Chapter 23: siege and capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson.
- The National troops in danger, 615. -- preparations to storm the works at Vicksburg -- an attack, 616. -- Second attack, 617. -- a severe struggle, 618. -- the Nationals repulsed, 619. -- a regular siege of Vicksburg begun -- weakness of the Confederates, 620. -- Grant re-enforced -- services of Porter's fleet, 621. -- life in the besieged City, 622. -- Confederate troops in Louisiana, 623. -- battle at Milliken's Bend -- bravery of colored troops, 624. -- mining the Confederate works, 625. -- Pemberton's proposition to surrender, 626. -- interview between Grant and Pemberton, 627. -- formal surrender of Vicksburg -- celebration of the Fourth of July in the City, 628. -- region of military operations in Mississippi, 629. -- the spoils of victory -- its effects, 630. -- the investment of Port Hudson, 631. -- assault on the Confederate works -- the charge by colored troops, 632. -- close siege of Port Hudson, 632. -- a severe struggle, 634. -- Second assault on Port Hudson, 635. -- siege of Port Hudson continued, 636. -- surrender of the post and garrison -- Banks's loss, and his spoils won -- the Mississippi River open to Commerce, 637. -- effect of the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson at Home and abroad -- a visit to Vicksburg and its vicinity, 638. -- voyage up the Mississippi -- a Confederate Major, 639. -- the Historical localities around Vicksburg, 640.
An immediate assault upon the defenses of Vicksburg seemed to Grant an imperative necessity. His army was not strong enough to invest the post so absolutely as to make a sortie by Pemberton, for the purpose of joining his forces with Johnston, in Grant's rear, an impossibility. He was holding a line almost twenty miles in extent, from the Yazoo to the Mississippi at Warrenton, and so thin on its extreme left that it was little more than a series of pickets. Johnston was at Canton, receiving re-enforcements from Bragg's army, in Tennessee, for his five thousand troops with whom he fled from Jackson.1 He was making every exertion in his power. to collect a force sufficient to warrant him in falling upon Grant's rear, and endeavoring to compel him to raise the siege. That danger was imminent, and there seemed but one way to avert it and that was by a speedy capture of the post and garrison. If Grant could possess himself of Vicksburg immediately, he might turn upon Johnston and drive him from the State of Mississippi, and, holding all of the railroads, and practical military highways, effectually secure to the Nationals all territory west of the Tombigbee River, thereby saving the Government the sending of re-enforcements to him which were so much needed elsewhere. In view of impending danger,
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| Military operations abound Vicksburg. |
