederates to the enemy's fire on the now brightly lighted river, they did not hesitate to perform the perilous task. The Confederate shells set fire to one of the transports and it sank in front of the city. Two gunboats were disabled and several barges were destroyed. Eight boats succeeded in passing, however, in fair condition. Two nights later four other boats went by with their barges, joining the others at New Carthage, Louisiana, half way between Vicksburg and Grand Gulf. As Grant had now gathered at this point his gunboats and enough transports to convey an army across the Mississippi, the Confederates at Vicksburg had reason for apprehension.

Though still weak from his wounds, General Joseph E. Johnston, in charge of all the Confederate forces in Mississippi, had come to Jackson and was endeavoring to gather an army strong enough to aid Pemberton, then between Grant and Vicksburg. To cripple this effort, Grant sent General B. H. Grierson with three regiments of cavalry to