Chapter 6:
- Character of Mississippi valley -- position and strength of Vicksburg -- Grant's force on taking command of expedition -- problem of the campaign -- the Vicksburg canal -- continuous labor for months -- rise in river -- failure of canal -- Lake Providence scheme -- difficulties of this route -- abandonment of the plan -- alarm and subsequent derision of rebels -- the Yazoo pass -- circuitous route -- obstructions by rebels -- pass finally cleared -- troops enter the pass -- rebel fort at Greenwood -- naval attack unsuccessful -- Reenforcements ordered into the pass -- route found impracticable -- Steele's bayou expedition -- remarkable natural difficulties -- Sherman and Admiral Porter proceed to Deer creek -- Porter gets into danger -- Sherman rescues the fleet -- further and irremovable obstructions -- return of both expeditions to Milliken's bend -- concentration of Grant's forces -- Impatience of the country and government -- efforts to remove Grant -- Grant's New plan -- opposition of Sherman and other of Grant's subordinates -- Grant inflexible -- movement of Thirteenth corps to New Carthage -- difficulties of route -- trouble with Mc-Clernand -- Grierson's raid -- running of Vicksburg batteries -- Cooperation of Admiral Porter -- attack on Grand Gulf -- failure to silence batteries -- further marches of troops -- running of batteries at Grand Gulf -- crossing of Mississippi river by Grant's advance -- demonstration by Sherman against Haine's bluff -- Grant's confidence of success.
All the way from Cairo to New Orleans the Mississippi meanders through a vast alluvial region, the whole of which is annually overflowed, except where the system of artificial embankments, called levees,1 has, of late years, afforded a partial barrier. This great basin is nearly fifty miles in width, and extends on the east to the upland plains of Tennessee and
