Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 8.
Frank Moore, Ed.

Port Hudson was immediately invested. While awaiting the slow operations of a siege, General Banks made two unsuccessful assaults upon the place; finally, on the eighth of July, the place unconditionally surrendered. We captured six thousand two hundred and thirty-three prisoners, fifty-one pieces of artillery, two steamers, four thousand four hundred pounds of cannon powder, five thousand small-arms, one hundred and fifty thousand rounds of ammunition, etc.

In order to facilitate General Grant's operations, by destroying the enemy's line of communication, and to prevent the early concentration of any reenforcements, Colonel (now Brigadier-General) Grierson was sent with a cavalry force from La Grange on the seventeenth of April, to traverse the interior of the State of Mississippi. This expedition was most successfully conducted. It destroyed many of the enemy's railroad bridges, depots, and much of the rolling. stock, and reached Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in safety on the second of May.

On returning to Vicksburgh, General Grant found his forces insufficient to entirely invest the enemy's works. There was, therefore, danger that the two bodies of the enemy, under the command of Generals Pemberton and Johnston, might yet effect a junction, as it was known that the latter was being largely reenforced from Bragg's army in Middle and East-Tennessee. Under these circumstances, General Grant deternmined to attempt to carry the place by assault. Two unsuccessful attacks were made on the nineteenth and twenty-second of May; but as reenforcements reached him a few days after, sufficiently large to enable him to completely invest the rebel defences, he resorted to the slower but more effective way of a regular siege. By the third of July his sappers were so far advanced as to render his success certain, and on that day General Pemberton proposed an armistice and capitulation, which were finally accepted, and Vicksburgh surrendered on the fourth of July.

In the language of General Grant's official report, the results of this short campaign were: The defeat of the enemy in five battles outside of Vicksburgh; the occupation of Jackson, the capital of the State of Mississippi, and the capture of Vicksburgh and its garrison, and munitions of war; a loss to the enemy of thirty-seven thousand prisoners, among whom were fifteen general officers, at least ten thousand killed and wounded, and among the killed Generals Tracy, Tilghman, and Green, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of stragglers, who can never be collected and organized; arms and munitions of war for an army of sixty thousand men have fallen into our hands, beside a large amount of other public property, consisting of railroads, locomotives, cars, steamboats, cotton, etc., and much was destroyed to prevent our capturing it.

Our losses in the series of battles may be summed up as follows:

Of the wounded, many were but slightly wounded, and continued on duty; many more required but a few days or weeks for their recovery, and not more than one half of the wounded were permanently disabled.

When we consider the character of the country in which this army operated, the formidable obstacles to be overcome, the number of the enemy's force, and the strength of his works, we cannot but admire the courage and endurance of the troops, and the skill and daring of the commander. No more brilliant exploit can be found in military history. It has been alleged, and the allegation has been widely circulated by the press, that General Grant, in the conduct of his campaign, positively disobeyed the instructions of his superiors. It is hardly necessary to remark that General Grant never disobeyed an order or instruction, but always carried out, to the best of his ability, every wish or suggestion made to him by the Government.

Moreover, he has never complained that the Government did not furnish him all the means and assistance in its power to facilitate the execution of any plan which he saw fit to adopt. While the main army of Tennessee was operating against Vicksburgh, the enemy's forces on the west side of the river made successful attacks on Milliken's Bend and Lake Providence, on the sixth and tenth of June. Our loss in the former was one hundred and one killed, two hundred and eighty-five wounded, and two hundred and sixty-six missing. Loss in the latter not reported. It is represented that the colored troops in these engagements fought with great bravery, and that the rebels treated this class of prisoners of war as well as their officers with great barbarity.

It has not been possible, however, to ascertain the correctness of the representations in regard to the treatment of these prisoners. After the capture of Vicksburgh, General Grant reported that his troops were so much fatigued and worn out, with forced marches and the labors of the siege, as absolutely to require several weeks of repose before undertaking another campaign. Nevertheless, as the exigencies of the service seemed to require it, he sent out those who were least fatigued on several important expeditions, while the others remained at Vicksburgh, to put that place in a better defensible condition for a small garrison.

As soon as Vicksburgh was captured, General Sherman was sent in pursuit of Johnston's forces. The latter retreated to Jackson, Mississippi, which place was taken by us on the sixteenth of July. Our loss was about one thousand in killed, wounded, and missing. General Sherman captured seven hundred and sixty-four prisoners,