XIV. operations against Vicksburg.
- Position and importance of Vicksburg -- Grant moves against it from Lagrange -- advances to Oxford, Miss. -- Van Dorn captures Holly Springs -- Murphy's cowardice -- Grant compelled to fall back -- Hovey and Washburn on the Coldwater -- Gen. Wm. T. Sherman embarks 30,000 men at Memphis -- Debarks on the Yazoo, north of Memphis -- Com. Porter's gunboats -- Sherman storms the Yazoo Bluffs -- repulsed at all points with heavy loss -- attempts to flank by Drumgould's Bluff -- is baffled -- superseded by Gen. McClernand -- who invests and captures the post of Arkansas -- Gen. Grant assumes command -- Debarks -- digging the canal -- proves an abortion -- Yazoo Pass expedition -- stopped at Greenwood -- compelled to return -- Grant tries the Sunflower route -- baffled again -- the Queen of the West raids up Red river -- disabled and abandoned -- the Indianola captured by the Webb and Queen of the West -- the Indianola blown up in a panic -- the Webb flees up Red river -- Grant moves down the Mississippi -- Com. Porter runs the Vicksburg batteries -- Grierson's raid to Baton Rouge -- Porter attacks the batteries at Grand Gulf -- Grant crosses at Bruinsburg -- Sherman feints on Haines's Bluff -- crosses the Mississippi at Hankinson's Ferry -- fight at Port Gibson -- fight at Raymond -- fight at and capture of Jackson -- battle of Champion Hills -- fight at the Big Black -- Haines's Bluff abandoned -- Vicksburg invested -- General assault repulsed -- the siege vigorously pressed -- Pemberton calls a parley -- surrenders -- Grant drives Jo. Johnston from Jackson -- fight at Milliken's Bend -- Holmes assails Helena, and is routed.
Vicksburg, on the lower Mississippi, about midway between Cairo and its mouth, was the natural center and chief citadel of the Slave-holders' Confederacy. Located on an almost unique ridge of high, rolling land adjoining the great river, surrounded by the richest and best cultivated Cotton region in America, whereof the slave population considerably outnumbered the free, it had early devoted itself, heart and soul, to the Rebel cause. Its natural strength and importance, as commanding the navigation of the great artery of the South-west, were early appreciated; and it was so fortified and garrisoned as to repel — as we have seen1--the efforts of our fleets and expeditions, which, after the fall of New Orleans and that of Memphis, assailed it from below and from above respectively and conjointly. Being the chief outlet for the surplus products of the State of Mississippi, connected with Jackson, its capital, 44 miles cast, by a railroad, and thus with all the railroads which traverse the State, as also with the Washita Valley, in northern Louisiana, by a railroad to Monroe, while the Yazoo brought to its doors the commerce of another rich and capacious valley, Vicksburg, with 4,591 inhabitants in 1860, was flourishing signally and growing rapidly until plunged headlong into the vortex of Rebellion and Civil War. Both parties to the struggle having early recognized its importance — Jefferson Davis, in a speech at Jackson, having in 1862 pronounced it indispensable to the Confederacy that the control of the Mississippi should not be surrendered to Federal power — fresh preparations to “repossess” it were early set on foot among the Union commanders above. Gen. Grant's department of West Tennessee having been so enlarged2 as to include Mississippi, he at once commenced preparations for an advance; transferring,3 soon after, his headquarters from Jackson to Lagrange; whence he pushed out4 Gen. McPherson, with 10,000 infantry, and 1,500 cavalry, under Col. Lec, to Lamar, driving back the Rebel cavalry. At length, all things being ready, Grant impelled5 a movement of his army down the great Southern Railroad from Grand Junction through Holly Springs to Oxford; our eavalry advance, 2,000 strong, being pushed forward to Coffeeville, where it was suddenly confronted and attacked by Van Dorn,6 with a superior infantry force, by whom it was beaten back three miles, with a loss of 100 men. Grant was, with his main body, still at Oxford, preparing to move on to Jackson and Vicksburg, when Van Dorn struck7 a damaging blow at his communications. The railroad having by this time been repaired and operated to Holly Springs, that village had been made our temporary depot of arms, provisions, and munitions, which had here been accumulated, [287] while the railroad farther south was being repaired, to such an extent that they were estimated by the enemy as worth at least $4,000,000. The post was in charge of Col. R. C. Murphy, 8th Wisconsin, who had over 1,000 men under his command; while bales of cotton and barrels of flour by thousands proffered the readiest means of barricading its streets and keeping out ten times his force, until it could be reduced by heavy guns and regular approaches, or at least consumed by volleys of shells. Grant had warned Murphy of his danger the night before, and did not imagine his capture a possibility; but no preparation had been made for resistance, no street barricaded; not even our men posted to resist an assault; when, at daybreak, Van Dorn burst into the town with his wild cavalry, captured the imbecile or traitorous wretch who should have defended it, and burned all but the little plunder his men were able t. carry off, including a largo hospital full of our sick and wounded soldiers, which his Adjutant had promised to spare. Our cavalry (2d Illinois) refused to surrender, and cut their way out by a resolute charge, in which they lost but 7 men, disabling 30 Rebels. Murphy filled up the measure of his infamy by accepting paroles, with his men; so as to prevent their recapture and relieve the enemy of the trouble of guarding them. The Rebels claim
