ARRIVAL AT VICKSBURG—ITS SURROUNDINGS—GRANT’S ARMY—ASSAULT ON THE REBEL WORKS—THE SEVEN COLOR-BEARERS—PEMBERTON’S HARANGUE—IN THE TRENCHES—SUFFERINGS OF THE WOUNDED—PEMBERTON’S PROPOSED CAPITULATION—GRANT’S REPLY—TERMS OF SURRENDER—OCCUPATION OF THE CITY—LOSS OF THE ENEMY—COMPLIMENTARY LETTER—GRANT’S SUCCESS—ATTACHMENT OF HIS SOLDIERS—“FIGHTING DICK”—GOLD LACE—REBEL SUFFERINGS—SIGHTS IN VICKSBURG—INCIDENTS OF THE SIEGE—CAVE LIFE.
Our troops at length joined General Grant’s army near Vicksburg, where those veterans had been digging and fighting so many weeks.
The city of Vicksburg is nestled among numerous terraced hills, and would under other circumstances present a magnificent and romantic appearance; but I could not at that time realize its beauty, for the knowledge of the sufferings and distress of thousands within its walls detracted materially from its outward grandeur.
The enemy’s works had consisted of a series of redoubts extending from Haines’ Bluff to the Warrenton road, a distance of some ten miles. It was a vast plateau, upon which a multitude of little hills seemed to have been sown broadcast, giving the enemy a position from which it could sweep every neighboring crest and enfilade every approach. But the rebels had already been driven from this position after a severe struggle.
On the twenty-second of May, at two o’clock in the morning, heavy guns were opened upon the rebel works, and continued until ten o’clock, when a desperate assault was made by three corps moving simultaneously. After a severe engagement and heavy loss the flag of the Seventh Missouri was planted on one of the rebel parapets, after seven color-bearers had been shot down.
After this contest the rebel general, Pemberton, addressed his men as follows: “You have heard that I was incompetent and a traitor, and that it was my intention to sell Vicksburg. Follow me, and you will see the cost at which I will sell Vicksburg. When the last pound of beef, bacon and flour, the last grain of corn, the last cow and hog, horse and dog shall have been consumed, and the last man shall have perished in the trenches, then, and not till then, will I sell Vicksburg.”
It became evident that the works could not be carried by assault, and that nothing but a regular siege could reduce the fortifications.
While the siege was in progress our soldiers endured hardships, privations and sufferings which words can but inadequately express. Our men were closely packed in the trenches, often in water to the knees, and not daring to lift their heads above the brow of the rifle pits, as the rebel sharpshooters lost no time in saluting every unfortunate head which made its appearance above ground.
The sufferings of the wounded were extreme. Those who were wounded during the day in the trenches nearest the city could not be removed until the curtain of night fell upon the scene and screened them from the vigilant eye of the enemy.
General Grant steadily approached the doomed city by means of saps and mines, and continued to blow up their defenses, until it was evident that another day’s work would complete the capture of the city.