31: Chapter XXXI.
<< 30: Chapter XXX. || 32: Chapter XXXII. >>
This interruption in my communications north—I was really cut
off from communication with a great part of my own command
during this time—resulted in Sherman's moving from Memphis
before McClernand could arrive, for my dispatch of the 18th did
not reach McClernand. Pemberton got back to Vicksburg before
Sherman got there. The rebel positions were on a bluff on the
Yazoo River, some miles above its mouth. The waters were high
so that the bottoms were generally overflowed, leaving only
narrow causeways of dry land between points of debarkation and
the high bluffs. These were fortified and defended at all
points. The rebel position was impregnable against any force
that could be brought against its front. Sherman could not use
one-fourth of his force. His efforts to capture the city, or
the high ground north of it, were necessarily unavailing.
Sherman's attack was very unfortunate, but I had no opportunity
of communicating with him after the destruction of the road and
telegraph to my rear on the 20th. He did not know but what I
was in the rear of the enemy and depending on him to open a new
base of supplies for the troops with me. I had, before he
started from Memphis, directed him to take with him a few small
steamers suitable for the navigation of the Yazoo, not knowing
but that I might want them to supply me after cutting loose from
my base at Grenada.
On the 23d I removed my headquarters back to Holly Springs. The
troops were drawn back gradually, but without haste or confusion,
finding supplies abundant and no enemy following. The road was
not damaged south of Holly Springs by Van Dorn, at least not to
an extent to cause any delay. As I had resolved to move
headquarters to Memphis, and to repair the road to that point, I
remained at Holly Springs until this work was completed.
On the 10th of January, the work on the road from Holly Springs
to Grand Junction and thence to Memphis being completed, I moved
my headquarters to the latter place. During the campaign here
described, the losses (mostly captures) were about equal,
crediting the rebels with their Holly Springs capture, which
they could not hold.
When Sherman started on his expedition down the river he had
20,000 men, taken from Memphis, and was reinforced by 12,000
more at Helena, Arkansas. The troops on the west bank of the
river had previously been assigned to my command. McClernand
having received the orders for his assignment reached the mouth
of the Yazoo on the 2d of January, and immediately assumed
command of all the troops with Sherman, being a part of his own
corps, the 13th, and all of Sherman's, the 15th. Sherman, and
Admiral Porter with the fleet, had withdrawn from the Yazoo.
After consultation they decided that neither the army nor navy
could render service to the cause where they were, and learning
that I had withdrawn from the interior of Mississippi, they
determined to return to the Arkansas River and to attack
Arkansas Post, about fifty miles up that stream and garrisoned
by about five or six thousand men. Sherman had learned of the
existence of this force through a man who had been captured by
the enemy with a steamer loaded with ammunition and other
supplies intended for his command. The man had made his
escape. McClernand approved this move reluctantly, as Sherman
says. No obstacle was encountered until the gunboats and
transports were within range of the fort. After three days'
bombardment by the navy an assault was made by the troops and
marines, resulting in the capture of the place, and in taking
5,000 prisoners and 17 guns. I was at first disposed to
disapprove of this move as an unnecessary side movement having
no especial bearing upon the work before us; but when the result
was understood I regarded it as very important. Five thousand
Confederate troops left in the rear might have caused us much
trouble and loss of property while navigating the Mississippi.
Immediately after the reduction of Arkansas Post and the capture
of the garrison, McClernand returned with his entire force to
Napoleon, at the mouth of the Arkansas River. From here I
received messages from both Sherman and Admiral Porter, urging
me to come and take command in person, and expressing their
distrust of McClernand's ability and fitness for so important
and intricate an expedition.
On the 17th I visited McClernand and his command at Napoleon. It
was here made evident to me that both the army and navy were so
distrustful of McClernand's fitness to command that, while they
would do all they could to insure success, this distrust was an
element of weakness. It would have been criminal to send troops
under these circumstances into such danger. By this time I had
received authority to relieve McClernand, or to assign any
person else to the command of the river expedition, or to assume
command in person. I felt great embarrassment about
McClernand. He was the senior major-general after myself within
the department. It would not do, with his rank and ambition, to
assign a junior over him. Nothing was left, therefore, but to
assume the command myself. I would have been glad to put
Sherman in command, to give him an opportunity to accomplish
what he had failed in the December before; but there seemed no
other way out of the difficulty, for he was junior to
McClernand. Sherman's failure needs no apology.
On the 20th I ordered General McClernand with the entire
command, to Young's Point and Milliken's Bend, while I returned
to Memphis to make all the necessary preparation for leaving the
territory behind me secure. General Hurlbut with the 16th corps
was left in command. The Memphis and Charleston railroad was
held, while the Mississippi Central was given up. Columbus was
the only point between Cairo and Memphis, on the river, left
with a garrison. All the troops and guns from the posts on the
abandoned railroad and river were sent to the front.
On the 29th of January I arrived at Young's Point and assumed
command the following day. General McClernand took exception in
a most characteristic way—for him. His correspondence with me
on the subject was more in the nature of a reprimand than a
protest. It was highly insubordinate, but I overlooked it, as I
believed, for the good of the service. General McClernand was a
politician of very considerable prominence in his State; he was a
member of Congress when the secession war broke out; he belonged
to that political party which furnished all the opposition there
was to a vigorous prosecution of the war for saving the Union;
there was no delay in his declaring himself for the Union at all
hazards, and there was no uncertain sound in his declaration of
where he stood in the contest before the country. He also gave
up his seat in Congress to take the field in defense of the
principles he had proclaimed.
The real work of the campaign and siege of Vicksburg now
began. The problem was to secure a footing upon dry ground on
the east side of the river from which the troops could operate
against Vicksburg. The Mississippi River, from Cairo south,
runs through a rich alluvial valley of many miles in width,
bound on the east by land running from eighty up to two or more
hundred feet above the river. On the west side the highest
land, except in a few places, is but little above the highest
water. Through this valley the river meanders in the most
tortuous way, varying in direction to all points of the
compass. At places it runs to the very foot of the bluffs.
After leaving Memphis, there are no such highlands coming to the
water's edge on the east shore until Vicksburg is reached.
The intervening land is cut up by bayous filled from the river
in high water—many of them navigable for steamers. All of them
would be, except for overhanging trees, narrowness and tortuous
course, making it impossible to turn the bends with vessels of
any considerable length. Marching across this country in the
face of an enemy was impossible; navigating it proved equally
impracticable. The strategical way according to the rule,
therefore, would have been to go back to Memphis; establish that
as a base of supplies; fortify it so that the storehouses could
be held by a small garrison, and move from there along the line
of railroad, repairing as we advanced, to the Yallabusha, or to
Jackson, Mississippi. At this time the North had become very
much discouraged. Many strong Union men believed that the war
must prove a failure. The elections of 1862 had gone against
the party which was for the prosecution of the war to save the
Union if it took the last man and the last dollar. Voluntary
enlistments had ceased throughout the greater part of the North,
and the draft had been resorted to to fill up our ranks. It was
my judgment at the time that to make a backward movement as long
as that from Vicksburg to Memphis, would be interpreted, by many
of those yet full of hope for the preservation of the Union, as
a defeat, and that the draft would be resisted, desertions ensue
and the power to capture and punish deserters lost. There was
nothing left to be done but to go FORWARD TO A DECISIVE
VICTORY. This was in my mind from the moment I took command in
person at Young's Point.
The winter of 1862-3 was a noted one for continuous high water
in the Mississippi and for heavy rains along the lower river. To
get dry land, or rather land above the water, to encamp the
troops upon, took many miles of river front. We had to occupy
the levees and the ground immediately behind. This was so
limited that one corps, the 17th, under General McPherson, was
at Lake Providence, seventy miles above Vicksburg.
It was in January the troops took their position opposite
Vicksburg. The water was very high and the rains were
incessant. There seemed no possibility of a land movement
before the end of March or later, and it would not do to lie
idle all this time. The effect would be demoralizing to the
troops and injurious to their health. Friends in the North
would have grown more and more discouraged, and enemies in the
same section more and more insolent in their gibes and
denunciation of the cause and those engaged in it.
I always admired the South, as bad as I thought their cause, for
the boldness with which they silenced all opposition and all
croaking, by press or by individuals, within their control. War
at all times, whether a civil war between sections of a common
country or between nations, ought to be avoided, if possible
with honor. But, once entered into, it is too much for human
nature to tolerate an enemy within their ranks to give aid and
comfort to the armies of the opposing section or nation.
Vicksburg, as stated before, is on the first high land coming to
the river's edge, below that on which Memphis stands. The bluff,
or high land, follows the left bank of the Yazoo for some
distance and continues in a southerly direction to the
Mississippi River, thence it runs along the Mississippi to
Warrenton, six miles below. The Yazoo River leaves the high
land a short distance below Haines' Bluff and empties into the
Mississippi nine miles above Vicksburg. Vicksburg is built on
this high land where the Mississippi washes the base of the
hill. Haines' Bluff, eleven miles from Vicksburg, on the Yazoo
River, was strongly fortified. The whole distance from there to
Vicksburg and thence to Warrenton was also intrenched, with
batteries at suitable distances and rifle-pits connecting them.
From Young's Point the Mississippi turns in a north-easterly
direction to a point just above the city, when it again turns
and runs south-westerly, leaving vessels, which might attempt to
run the blockade, exposed to the fire of batteries six miles
below the city before they were in range of the upper
batteries. Since then the river has made a cut-off, leaving
what was the peninsula in front of the city, an island. North
of the Yazoo was all a marsh, heavily timbered, cut up with
bayous, and much overflowed. A front attack was therefore
impossible, and was never contemplated; certainly not by me. The
problem then became, how to secure a landing on high ground east
of the Mississippi without an apparent retreat. Then commenced
a series of experiments to consume time, and to divert the
attention of the enemy, of my troops and of the public
generally. I, myself, never felt great confidence that any of
the experiments resorted to would prove successful. Nevertheless
I was always prepared to take advantage of them in case they did.
In 1862 General Thomas Williams had come up from New Orleans and
cut a ditch ten or twelve feet wide and about as deep, straight
across from Young's Point to the river below. The distance
across was a little over a mile. It was Williams' expectation
that when the river rose it would cut a navigable channel
through; but the canal started in an eddy from both ends, and,
of course, it only filled up with water on the rise without
doing any execution in the way of cutting. Mr. Lincoln had
navigated the Mississippi in his younger days and understood
well its tendency to change its channel, in places, from time to
time. He set much store accordingly by this canal. General
McClernand had been, therefore, directed before I went to
Young's Point to push the work of widening and deepening this
canal. After my arrival the work was diligently pushed with
about 4,000 men—as many as could be used to advantage—until
interrupted by a sudden rise in the river that broke a dam at
the upper end, which had been put there to keep the water out
until the excavation was completed. This was on the 8th of
March.
Even if the canal had proven a success, so far as to be
navigable for steamers, it could not have been of much advantage
to us. It runs in a direction almost perpendicular to the line
of bluffs on the opposite side, or east bank, of the river. As
soon as the enemy discovered what we were doing he established a
battery commanding the canal throughout its length. This battery
soon drove out our dredges, two in number, which were doing the
work of thousands of men. Had the canal been completed it might
have proven of some use in running transports through, under the
cover of night, to use below; but they would yet have to run
batteries, though for a much shorter distance.
While this work was progressing we were busy in other
directions, trying to find an available landing on high ground
on the east bank of the river, or to make water-ways to get
below the city, avoiding the batteries.
On the 30th of January, the day after my arrival at the front, I
ordered General McPherson, stationed with his corps at Lake
Providence, to cut the levee at that point. If successful in
opening a channel for navigation by this route, it would carry
us to the Mississippi River through the mouth of the Red River,
just above Port Hudson and four hundred miles below Vicksburg by
the river.
Lake Providence is a part of the old bed of the Mississippi,
about a mile from the present channel. It is six miles long and
has its outlet through Bayou Baxter, Bayou Macon, and the Tensas,
Washita and Red Rivers. The last three are navigable streams at
all seasons. Bayous Baxter and Macon are narrow and tortuous,
and the banks are covered with dense forests overhanging the
channel. They were also filled with fallen timber, the
accumulation of years. The land along the Mississippi River,
from Memphis down, is in all instances highest next to the
river, except where the river washes the bluffs which form the
boundary of the valley through which it winds. Bayou Baxter, as
it reaches lower land, begins to spread out and disappears
entirely in a cypress swamp before it reaches the Macon. There
was about two feet of water in this swamp at the time. To get
through it, even with vessels of the lightest draft, it was
necessary to clear off a belt of heavy timber wide enough to
make a passage way. As the trees would have to be cut close to
the bottom—under water—it was an undertaking of great
magnitude.
On the 4th of February I visited General McPherson, and remained
with him several days. The work had not progressed so far as to
admit the water from the river into the lake, but the troops had
succeeded in drawing a small steamer, of probably not over thirty
tons' capacity, from the river into the lake. With this we were
able to explore the lake and bayou as far as cleared. I saw
then that there was scarcely a chance of this ever becoming a
practicable route for moving troops through an enemy's
country. The distance from Lake Providence to the point where
vessels going by that route would enter the Mississippi again,
is about four hundred and seventy miles by the main river. The
distance would probably be greater by the tortuous bayous
through which this new route would carry us. The enemy held
Port Hudson, below where the Red River debouches, and all the
Mississippi above to Vicksburg. The Red River, Washita and
Tensas were, as has been said, all navigable streams, on which
the enemy could throw small bodies of men to obstruct our
passage and pick off our troops with their sharpshooters. I let
the work go on, believing employment was better than idleness for
the men. Then, too, it served as a cover for other efforts which
gave a better prospect of success. This work was abandoned after
the canal proved a failure.
Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson of my staff was sent to Helena,
Arkansas, to examine and open a way through Moon Lake and the
Yazoo Pass if possible. Formerly there was a route by way of an
inlet from the Mississippi River into Moon Lake, a mile east of
the river, thence east through Yazoo Pass to Coldwater, along
the latter to the Tallahatchie, which joins the Yallabusha about
two hundred and fifty miles below Moon Lake and forms the Yazoo
River. These were formerly navigated by steamers trading with
the rich plantations along their banks; but the State of
Mississippi had built a strong levee across the inlet some years
before, leaving the only entrance for vessels into this rich
region the one by way of the mouth of the Yazoo several hundreds
of miles below.
On the 2d of February this dam, or levee, was cut. The river
being high the rush of water through the cut was so great that
in a very short time the entire obstruction was washed away. The
bayous were soon filled and much of the country was overflowed.
This pass leaves the Mississippi River but a few miles below
Helena. On the 24th General Ross, with his brigade of about
4,500 men on transports, moved into this new water-way. The
rebels had obstructed the navigation of Yazoo Pass and the
Coldwater by felling trees into them. Much of the timber in
this region being of greater specific gravity than water, and
being of great size, their removal was a matter of great labor;
but it was finally accomplished, and on the 11th of March Ross
found himself, accompanied by two gunboats under the command of
Lieutenant-Commander Watson Smith, confronting a fortification
at Greenwood, where the Tallahatchie and Yallabusha unite and
the Yazoo begins. The bends of the rivers are such at this
point as to almost form an island, scarcely above water at that
stage of the river. This island was fortified and manned. It
was named Fort Pemberton after the commander at Vicksburg. No
land approach was accessible. The troops, therefore, could
render no assistance towards an assault further than to
establish a battery on a little piece of ground which was
discovered above water. The gunboats, however, attacked on the
11th and again on the 13th of March. Both efforts were failures
and were not renewed. One gunboat was disabled and we lost six
men killed and twenty-five wounded. The loss of the enemy was
less.
Fort Pemberton was so little above the water that it was thought
that a rise of two feet would drive the enemy out. In hope of
enlisting the elements on our side, which had been so much
against us up to this time, a second cut was made in the
Mississippi levee, this time directly opposite Helena, or six
miles above the former cut. It did not accomplish the desired
result, and Ross, with his fleet, started back. On the 22d he
met Quinby with a brigade at Yazoo Pass. Quinby was the senior
of Ross, and assumed command. He was not satisfied with
returning to his former position without seeing for himself
whether anything could be accomplished. Accordingly Fort
Pemberton was revisited by our troops; but an inspection was
sufficient this time without an attack. Quinby, with his
command, returned with but little delay. In the meantime I was
much exercised for the safety of Ross, not knowing that Quinby
had been able to join him. Reinforcements were of no use in a
country covered with water, as they would have to remain on
board of their transports. Relief had to come from another
quarter. So I determined to get into the Yazoo below Fort
Pemberton.
Steel's Bayou empties into the Yazoo River between Haines' Bluff
and its mouth. It is narrow, very tortuous, and fringed with a
very heavy growth of timber, but it is deep. It approaches to
within one mile of the Mississippi at Eagle Bend, thirty miles
above Young's Point. Steel's Bayou connects with Black Bayou,
Black Bayou with Deer Creek, Deer Creek with Rolling Fork,
Rolling Fork with the Big Sunflower River, and the Big Sunflower
with the Yazoo River about ten miles above Haines' Bluff in a
right line but probably twenty or twenty-five miles by the
winding of the river. All these waterways are of about the same
nature so far as navigation is concerned, until the Sunflower is
reached; this affords free navigation.
Admiral Porter explored this waterway as far as Deer Creek on
the 14th of March, and reported it navigable. On the next day
he started with five gunboats and four mortar-boats. I went
with him for some distance. The heavy overhanging timber
retarded progress very much, as did also the short turns in so
narrow a stream. The gunboats, however, ploughed their way
through without other damage than to their appearance. The
transports did not fare so well although they followed behind.
The road was somewhat cleared for them by the gunboats. In the
evening I returned to headquarters to hurry up reinforcements.
Sherman went in person on the 16th, taking with him Stuart's
division of the 15th corps. They took large river transports to
Eagle Bend on the Mississippi, where they debarked and marched
across to Steel's Bayou, where they re-embarked on the
transports. The river steamers, with their tall smokestacks and
light guards extending out, were so much impeded that the
gunboats got far ahead. Porter, with his fleet, got within a
few hundred yards of where the sailing would have been clear and
free from the obstructions caused by felling trees into the
water, when he encountered rebel sharp-shooters, and his
progress was delayed by obstructions in his front. He could do
nothing with gunboats against sharpshooters. The rebels,
learning his route, had sent in about 4,000 men—many more than
there were sailors in the fleet.
Sherman went back, at the request of the admiral, to clear out
Black Bayou and to hurry up reinforcements, which were far
behind. On the night of the 19th he received notice from the
admiral that he had been attacked by sharp-shooters and was in
imminent peril. Sherman at once returned through Black Bayou in
a canoe, and passed on until he met a steamer, with the last of
the reinforcements he had, coming up. They tried to force their
way through Black Bayou with their steamer, but, finding it slow
and tedious work, debarked and pushed forward on foot. It was
night when they landed, and intensely dark. There was but a
narrow strip of land above water, and that was grown up with
underbrush or cane. The troops lighted their way through this
with candles carried in their hands for a mile and a half, when
they came to an open plantation. Here the troops rested until
morning. They made twenty-one miles from this resting-place by
noon the next day, and were in time to rescue the fleet. Porter
had fully made up his mind to blow up the gunboats rather than
have them fall into the hands of the enemy. More welcome
visitors he probably never met than the "boys in blue" on this
occasion. The vessels were backed out and returned to their
rendezvous on the Mississippi; and thus ended in failure the
fourth attempt to get in rear of Vicksburg.
<< 30: Chapter XXX. || 32: Chapter XXXII. >>
