This affair terminated the fight for the day. In the edge of the evening the regiments that had maintained themselves across the bayou were recalled, and the entire force rested, after the day’s fight, where they had on the previous night.
General Sherman’s repulse at Vicksburg was complete. The entire force, under General McClernand, who at that time was the superior officer in command of the army, though not present during the engagement, reembarked on the third of January, on transports, closely followed by the rebel advance, which coming in range of the gunboats was driven back with severe loss. The Federal loss was six hundred killed, one thousand five hundred wounded, and one thousand missing.
A council of war was held on the 4th on board the Tigress, which vessel had been temporarily selected by General McClernand as his headquarters. Admiral Porter, Major-Generals Sherman and McClernand, with the Generals of the divisions of the army in Kentucky were present. It was determined at this council that it would be folly to attempt any thing farther against Vicksburg with the available force. The rebels had means of communication by which they were rapidly and heavily reinforced, while the Unionists had no such opportunity or prospect of receiving reinforcements. It was, therefore, deemed expedient that the campaign should be abandoned.
The rebel Generals Pemberton and Price were now in command at Vicksburg, and their army was reinforced to the extent of fifty thousand men. They had an artillery force of one hundred and sixty guns in battery, besides a large number of field-pieces.
CAPTURE OF FORT HINDMAN, ARKANSAS.
January 10–11, 1863.
Shortly after the defeat of Sherman, the whole rebel force of Tennessee was precipitated upon General Rosecrans. On the 31st of December, the battle of Murfreesboro’ ensued, already fully described in this work, and resulted in the defeat of the rebels at that point, thereby securing the western part of Tennessee, and the region between Nashville and the Mississippi river. A few roving bands still infested the region, but as a whole, the specified space was cleared of the rebel forces. And thus opened the year 1863 in the West.
General McClernand, wishing to secure his rear from attack, and knowing that a rebel force existed at Fort Hindman, on the Arkansas river, in conjunction with Rear-Admiral Porter, planned an expedition which resulted in a brilliant success to the Federal arms, and destroyed the hopes of the enemy and their confident anticipations of a victorious campaign—compelling them to assume defensive, instead of offensive operations.
A small settlement surrounds the Fort, which for nearly two hundred years has been known as the “Post of Arkansas.” It is the oldest settlement in the State. Nearly two centuries ago, there was a Spanish town in the immediate vicinity, and also a small Spanish fort. Fort Hindman is situated on the right bank of the Arkansas river, about fifty miles from its mouth, and one hundred and seventeen miles from Little Rock, the capital of the State. It was settled in 1685, by the Acadian French, and was the trading-post for furs from the surrounding country, during the winter and spring. It had now a few stores, and at intervals for a dozen miles along the river bank, there was an occasional house.
The fort was a regular, square-bastioned work, one hundred yards exterior side, with a deep ditch some fifteen feet wide, and a parapet eighteen feet high.
On the 10th of January, the land forces, under command of General McClernand, and the flotilla, under Admiral Porter, ascended the river, and the former disembarked with a view of surrounding the work. During the night, the gunboats fired a few shots at the work, and in the morning, the troops being in position, the work commenced in earnest. The New York Herald correspondent thus describes the attack: