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their broadsides the instant they reached position, and so continuous and terrible was their fire that the rebels scarcely ever attempted a response. The Forest Queen was taken in tow by a gun boat, and the fleet, with the exception of the loss of the Henry Clay, and one man killed and two others wounded on the Benton, passed the dreaded ordeal in safety.

rondelet, the Pittsburg, the Tuscum without any injury. On reaching bia, and the Mound City, were se- Warrenton, the gun boats poured in lected for the service. All of these, except the Price, were iron-clads, and all had such additional protection as could be afforded by bales of cotton and of hay, heavy timbers, railroad iron, and other means which experience had taught to be efficient. The transports were the Forest Queen, the Henry Clay, both side-wheel steamers, and the propeller Silver Wave. They were laden with supplies, and protected, as far as possible, by hay and cotton placed round their machinery.

On the 22d of April, by Grant's order, six additional transport steamers, with officers and crew chosen from the regiments in the vicinity, conducting as many coal barges, were sent in like manner past Vicksburg. They suffered more or less injury; but all, with one exception, got below the bat teries. Two tugs, with four hay 1863. barges, also, a few nights after, followed in safety. At the end of April,

On the night of the 16th of April, everything was in readiness, and the expedition set out on its dangerous journey. The plan was, for the ironclads to pass down in single file, a few hundred yards apart, and that when in front of the batteries they should pour in their broadsides, and under cover of the smoke, the transports the army was fairly on its way from should strive to pass unnoticed.* A little before eleven o'clock, the batteries opened their fire, and were at once responded to by the iron-clads discharging their broadsides of grape and shrapnel directly against the city. The transports endeavored to pass, as or dered, under cover of the smoke; the Forest Queen was disabled by a shot, the Henry Clay was set on fire and burned, but the Silver Wave escaped

* A correspondent of the New York Times gives a graphic account of the assembling of a party of ladies and gentlemen, including Gen. and Mrs. Grant, at a

point a few miles above Vicksburg, for the purpose of

witnessing the daring movement which was to take place that evening. The liveliness, however, of the party, as he reprovingly says, "indicated anything but

an appreciation of the fact that the drama about to open was a tragedy instead of a farce."

Milliken's Bend overland and past Richmond, by a military road constructed over swamps and bayous for about seventy miles to Hard Times, Louisiana, a point opposite Grand Gulf.

On the 29th of April, the 13th army corps reached the Mississippi, and the 17th was not far behind. Grant embarked a portion of the troops, and moved to the front of Grand Gulf. The plan was, that the iron-clads should silence the guns of the enemy, enemy, and that the troops should land under cover of the gun boats and carry the place by storm. The attack was begun about eight o'clock in the morning and contin ued for five and a half hours, during which time, as Porter stated, in his

CH. XXVIII.]

GRIERSON'S CAVALRY EXPEDITION.

309

1863.

miles south of Port Gibson, at two A.M.
on May 1st, and engaged him all day,
entirely routing him with the
loss of many killed, and about
500 prisoners, besides the wounded.
Our loss is about 100 killed and 500
wounded. The enemy retreated to-
wards Vicksburg, destroying the

dispatch, "we silenced the lower bat- landed at Bruinsburg, April 30th, teries, but failed to silence the upper moved immediately on Port Gibson, one, which was high, strongly built, met the enemy, 11,000 strong, four had guns of very heavy calibre, and the vessels were unmanageable in the heavy current. It fired but feebly toward the last, and the vessels all laid by and enfiladed it, while I went up a short distance to communicate with Gen. Grant, who concluded to land the troops and march over to a point two miles below Grand Gulf. I sent the Lafayette back bridges over the two forks of the Ba to engage the upper batteries, which she did, and drove the persons out of it, as it did not respond after a few fires. At six P.M. we attacked the batteries again, and, under the cover of the fire, all the transports passed by in good condition. The Benton, Tuscumbia, and Pittsburg were much cut up, having 24 killed and 56 wounded, but they are all ready for service. We land the army in the morning on the other side, and march on Vicksburg."

you Pierre. These were rebuilt, and the pursuit has continued until the present time."

An important movement was successfully carried out at this time, for the purpose of facilitating Grant's ope rations and destroying the enemy's lines of communication; we refer to the bold cavalry raid under Col. B. H. Grierson. This brave officer had proposed some time before, this descent into Mississippi, which did not, howActing on information derived from ever, receive the approbation of Grant an intelligent negro, that there was a until early in April, when he ordered good road from Bruinsburg, two miles Grierson to enter upon the work. He below Grand Gulf, to Port Gibson, was stationed at Lagrange, Tennessee, where the rebels were in force, Grant about fifty miles east of Memphis, and determined on landing the troops at after a series of skilful movements, tendBruinsburg as speedily as possible. At ing to deceive the rebels as to his real daylight, on the morning of April 30th, purpose, he was prepared by the middle the gun boats and transports began the of April to march into Mississippi, and work of ferrying them across the river. traverse, as he did, its entire length, Port Gibson is situate on the Bayou passing between the great lines of com Pierre, twenty-eight miles from its munication, the Mobile and Ohio and mouth, and between sixty and seventy Mississippi Railroads, passing in the miles south-west of Jackson, capital rear of the works at Vicksburg and of the state. A railroad connected Port Hudson, and coming out triumit with Grand Gulf. Grant's dis- phantly, on the 1st of May, within the patch, a few days later, stated Union lines at Baton Rouge. For dethe result in few words: "We tails, we must refer to Col. Grierson's

After waiting for several days for supplies and the arrival of Sherman's corps, reconnaisances were made along the west side of the Big Black River, to within a few miles of Warrenton, and steps were taken to deceive the rebels, as far as possible, in regard to Grant's real designs at the present moment.

Apparently, he was about to make a direct attack; but in reality, he was pushing forward McClernand and Sherman to the railroad, between Edward's Station and Bolton, while McPherson was to advance rapidly upon Raymond, and Jackson, the capital of the state. It was of prime importance, in Grant's estimation, to secure his rear by a march upon Jackson, by destroy ing the property of all descriptions of the enemy and the railroad; and then to march with all his force to the assault upon Vicksburg.*

official report, which not only sets forth the courage and determined spirit of all connected with the expedition, but also presents an instructive picture of the internal condition of this portion of the "Confederacy." The substantial results may be expressed in a brief extract: "During the expedition we killed and wounded about 100 of the enemy, captured and paroled over 500 prisoners, many of them officers, destroyed between fifty and sixty miles of railroad and telegraph, captured and destroyed over 3,000 stand of arms, and other army stores and property to an immense amount; we also captured 1,000 horses and mules. We marched over 600 miles in less than sixteen days. The last twenty-eight hours we marched seventy-six miles, had four engage ments with the enemy, and forded the Comite River, which was deep enough to swim many of the horses." After speaking of the large and well appointed parties sent out against him, and of his being able to elude them or fight them to advantage, Grierson concludes in terms of praise of his officers and men, without whose hearty co-ope-paign, says, truly enough,-" in daring, in celerity of ration, under very trying circumstances, he could not have obtained such signal

success.

It had at first been Grant's purpose to detach an army corps to co-operate with Banks against Port Hudson, and effect a junction of forces; but, on reflection, as time was all important to his plans, and as Banks could not furnish more than 12,000 men at best, he gave up the project, and resolved to devote all his energy and skill to an immediate advance upon the rebels.

The advance was begun on the 7th of May, and the utmost activity and enterprise was displayed by both offi cers and troops in the duty now before

* Pollard, speaking of Grant and his "most extraor dinary and audacious game" in the Mississippi cam

movement, and in the vigor and decision of its steps, it was the most remarkable of the war. The plan of

Grant was, in brief, nothing else than to gain firm ground on one of the Confederate flanks, which, to be done, involved a march of about 150 miles, through a base of supplies was liable at any moment to be permanently interrupted. In addition, a resistance to his advance could be anticipated, of whose magnitude

hostile country, and in which communication with the

nothing was certainly known, and which, for aught

he knew, might at any time prove great enough to annihilate his entire army. The plan involved the enterprise of running a fleet of transports past the

batteries, crossing the troops from the Louisiana shore below Vicksburg, to Mississippi, and then marching the army, by the way of Jackson, through the heart of

the Confederacy, so to speak, to the rear of Vicksburg." -"Third Year of the War," p. 43, 44.

CH. XXVIII.]

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, CAPTURED.

them. On the 11th, McClernand reached Hall's Ferry, on the Big Black River, Sherman was at Auburn, about six miles north-east, and McPherson about eight miles further in the same direction. The next day, the advance division of Sherman's corps encountered a body of the rebels, chiefly cavalry, at Fourteen Mile Creek; but after some slight skirmishing, the enemy retreated toward Raymond, burning the bridge as they retired. A crossing, however, was speedily constructed, and the corps moved on its way.

The principal resistance was made by the rebels to obstruct McPherson's advance. As he was marching from Utica, on the branch road to Jackson, on approaching the town of Raymond, he was met, on the forenoon of May 12th, by a body of the enemy, under Gregg and Walker, numbering about 5,000. Skirmishing commenced early in the morning, and Logan's division, which was on the road in advance, was at once ordered forward to engage the enemy. The battle was opened about ten o'clock, and, after a conflict of more than two hours, resulted in the defeat of the rebels, and their abandonment of Raymond to the Union forces. Our loss was 51 killed, and 180 wounded; the rebel loss was 75 killed and 186 prisoners captured, beside the wounded.

McPherson's force was immediately pushed on, and the next day occupied Clinton, a small town about eight miles west of Jackson, on the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad. The telegraph office and post office, with their contents, were seized, and the railroad destroyed on both sides of the vil

1863.

311

lage for four miles. On the 14th of May, McPherson's corps, followed by Sherman's, which advanced from its position at Mississippi Springs, moved upon the capital of Mississippi. Information had reached Grant that the rebel commander, J. E. Johnston, was daily receiving reinforcements, and was expected immediately at Jackson, to take command in person. "I therefore determined," said Grant, "to make sure of that place, and leave no enemy in my rear.”

Gen. Crocker's division of McPher son's corps had the advance, and charged gallantly upon the enemy's position on the crest of a hill, in front of the town, driving the rebels before them at the point of the bayonet. On Sherman's coming up on the right, he soon found the enemy's weakness at that point, and caused them to retreat northwardly towards Clinton. After a fight of about three hours, in which the rebels displayed less than their usual spirit in battle, they gave up the contest, and Johnston, having set fire to the buildings filled with commissary and quartermaster's stores, made a speedy retreat. The arsenal, public works, factories, bridges, etc., were effectually destroyed. We are sorry to be obliged to state, in this connection, that there was also a large amount of pillaging by the soldiers, to the disgrace of themselves and the cause in which they were engaged.

Although Johnston had been unable to maintain his position, still, as Grant learned at Jackson, he had ordered Pemberton,* in very positive terms, to

* Pollard is bitterly severe on Pemberton; calls him "the creature of the private and personal prejudices of President Davis;" asserts that he was extremely un

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march out of Vicksburg, and "re-establish the communications" by an assault upon Grant's rear. This Pemberton had undertaken to do, having, it was reported, some eighty regiments and ten batteries of artillery, and about 25,000 men in all. He was, however, too late to accomplish anything; Johnston had been put to flight, and Grant, by his rapid and skilful combinations, aided, as he was, by several of the best officers in the United States army, simply faced about, and advanced promptly to rout Pemberton in the same wise that he did in the case of Johnston. McPherson was ordered to move out on the Clinton road, and on the 15th of May was about a mile from Bolton, within supporting distance of Hovey's division of McClernand's corps; while McClernand, with the remaining divisions, was ordered to Edward's Station; he was, however, directed not to bring on a general engagement, unless he was sure of success. Blair moved with McClernand, and Sherman, with his forces, was soon to follow.

upon the main force of Pemberton in the vicinity of Edward's Station. Three miles south-east of this is a road which runs parallel with the railroad, crosses Champion's Hill, through which runs a small stream called Baker's Creek Hovey, who was in the advance with his division, discovered, about nine | o'clock, that the enemy were in front on Champion's Hill, to the left of the road, near Baker's Creek, apparently in force. Skirmishers were thrown out, and the division advanced cautiously across the open field at the foot of Champion's Hill, in line of battle. At eleven o'clock the battle commenced. The hill itself was covered with timber, and was flanked, on both sides, by deep ravines and gullies, and in many places covered with an impenetrable growth of scrubby white-oak brush The woods, on both sides of the road leading up to the face of the hill, and winding back on the ridge a mile or more, were filled with sharpshooters, supported by infantry. Here the battle began, just as our men entered the edge of the timber, and raged ter

Early on the morning of May 16th, two days after the occupation of Jack-ribly from eleven o'clock till between son, the left wing of the army, under McClernand, advanced to the line of the railroad east of the Big Black River, and, in concert with Sherman's and McPherson's corps, came

1863.

popular with the army, incapable, " never on a battle

field in the war," and in a state of deplorable "ignor

ance and bewilderment as to the enemy's designs." As

a pet and favorite of Davis, and with nothing else to re

commend him, of course, in Pollard's opinion, only dis

aster could follow his being placed in command at Vicksburg. It is only fair, however, to remember that Pollard is no friend to Davis and his helpers at Richmond, and also that he is rather fond of using caustic and bitter language when the opportunity occurs.

three and four, P.M. Hovey's division carried the heights, and making a dash on the first battery, drove the gunners from their posts and captured the pieces.

The rebels having been reinforced at this point, made fresh efforts to dislodge our troops on the hill. Hovey was slowly driven back to the brow, but help coming up, the ground was recovered, and the rebels finally repulsed. At the commencement of the engagement, Logan's division marched

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