...for even an individual to get across. It was essentially free from annoyances, even of field batteries and riflemen on either bank. About the time of the surrender of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, General Joseph E. Johnston , who had succeeded in collecting a Confederate army of 30,000 men near Jackson, Miss. (the present effective force being about 28,000 men), had moved towards Vicksburg to attempt its relief. He had...