Regular approaches were now commenced by sappers, and General Grant, finding his ranks thinning by the severity of the trench service, the increasing heat of summer, and Johnston, with a large force, threatening his rear, called for reinforcements. Such, briefly, was the condition of affairs, and such were the reasons which found the Ninth Corps and the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts in their present position.
The history of the regiment for the fortnight ending with the fall of Vicksburg can be briefly written. It is a story of discomforts, from causes before enumerated, against which the men fortified themselves by all the means possible. Tents were made comparatively comfortable by cane-pole shades and beds of moss and grass. No duties were required except picket and such as were absolutely necessary. Parties were detailed from time to time to help dig rifle-pits, for it was thought best to be well prepared for any sudden and violent attack of Johnston. A large part of the line held by the Ninth Corps was fortified in this way. But the work was done as much as possible during the cooler parts of the day, morning and night. There was not a dress-parade of the regiment during the Mississippi campaign. Not much can be said of the rations, though they were, perhaps, as good as the men had been in the habit of receiving. On the 26th of June Quartermaster Francis B. Rice was discharged, and Lieutenant Cutter, of Company D, was appointed quartermaster.
June 29th the whole First Division, with the exception of the Thirty-sixth Regiment and Durrell's Battery, moved out several miles to the front, and the head-quarters of the brigade were about five miles distant. Company F was at this time on duty at corps head-quarters. Cases of sickness became more numerous every day. Captains Bailey, Sawyer, and Lieutenant Howe, were all sick at this time, the latter with small-pox, which he was supposed to have contracted in visiting a hospital at Memphis. He died July 7th. He was a graduate of Amherst College, where he achieved distinction in the department of mathematics. In character and conduct, during his connection with the regiment, he showed that he was a true man and a faithful soldier. When it became known that this dire disease had broken out among us there was much anxiety and alarm in the regiment, for the possibility of its spreading was great, and there was no way to meet it with usual precaution, the medical department being poorly supplied. A hospital was established at some distance from the regiment, and as soon as any man showed symptoms of the disease he was removed to it. In this way the spread of the disease was checked.
July 2d, burial service, with military honors, was performed over the remains of Private Boswell, of Company C, who died in the regimental hospital, July 1. Each day seemed to have some event of more or less importance to vary the monotony of camp life, which was now about to be disturbed by events of great moment, and from the dull routine of daily life to be changed to the more severe duties of the march and battle-field. Even now, in the distant North, the two great armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia, under Meade and Lee, were grappling with each other on the soil of Pennsylvania, and the fate of the nation was trembling in the balance on the slopes of Cemetery Ridge, at Gettysburg. Massachusetts was pouring out her blood freely on that now historic field, while far away, in the south-west, her sons stood ready to uphold her fame and carry her white flag, side by side with the stars and stripes, to victory. The moment pregnant with heroic effort and sacrifice was at hand.
For a week prior to the 4th of July rumors of the impending surrender or storming of Vicksburg prevailed in the camp. The last extremity of famine was nearly reached by the beleaguered rebels, who boasted from their ramparts of the tenderness of mule steaks. No hope remained for them save from without, and Lee was too closely occupied with his movement into Pennsylvania to despatch any of his force to Pemberton's relief. Johnston clung to the east bank of the Big Black river. General McPherson's corps had pushed the lines of investment up under the very forts of the enemy, and there seemed to be nothing left but to carry their works by assault, or wait for famine to do its work. The roar of artillery was incessant. Day and night, with scarcely a moment's interval, the heavy booming of the siege guns was heard, and a thick cloud of smoke hung ever like a pall over the doomed city. If a rebel showed so much as a hand above the fortifications he became the target of our vigilant riflemen, and the enemy found it impossible to man and serve his artillery, so deadly was the fire. If morning revealed some place where the rebels had repaired the ramparts and brought some guns into position, ten minutes sufficed for our artillery utterly to destroy the work of the night. Their works were mined; but, wherever they suspected a mine, resort was had to countermining, and for a time spades were trumps at Vicksburg.
At three o'clock P.M., of July 3d, Generals Grant and Pemberton met under a flag of truce. Pemberton proposed that his army be allowed to march out with the honors of war, carrying their muskets and field-pieces, but leaving their heavy artillery. Grant smiled at this proposal. The interview terminated in an hour, with the understanding that Grant should send in his ultimatum before ten o'clock that night. This ultimatum was, that Pemberton should surrender Vicksburg with all its property, his officers being allowed to retain their side-arms, and the officers and men should be paroled as prisoners of war. It was accepted, and, on the morning of the 4th of July, General Logan's division of McPherson's corps took possession of the works of Vicksburg, the rebels marching out, stacked their arms, and laid their colors on the stacks. The Forty-fifth Illinois Regiment marched at the head of Logan's column, and placed its flag upon the Court-House. The magnitude of this victory is apparent from the fact that it comprised in its results 31,600 officers and men (2,153 of whom were officers, and 15 of these generals), munitions of war sufficient for an army of 60,000, 172 cannon, many locomotives, cars, and steamboats, and large quantities of cotton and other valuable merchandise.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MOVEMENT ON JACKSON.
Hardly had the news of the surrender become known to the regiment, however, before orders came to break camp and prepare for field service in light marching order.