This assault failed simply because the enemy's works were too strong to be taken in that way. The Rebels were able to mass at every point all the men that were needed to defend it, while the nature of the ground made it impossible for more than a few of the Union troops to advance at once. Grant was not, however, discouraged. If he could not take Vicksburg in one way, he would take it in another. If the direct assult failed, he would see what could be done by a siege. At the siege operations the troops worked diligently and cheerfully. The intrenchments were pushed steadily forward until the evening of July 3d. At that time the saps were close to the enemy's ditch and the mines were under his parapet. Everything was ready for the final attack. Grant's army had been strengthened by various reinforcements. Indeed it had been strengthened so much that he was able to spare Sherman from the immediate work of the siege. So he placed him in command of the Ninth Corps at Haines's Bluff to watch J. E. Johnston. The latter had collected a large army at Jackson with the intention of attacking Grant's force in the rear, and thus raising the siege of Vicksburg. Sherman took up a strong position and easily held him at bay. Johnston, however, became desperate in his desire to save Vicksburg from capture, and on June 29th moved out to try conclusions with Sherman. But before his preparations for battle were complete, on July 4th, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered.
In his official report of the operations around Vicksburg, dated July 6th, Grant spoke thus of Sherman's work in holding the enemy at bay: "Johnston, however, not attacking, I determined to attack him the moment Vicksburg was in our possession, and accordingly notified Sherman that I should again make an assult on Vicksburg at daylight on the 6th, and for him to have up supplies of all descriptions ready to move upon receipt of orders, if the assult should prove a success. His preparations were immediately made, and when the place surrendered on the 4th, two days earlier than I had fixed for the attack, Sherman was found ready, and moved at once with a force increased by the remainder of both the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Army Corps, and is at present investing Jackston, where Johnston has made a stand."
On July 9th, Sherman appeared before Jackson, having marched through fifty miles of almost desert country. Three days later the town was invested partially, and then Johnston, seeing that it was impossible for him to hold his ground against Sherman's determined army, evacuated the place and retreated to Meridian, a hundred miles away, burning the bridges behind him. Sherman left a small garrison at Jackson, and then returned to the line of the Big Black River. And thus was ended, one hundred and nine days from its commencement, this great campaign. The Union army had captured 37,000 prisoners, including fifteen Generals. They had driven before them and partially dispersed another large army under the ablest of the Rebel leaders. They had captured Vicksburg, the Gibraltar of the South. They had freed the Mississippi River from Rebel control. And they had split the Rebel Confederacy in twain.
Of Sherman's part in the campaign General Grant remarks: "The siege of Vicksburg and last capture of Jackson and dispersion of Johnston's army entitle General Sherman to more credit than usually falls to the lot of one man to earn. His demonstration at Haines's Bluff, in April, to hold the enemy about Vicksburg, while the army was securing a foothold east of the Mississippi; his rapid marches to join the army afterwards; his management at Jackson, Mississippi, in the first attack; his almost unequalled march from Jackson to Bridgeport, and passage of Black River; his securing Walnut Hills on the 18th of May, may attest his great merit as a soldier."
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
SOME WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
Sherman's Characteristic Letters—Congratulations to Porter at Vicksburg—Views on the Reorganization of the Army—The Conduct of the War and the Spirit of the South—Manners and Morals of the Soldiers—No Wanton Spoliation of the Enemy's Property—The Heroic Cartridge Boy of Vicksburg.
Early in this volume mention was made of Sherman's ability as a letter-writer. Perhaps in no other way can so good an idea be gained of his mental characteristics as by perusing a few of his epistles, penned amid the scenes of war in which he was so important an actor. As soon as Vicksburg had fallen, for example, and before any attempt was made toward the next move in the bloody game, he wrote thus to Admiral Porter, with whom he had formed a strong and lasting friendship:
"I can appreciate the intense satisfaction you must feel at lying before the very monster that has defied us with such deep and malignant hate, and seeing your once disunited fleet again a unit; and better still, the chain that made an inclosed sea of a line in the great river broken forever. In so magnificent a result I stop not to count who did it. It is done, and the day of our nation's birth is consecrated and baptized anew in a victory won by the united Navy and Army of our country. God grant that the harmony and mutual respect that exists between our respective commanders, and shared by all the true men of the joint service, may continue forever and serve to elevate our national character, threatened with shipwreck. Thus I muse as I sit in my solitary camp out in the wood far from the point for which we have justly striven so long and so well, and though personal curiosity would tempt me to go and see the frowning batteries and sunken pits that have defied us so long, and sent to their silent graves so many of our early comrades in the enterprise, I feel that other tasks lie before me, and time must not be lost. Without casting anchor, and despite the heat and the dust and drought, I must go again into the bowels of the land to make the conquest of Vicksburg fulfil all the conditions it should in the progress of this war. Whether success attend my efforts or not, I know that Admiral Porter will ever accord to me the exhibition of a pure and unselfish zeal in the service of our country.