CHAPTER XII.
The Position of the Western Forces—The Expedition against Vicksburg under General Sherman—The Just and Stringent Orders of the Chief—He shows the Speculators no Mercy—The Advance of the Grand Army Checked—The Embarkation of Troops—The Magnificent Pageant—The Progress and Arrival of the Fleet.
EFORE following our brave commander further in his war-path, let us survey the field of action in the West. The goal of patriotic ambition was now the “Gibraltar of the Father of Waters”—Vicksburg. The great work of preparation to move went forward during the autumn and early winter under the eye of the patient, persistent Grant.
December 22d, 1862, he issued an order dividing the troops into four army corps, stating that “the fifth division, Brigadier-General Morgan L. Smith commanding, the division from Helena, Arkansas, commanded by Brigadier-General Steele, and the forces in the district of Memphis, will constitute the fifteenth army corps, and be commanded by Major-General W. T. Sherman.” Meanwhile, General Sherman had been quietly put in command of his forces, and ordered to sail for Friar’s Point, eighteen miles below Helena, and be ready to coöperate with the main body of troops under General Grant, in a combined movement on the stronghold. The former had been in the vicinity of the Tallahatchie River, making reconnaissances, and was acquainted with that country by this personal observation. He had issued an order of march which showed no mercy to speculators, and, as you will see, is marked with the clear thought and forcible words of its gifted author:
“1. The expedition now fitting out is purely of a military character, and the interests involved are of too important a nature to be mixed up with personal and private business. No citizen, male or female, will be allowed to accompany it, unless employed as part of a crew or as servants to the transports. Female chambermaids to the boats and nurses to the sick alone will be allowed, unless the wives of captains and pilots actually belonging to the boats. No laundress, officer’s, or soldier’s wife must pass below Helena.
“2. No person whatever, citizen, officer, or sutler, will, on any consideration, buy or deal in cotton or other produce of the country. Should any cotton be brought on board of any transport going or returning, the brigade quartermaster, of which the boat forms a part, will take possession of it, and invoice it to Captain A. R. Eddy, Chief Quartermaster at Memphis.
“3. Should any cotton or other produce be brought back to Memphis by any chartered boat, Captain Eddy will take possession of the same, and sell it for the benefit of the United States. If accompanied by its actual producer, the planter or factor, the quartermaster will furnish him with a receipt for the same to be settled for, on proof of his loyalty at the close of the war.
“4. Boats ascending the river may take cotton from the shore for bulkheads to protect their engines or crew, but on arrival at Memphis it will be turned over to the quartermaster, with a statement of the time, place, and name of its owner. The trade in cotton must await a more peaceful state of affairs.
“5. Should any citizen accompany the expedition below Helena, in violation of these orders, any colonel of a regiment or captain of a battery will conscript him into the service of the United States for the unexpired term of his command. If he show a refractory spirit unfitting him for a soldier, the commanding officer present will turn him over to the captain of the boat as a deck hand, and compel him to work in that capacity without wages until the boat returns to Memphis.
“6. Any person whatever, whether in the service of the United States or transports, found making reports for publication, which might reach the enemy, giving them information, aid, and comfort, will be arrested and treated as spies.”
The columns of the three army corps had advanced along the railroad leading from Grand Junction to Grenada, the advance passing onward through Holly Springs the last of November. By the middle of December General Grant’s headquarters were at Oxford, his face set toward Vicksburg. On the 20th occurred a painful and memorable affair to check the forward march. Although Gen. Grant had taken every precaution against raiding parties, a dash was made at Holly Springs in his rear, held by Colonel Murphy, who at once surrendered the post.
General Grant was indignant at the cowardly surrender, and immediately dismissed the unworthy officer from the service. In consequence of the destruction of supplies, the commander-in-chief had to fall back to Holly Springs and prepare to start again. While this serious interruption in the army’s progress was transpiring, General Sherman had located his headquarters on board of the Forest Queen with his staff. This magnificent fleet consisted of one hundred and twenty-seven steamers besides the gunboats. The troops were hardy, western men, unsurpassed in the ranks for the qualities of brave warriors.
War does not often present such a pageant as that of this armada sailing down the Tennessee and then the Mississippi Rivers. The Stars and Stripes waved over the crowded decks, and music floated over the waters. The grand procession of vessels moved majestically over the broad current, which in the sunlight reflected their forms, and in the evening unnumbered signal lanterns from mast and prow and stern. Various were the scenes and incidents of the voyage.
Writes a passenger: “Until we got below Helena, wood was so scarce on the river that it was only to be obtained by cutting it, either entirely green or from the water-logged drifts which had caught against the banks. Wherever a good placer was discovered, the boats lucky enough to find it landed and all hands went out with axes, and in a few hours enough was obtained to steam on to the next good place.
“When the fleet approached Napoleon, Arkansas, the Post Boy, which is a transportation boat, was in the advance, and as she neared the shore she was hailed by a person bearing a flag of truce, with the information that there was a band of guerrillas just below, waiting to fire upon her. At this time she was the only boat visible, but in a short time the remainder of the fleet made its appearance, and the guerrillas, if there were any, concluded, no doubt, that we were too many for them. At all events, at this point there was firing. The houses in the town appeared to be nearly all deserted, but in some of them could be seen persons standing back in the door, as if to escape the observation of their neighbors, and waving their handkerchiefs. Napoleon is the place where the first shot was fired at a Federal steamer on the Mississippi River, but there may be some Union people there nevertheless.
“As we reached Helena, very little of the city could be seen for the long line of tents stretched along the bank. The fleet stopped there for the night and took on the troops that were to accompany the expedition, and next morning started on for Friar’s Point, the first place of rendezvous. It lay there all night, and about nine o’clock next morning again started down the river, and reached Gaines’ Landing, one hundred and fifty miles below Helena, about two o’clock p. m., where it stopped to wood. As the fleet approached this point the bank appeared to be lined with negroes, who all started down the shore hurrahing and shouting and jumping, and cutting all kinds of antics. I learned from some of them that they thought the fleet was going down to set all the slaves free.
“When the boats landed, a negro gave information of a large store of wood of the best quality, amounting to more than two thousand cords, secreted in the timber near the bank, in a place where it would not readily have been found. This was a great prize, and was instantly levied on for the use of Uncle Sam. Every soldier able to do duty was sent on shore to pack wood, and by nightfall all the boats were well supplied for nearly the whole trip. Near the wood were some ten or twelve houses, one of them a very fine frame. The negroes said the owners had gone to join the Southern army, and the soldiers, without more ado, burned them all down. Many of the negroes, if not all, came on the boats, and are now under the protection of the army.
“At early light the next morning the fleet moved on again, and as General Morgan’s division came opposite a little village known as Wood Cottage Landing, some guerrillas, secreted in a clump of undergrowth, fired a volley at one of his transports. To teach them a lesson for the future, General Morgan sent some troops on shore and burnt every house in the neighborhood.
“Milliken’s Bend was to be the last rendezvous of the fleet before it started out for active operations on Vicksburg, and we arrived there about dark on the evening of the 24th December. The next day would be Christmas, and many of the soldiers had the idea that the fleet would sail right in without difficulty, and that they would take their Christmas dinner in Vicksburg. Many invitations were given among friends for a dinner at the Preston House. They little dreamed of the disappointment in store for them, or that New Year’s day would find them on the wrong side of the hill.
“On the night of the 24th, General Sherman sent out a detachment of troops, under command of General M. L. Smith, to tear up a section of the line of the Vicksburg and Texas Railroad, about ten miles west of Vicksburg. The work was well and quickly done, and the stations at Delhi and Dallas burned.
“At daylight next morning all was ready, and the fleet started for its destined port, which it reached on the banks of the Yazoo about noon the same day. Many years ago, about eight miles below the mouth of the Yazoo, the Mississippi cut a new channel for itself across a bend, coming into the main channel again just above Vicksburg. The Yazoo followed the old channel, and the mouth of the river is, therefore, really from twelve to fifteen miles below where it was originally; but from the old mouth to the new the river is known to pilots as ‘Old River.’ Where the fleet landed was about three miles above Old River, where the right rested, and the left extended to within three miles of Haynes’ Bluff, the intervening space being about six miles.
“On entering the Yazoo, the first object that attracted the attention was the ruins of a large brick house and several other buildings, which were still smoking. On inquiry, I learned that this was the celebrated plantation of the rebel General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed at Shiloh. It was an extensive establishment, working over three hundred negroes. It contained a large steam sugar refinery, an extensive steam saw-mill, cotton-gins, machine-shop, and a long line of negro quarters.
“The dwelling was palatial in its proportions and architecture, and the grounds around it were magnificently laid out in alcoves, with arbors, trellises, groves of evergreens, and extensive flower-beds. All was now a mass of smouldering ruins. Our gunboats had gone up there the day before, and a small battery planted near the mansion announced itself by plugging away at one of the iron-clads, and the marines went ashore after the gunboats had silenced the battery, and burned and destroyed every thing on the place. If any thing were wanting to complete the desolate aspect of the place, it was to be found in the sombre-hued pendant moss, peculiar to Southern forests, and which gives the trees a funereal aspect, as if they were all draped in mourning. As on almost every Southern plantation, there were many deadened trees standing about in the fields, from the limbs of all of which long festoons of moss hung, swaying with a melancholy motion in every breeze.
“The weather, since the starting out of the fleet, had, up to this time, been very fine; but as evening now approached, a heavy rain commenced, which, from the appearance of things, bid fair to continue for an indefinite period. The Yazoo River was low, and the banks steep and about thirty feet high. Along the edge of the water, and reaching to the foot of the bank, is a dense undergrowth of willows, briers, thorns, vines, and live oaks, twined together in a most disagreeably promiscuous manner. To effect a landing of the troops and trains, a way had to be cut through this entanglement, from every boat, and this caused such a delay that it was quite dark before all the troops were got on shore. Tents were pitched for the night, pickets sent out, and the army encamped, anxiously awaiting the dawn of the next day.”
That General Grant would fail to communicate with him, General Sherman could not know. He carried out his part of the great programme, and steadily advanced in accordance with its provisions for united action. In this profound ignorance of the occasion of the failure, he prepared to move upon Vicksburg.