Battles of the Civil War

by Thomas Elbert Vineyard

While General Williams was engaged in the task of diverting the mighty river across the peninsula Farragut stormed the Confederate batteries with his fleet, but failed to silence Vicksburg's cannon guards. He then determined to dash past the fortifications with his fleet, trusting to the speed of his vessels and the stoutness of their armor to survive the tremendous cannonade that would fall upon them.

Early on the morning of June 28th his vessels moved forward and after several hours of terrific bombardment with the loss of three vessels, passed through the raging inferno to the waters above Vicksburg.

Williams and his men, including 1,000 negroes, labored hard to complete the canal, but a sudden rise in the river swept away the barriers with a terrific roar and many days of labor went for naught. This plan was at length abandoned and they all returned with the fleet during the last days of July to Baton Rouge, and Vicksburg was no more molested until the next spring.

In October General John C. Pemberton, a Philadelphian by birth, succeeded Van Dorn in command of the Confederate forces at Vicksburg. General Grant planned to divide the army of the Tennessee, Sherman taking part of it from Memphis down the Mississippi on transports while he would move overland with the rest of the army and coöperate with Sherman before Vicksburg. But the whole plan proved a failure, through the energies of Van Dorn and others of the Confederate army in destroying the Federal lines of communication.

Sherman, however, with an army of about 32,000 men, left Memphis on December 20th, and landed a few days later some miles above Vicksburg, and on the 29th made a daring attack on the Confederate lines at Chickasaw Bayou, and suffered a decisive repulse with a loss of 2,000 men.

Sherman now found the northern pathway to Vicksburg impassable and withdrew his men to the river, and, to make up triple disaster to the Federals, General Nathan Forest, one of the brilliant Confederate cavalry leaders, with 2,500 horsemen, dashed through the country west of Grant's army, tore up many miles of railroad and destroyed all telegraph lines and thus cut off all communication of the Federals.

In the meantime General Van Dorn pounced upon Holly Springs, capturing the guard of 1,500 men and burning Grant's great store of supplies, estimated to be worth a million and a half dollars, thus leaving Grant without supplies, and for many days without communication with the outside world. It was not until about the middle of January that he heard, through Washington, of the defeat of Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou.

Grant changed his plan of attack and decided to move his army below Vicksburg and approach the city from the south. Another plan was to cut a channel through the peninsula opposite Vicksburg and again try the project of changing the bed of the Mississippi so as to leave Vicksburg some miles inland. For six weeks thousands of men worked on this ditch; early in March the river began to rise and on the morning of the 8th it broke through the embankments and the men had to run for their lives. Many horses were drowned and great numbers of implements submerged. The "Father of waters" had put a decisive veto on the project, and the same was abandoned.

On the night of April 16th Porter ran past the batteries of Vicksburg with his fleet after days of preparation. They left their station near the mouth of the Yazoo about nine o'clock. Suddenly the flash of musketry fire pierced the darkness. A storm of shot and shell was rained upon the passing vessels. The water of the river was lashed into foam by the shot and shell from the batteries. The gunboats answered with their cannon. The air was filled with flying missiles. The transport, Henry Clay, caught fire and burned to the water's edge. By three in the morning the fleet was below the city and ready to coöperate with Grant's army.

Grant's army at that time numbered about 43,000 men, and he decided to make a campaign into the interior of Mississippi while waiting for General Banks from Baton Rouge to join him. The Confederate army under Pemberton numbered about 40,000, and about 15,000 more Confederates were at Jackson, Miss., under command of General Joseph E. Johnston. It was against Johnston's army that Grant decided to move. Johnston, on being attacked by Grant, fell back from Jackson and took a position on Champion's Hill, where a hard battle was fought in which the Confederates were greatly outnumbered and gave way in confusion. Part of Pemberton's army had arrived and was engaged in this battle. Pemberton retreated towards Vicksburg, closely followed by Grant, and several short engagements between the two armies took place on the road to Vicksburg. The Federal army now invested the city, occupying the surrounding hills. Around the doomed city gleamed the thousands of bayonets of the Union army. The city was filled with soldiers and the citizens of the country who had fled there for refuge and were now penned in.