Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

[290] none knew how nor where, thousands prisoners in the hands of the enemy—thousands straggling, deserting—all flying before a flushed and victorious foe; their banners captured, their guns left in the hands of the enemy. Three cannon only are said to have been carried back into Vicksburg by Pemberton.

Grant followed up rapidly, and shut the rebels in on every side; the day of their arrival, the hostile lines were formed, and Vicksburg was besieged.

The campaign in the rear of Vicksburg was remarkable, not only for the rapidity with which it was executed and the success which attended its movements, but for the originality of its conceptions, both in their general plan and in detail. The war of the rebellion was not like wars on European battle-fields, where the opposing generals can overlook the contending armies as two chess-players do their board. The extensive forests which cover the Southern country gave the rebels the advantage of a great natural defence, and afforded a cloak to all their movements to surprise or outflank an invading army. In this wilderness, good common roads were almost unknown, and military roads, like those in Europe, unheard of; heavy rains often converted the rivulets into rivers, and the highways into impassable canals. Railroads, therefore, became the vital lines of support to all defensive armies, and the object of attack to every invading column. All the strategy of the war was based on the importance and applicability of this principle. The rapid concentration of troops and the transportation of supplies, the relief of beleag uered garrisons, the separation of supporting armies, often depended solely on the security or destruction of railroad lines.