Chapter 14: siege and capture of Vicksburg
- Grant invests Vicksburg -- estimate of McClernand -- adventure in the field -- Association with Grant -- Parole of the Confederates
Grant, with his victorious army, sat down before Vicksburg, between fifty and sixty thousand strong, on May 18, 1863. The next day they cut off all communication between the beaten and beleaguered garrison and the surrounding country, occupied all the roads, and re-established connection with the Yazoo and the Mississippi above the city. This restored direct communication between the army and the government by steamboat from the landing at Chickasaw Bayou to Memphis, and thence by telegraph to Washington. It had been broken just ten days, during which time the army was operating without any base whatever. Neither Dana nor any one else had sent despatches, for the double reason that all were too busy and that it was too dangerous for the couriers to traverse the country. But two days after the army had closed in upon Vicksburg, Dana sent his first despatch, through Hurlburt's headquarters at Memphis to the Secretary of War at Washington. It gave a comprehensive account of the battles at Champion's Hill and the Big Black, the bridging and passage of that river, the investment of Vicksburg, and the reestablishment of the army's line of supply and communication with the North, through Chickasaw landing on the Yazoo. On May 23d, he followed this with a graphic account of the failure of the general assault made upon the enemy's works
