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[342] stretched out in rear of the national line, and the work was begun. The enemy's out-guard could see all that was going on, but made no effort to interfere, and a trench was opened within sixty yards of the rebel salient. The ground was such that it would have been difficult to carry on the work in any other way; by merely remaining in his fortifications, and firing an occasional volley, the enemy could have easily stopped the approach. The advantage of this arrangement, novel in war, was entirely on one side. The rebels, however, allowed it at no other point on the line.

The armament of the rebels, on the land front, was field-artillery, and one ten-inch mortar; the batteries on their extreme left, being also used against the vessels in the river, mounted heavy guns, and were able to sweep a small section of the land approaches. One gun in the water-battery, in front of Wood (who had the right brigade of Steele's division, of Sherman's corps), was particularly troublesome, though it did but little actual damage. Against this gun, and the battery in which it was situated, Wood's first operations were directed. A line of empty rifle-trench, on the hill opposite the enemy's left, was occupied, and in a few days converted into good cover for infantry and batteries for artillery. One field-battery of howitzers and rifles was stationed on the extreme point, and, near it, arrangements were made for the battery of ship's guns sent ashore by Porter, and manned and officered by the navy. A line of simple trench running down the hillside, from the point of the ridge to the mouth of a creek that empties into the Mississippi here, was the first and only approach made on this road. The workmen were often annoyed

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