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hands, he made that event doubly sure by calling re-enforcements to his army.
His effective men, after the assault, did not exceed twenty thousand in number, but to these were very soon added the divisions of General Lauman and four regiments from Memphis, with the divisions of Generals A. J. Smith and Kimball, of the Sixteenth corps.
These were assigned to the, command of General Washburne.
On the llth of June General Herron arrived with his division from the Department of Missouri, and on the 14th two divisions of the Ninth corps came, under General Parke.
N~Tow the investment of Vicksburg was made absolute, with Sherman's corps on the extreme right, McPherson's next, and extending to the railway, and Ord's (late McClernand's) on the left, the investment in that direction being made complete by the divisions of Herron and Lauman, the latter lying across Stout's Bayou, and touching the bluffs on the river.
Parke's corps, and the divisions of Smith and Kimball, were sent to Haines's Bluff, where fortifications commanding the land side had been erected to confront any attempt that Johnston might make in that direction.
Meanwhile Admiral Porter had made complete and ample arrangements for the most efficient co-operation on the river, and his skill and zeal were felt throughout the siege.
While his heavier vessels and the mortars and great Parrott guns on the scows already mentioned were doing effective work in the immediate operations of the siege,1 his smaller vessels were patrolling the river, to keep its banks clear of guerrillas, who were gathering in strength on the western side, and to prevent supplies reaching Vicksburg.
And so skillfully were his vessels handled during the close siege, that only one of them was badly disabled,2 and, with the exception of the casualties on that vessel, he lost only six or seven men killed and wounded.3
For a month General Grant closely invested Vicksburg.
Day after day he drew his lines nearer and nearer, crowning hill after hill with batteries, and mining assiduously in the direction of the stronger works of his foe, with the intention of blowing them high in air. Day and night, with only slight intermissions, his heavy guns and those of Porter were hurling shot and shell with fearful effect into the city, and its suburbs within the lines,
1 For forty-two days the mortar-boats were at work without intermission. During that time they fired 7,000 mortar shells, and the gun-boats fired 4,500 shells.--Porter's Report.
2 The Cincinnati, Lieutenant George M. Bache commanding. She had been prepared with bales of hay and cotton, and sent to assist in silencing a troublesome water battery. After being fired at several times by “Whistling Dick,” as she moved down without being hit, she went on with a full head of steam toward the position assigned her, under the fire of all the river batteries. At length a ball entered her magazine, and caused. it to be drowned, and she began to sink. Shortly afterward her starboard tiller was carried away. Her commander ran her ashore at the peninsula, where she sank. In attempting to swim ashore from her, about fifteen of her people were drowned. Twenty-five were killed and wounded. The Cincinnati went down with her colors nailed to the stump of her mast She was afterward raised.
3 Report of Admiral D. D. Porter, dated “Black Hawk, July 4, 1863.” The printing-press on board the flagship was employed for other than official business. To while away the tedious hours of the officers and men, a journal was printed on a broad-side, entitled, The Black Hawk Chronicle, and contained notices of the events of the siege on land and water as it progressed, often in a strain of wit and humor that must have been agreeable to the readers. The first number, issued on the 8th of June, is before the writer. It is well printed on dull yellow paper, in two columns. “Terms, 2,000 dollars per annum in Confederate notes, or equal weight in cord-wood.” It informed the public, “that no special reporter belonged to the establishment,” and therefore nothing but the truth might be expected. The contents were composed generally of short items. In noticing the disaster to the Cincinnati, the editor said:--“On the morning of May 27, the gun-boat Cincinnati, packed with all kinds of fenders, went down to co-operate with General Sherman in an attack on a water battery and riflepits. Said battery, having grown during the night, sent some ugly customers after our gun-boat, which vessel retired on finding the place too hot for her, having first received three or four shots in her bottom. Not wishing to be annoyed by the enemy, she wisely sunk in three fathoms of water, out of reach of the enemy's shot, when the officers and crew coolly went in to bathe.”
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