was NEGOTIATIONS FOR A SURRENDER. our com 315 and rapidly than any engineer. The | hostilities to remain suspended meanharassed, shattered garrison could time. Accordingly, after conferring better fight on their ramparts than with his Major-Generals, Grant sent starve behind them. At length, after by Gen. Logan and Lt.-Col. Wilson 45 days of isolation, Pemberton, the following letter: hopeless of relief, and at the end of his resources, hung out a white flag" in front of Gen. A. J. Smith's division; and our men, sent forward to inquire as to its purport, were informed that Gen. Bowen and Col. Montgomery, of Pemberton's staff, bore a communication from their chief to Gen. Grant. Duly blindfolded, they were taken to Gen. Burbridge's tent, whence their message communicated to mander, and proved to be an application for an armistice, with a view to of capitulation. arranging terms Gen. Grant promptly responded, requiring an unconditional der; to which Bowen demurred, expressing a wish to converse with Gen. Grant. This was declined; but a willingness avowed to confer with Gen. Pemberton, if he wished, at such time as he should appoint. Pemberton accordingly named 3 P. M. of that day; at which time, the meeting took place: Pemberton being attended by Bowen and Montgomery; Grant by McPherson, Ord, Logan, and A. J. Smith, beside his staff. Pemberton required that his men should be paroled and marched beyond our lines with eight days' rations drawn from their own stores [they applied to our commissary for rations next day ]; the officers to retain their private property and their body-servants. Grant heard all that they proposed, then broke up the conference, promising to send his answer before HEADQUARTERS, DEPT OF TENNESSEE, “NEAR VICKSBURG, July 3, 1863. "Lt.-Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON, commanding Confederate forces, Vicksburg, Miss.: GENERAL: In conformity with the agree ment of this afternoon, I will submit the following propositions for the surrender of the city of Vicksburg, public stores, etc. On your accepting the terms proposed, I will march in one division as a guard, and take possession at 8 A. M. to-morrow, As soon as paroles can be made out and signed by the officers and men, you will be allowed to march out of our lines: the officers taking with them their regimental clothing, and staff, field, and cavalry officers one horse each. The rank and file will be allowed all their clothing, but no other property. If these conditions are accepted, any amount of rations you may deem necessary can be taken from the stores you now have, and also the necessary cooking utensils for presurren-paring them, and thirty wagons also, countYou will be allowed to transport such artiing two two-horse or mule teams as one. cles as can not be carried along. The same conditions will be allowed to all sick and wounded officers and privates, as fast as they become able to travel. The paroles of these latter must be signed, however, whilst offiof prisoners. cers are present authorized to sign the roll "I am, General, very respectfully, "Your obedient servant, "U. S. GRANT, Major-General.” Pemberton responded as follows: HEADQUARTERS VICKSBURG, 3, 1863. "Maj.-Ge". GRANT, com'ding U. S. forces: 'GENERAL: I have the honor to acknow ledge the receipt of your communication of this date, proposing terms for the surrender of this garrison and post. In the main, your terms are accepted; but, in justice both to ed in the defense of Vicksburg, I have the the honor and spirit of my troops, manifesthonor to submit the following amendments; which, if acceded to by you, will perfect the agreement between us. At 10 o'clock tomorrow, I propose to evacuate the works in and around Vicksburg, and to surrender the marching out with my colors and arins, city and garrison under my command, by night; and stacking them in front of my pres**July 3, 8 A. M. ent lines after which, you will take pos- | till that of the surrender, at 943 killed, session; officers to retain their side-arms 7,095 wounded, and 537 missing: total, 8,575; of whom 4,236 fell before Vicksburg-most of them in the assault of May 22d. He adds: wounded, and continued on duty; many "Of the wounded, many were but slightmore required but a few days or weeks for their recovery. Not more than one-half of the wounded were permanently disabled." Of the enemy's losses, he says: "The result of this campaign has been the defeat of the enemy in five battles outside of Vicksburg; the occupation of Jackson, the capital of the State of Mississippi, and the capture of Vicksburg and its garrison and munitions of war; a loss to the enemy of 37,000 prisoners, among whom were fifand wounded, and among the killed Geneteen general officers; at least 10,000 killed rals Tracy, Tilghman, and Green, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of stragglers, who can never be collected and reorganized. Arms and munitions of war for an army of 60,000 men have fallen into our hands; besides a large amount of other public property, consisting of railroads, locomotives, cars, and personal property, and the rights and Gen. Grant reports his aggregate losses in this memorable campaign, from the day he landed at Bruinsburg steamboats, cotton, etc.; and much was destroyed to prevent our capturing it." Of course, the 37,000 prisoners claimed were not all captured with Vicksburg; but the number there paroled, including the sick and wounded, was reported at 27,000, of whom 15,000 only were fit for duty. This was the heaviest single blow ever given to the muscular resources of the Rebellion; and no other campaign of the war equals in brilliancy of conception and general success in execution that which resulted in the capitulation of Vicksburg. Gen. Grant was fully aware, throughout the progress of the siege, that Jo. Johnston was behind him, using every exertion to raise an army strong enough to fall upon the besiegers with a rational hope of success. Hardly had the investment been completed, when, upon information that Johnston had crossed the SHERMAN DRIVES JOHNSTON OUT OF JACKSON. 317 ing all with blinding dust, our army pressed back Johnston into Jackson, forcing him to take refuge" within its intrenchments, wherein he was soon invested;" Sherman opening upon the city and its defenders a concentric fire with 100 heavy guns on the 12th; while our cavalry advance on either flank was pushed forward to Pearl river. Big Black, near Canton, he directed" | drouth, which maddened men and Gen. Sherman, with five brigades, to animals with heat and thirst, coveroppose his farther advance. Sherman moved accordingly; and, being afterward rëenforced, constructed a line of defenses from the Yazoo at Haines's Bluff to the Big Black, which could not have been carried even by a considerably larger force, save at a fearful cost. Johnston did not try it; but was operating farther down the Black, with probable intent to cut his way through our Johnston says he had but 24,000 left and form a junction with Pem-men-sufficient to resist an assault, berton south of the city, when the but not enough to meet Sherman's latter, apprehending an assault on force in pitched battle with any hope the 4th, surrendered his famished of success. Our guns, planted on the forces. That surrender had barely adjacent hills, commanded every part been effected when Gen. Grant im- of the town. A gleam of good forpelled all that remained with him of tune transiently irradiated his somSherman's and McPherson's corps to ber prospect; Gen. Lauman, misaprëenforce Sherman on the Big Black; prehending an order, having adnot even allowing the soldiers to en- vanced his division so close to the ter the stronghold they had so hardly Rebel works that it was uselessly won. By 2 P. M. of the 4th, our col- torn to pieces by a fire which in a umns were in motion; next evening, few moments bereft us of 500 men, they had united with Sherman's for- of whom 200 were captured, with the mer command, enabling him to cross colors of the 28th, 41st, and 53d Illithe Big Black on the 6th with an nois. army little less than 50,000 strong. His right, under Ord, crossed at the railroad; his center, under Steele, at Messenger's Ford, above; his left, under Parke, still higher up the river; the latter alone encountering no serious resistance. Thus advancing over a region already wasted by war, and now parched to sterility by a fierce * June 22. Gen. Hugh S. Ewing reports that he caught, on the 3d, a spy attempting to force his way through his lines iuto Vicksburg, on the strength of a pass from one of our Generals; who, when searched, was found to have passes also from Rebel Generals, and who was doubtless sent by Johnston to Pemberton with assurances that he would speedily advance to his rescue. It being evident that to remain was simply to court destruction, Johnston-apprised that heavy trains of ammunition were coming up from Vicksburg to Sherman, who had thus far been constrained to economize his cartridges-having sent away whatever he could-his railroad eastward being still open-evacuated Johnston, in his report, confirms Ewing's suspicions, as follows: "On the night of the 3d, a messenger was sent to Gen. Pemberton with information that an attempt to create a diversion would be made, to enable him to cut his way out, and that I hoped to attack the enemy about the 7th. "On the 5th, however, we learned the fall of Vicksburg; and therefore fell back to Jackson." *7 July 9-10. July 7. Jackson during the night," hurrying across Pearl river, and burning the bridges behind him; retreating through Brandon to Morton. Sherman did not pursue in force beyond Brandon; but, having thoroughly broken up the railroads for miles in every direction, and destroyed every thing in Jackson that could be useful to the enemy, fell back by Clinton across the Big Black." Johnston reports his loss in Jackson at 71 killed, 504 wounded, and about 25 missing; but adds: "Desertions during the siege and on the march [retreat] were, I regret to say, frequent." Having perfected the occupation and insured the retention of Vicksburg, Gen. Grant embarked" an expedition, under Gen. F. J. Herron, to move down the river to the aid of Gen. Banks in the siege of Port Hudson; but our men were scarcely on board when tidings of Gardner's surrender caused the order to be countermanded, and Herron directed to proceed instead up the Yazoo. This involved a debarkation and rëembarkation on vessels of lighter draft; which being promptly effected, Herron set forth on his new errand;" his transports preceded by the iron-clad De Kalb and two 'tin-clad' [lightly and partially shielded] gunboats, under Captain Walker. The object of this expedition was the capture of a large fleet of steamboats, which had been run up this river for safety and use, and which had escaped Porter's expedition by running far up one of the branches July 25. 88 July 16-17. 90 July 10-11. 92 July 16-17. "July 21. 89 of the Yazoo-a feat now incapable of repetition, by reason of the general drouth and consequent shallowness of those streams. The 29th North Carolina, Col. Chrisman, with a battery, holding Yazoo City, decamped on the approach of our boats; but the De Kalb was sunk by a torpedo when nearly opposite the city; while the coveted steamboats made off, and but one of them was captured. Herron's cavalry being sent after the fugitives, however, they were all-22 in number-burnt or sunk, either at this time or when Walker was sent back by Com. Porter to bring away the guns, &c., of the De Kalb; so that the Yazoo was thenceforth clear of Rebel vessels. Herron captured and brought away 300 prisoners, 6 heavy guns, 250 small arms, 800 horses, and 2,000 bales of Confederate cotton. He moved" across, by order, from Yazoo City to Benton and Canton, in support of Sherman's advance to Jackson; but countermarched immediately," on information of Johnston's flight from Jackson, and, rëembarking, returned" to Vicksburg. While the siege of Vicksburg was in progress, Gen. Grant, compelled to present a bold front at once to Pemberton and to Johnston, had necessarily drawn to himself nearly all the forces in his department, stripping his forts on the river above him so far as was consistent with their safety. MILLIKEN'S BEND had thus been left in charge of Brig.Gen. E. S. Dennis, with barely 1,061 " effectives, whereof the 23d Iowa, 95 So Gen. Dennis reports. Mr. G. G. Edwards, who was present, reports our numbers as follows: 23d Iowa, 160; 9th La., 500; 11th La. about 600; 1st Miss., 150: total, 1,410. ATTACKS ON MILLIKEN'S BEND AND HELENA. Col. Glasgow, numbered 160; the residue were negroes, very recently enlisted, and organized as the 9th and 11th Louisiana and 1st Mississippi. Against this post, a Rebel force from the interior of Louisiana, said to consist of six regiments under Gen. Henry McCulloch, numbering 2,000 to 3,000, advanced" from Richmond, La., driving in the 9th Louisiana and two companies of cavalry who had been out on a reconnoissance, and pursuing them nearly up to our earthworks at the Bend, where they were stopped by nightfall, and lay on their arms, not doubting that they would go in with a rush next morning. But, just at dark, a steamboat passed, enabling Dennis to send to Admiral Porter for aid; when the gunboats Choctaw and Lexington were sent down from Helena; the former arriving just as the Rebels, at 3 A. M., advanced to the assault, with cries of "No quarter!" to negroes and officers of negro troops, rushing upon and over our intrenchments, before the green, awkward Blacks had been able to fire more than one or two rounds. A hand-tohand fight of several minutes, with bayonets and clubbed muskets, ensued; wherein combatants were mutually transfixed and fell dead: the struggle resulting favorably to the Rebels, who had flanked our works and poured in a deadly enfilading fire, which compelled our men to give ground and retire, still fighting, behind the levee. And now the Choctaw opened on the exulting foe with such effect as to compel them also to shrink behind their side of the levee, keeping up 95 June 6. 319 a fire, while attempting to outflank our right. Thus the fight was maintained with little loss till noon; when the Rebels, having the worst of it, drew off, under a heavy fire from our troops and gunboats, but without being pursued. Some of the newspaper correspondents state, what Dennis's report conceals, that our Blacks, impelled to charge the Rebels in their flight, were led directly under the fire of our gunboats, by which they were far worse cut up than by the Rebels. Hence, our heavy loss of 127 killed, 287 wounded, beside some 300 missing at the close of the action; most of whom probably turned up afterward. As Dennis estimates the Rebel loss at about 150 killed and 300 wounded, it is probable that the fire of the gunboats, while it frightened only the Rebels, killed more of our men than of theirs. A Rebel demonstration against Young's Point was made simultaneously with that against Milliken's Bend; but had no result, and was probably intended only to distract attention from the latter. A few shots from gunboats were sufficient to compel a retreat. HELENA, Arkansas, had had been quietly held by our forces since its unresisted occupation by Gen. Washburne," with the cavalry advance of Gen. Curtis's army, and had proved useful as a dépôt of recruits and supplies destined for operations farther south; while its garrison was a constant menace and a source of uneasiness and alarm to the Rebels still holding most of Arkansas; threatening, as it did, the more important points |