farther up. Commander Lee reached Vicksburg on the 18th May and judged that he could not successfully cope with the batteries. He reported thus to Admiral Farragut, and waited for reinforcements, which arrived during the latter part of May. Early in June a bombardment was begun, but without serious effect; during June the fleet was strengthened, and by the end of the month Admiral Farragut arrived with his entire squadron, and accompanied by an infantry force of four regiments under General Williams.
The gun-boat flotilla from above and the naval fleet from below met in front of Vicksburg, which was now the only point firmly held by the Confederates along the whole course of the Mississippi. On the 27th and 28th June the lower fleet bombarded the defences for several hours, and seven of the vessels passed the batteries and joined the fleet above. The bombardment had very little effect on the defences of Vicksburg; shot and shell were occasionally thrown into the town until the 15th July, when the Confederate ram Arkansas, which had been constructed at Yazoo City, came out of the Yazoo River, and after disabling two of the Union gun-boats, was safely moored under the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg.
Fearing that this vessel might destroy his mortar boats anchored below the city, Farragut again descended the river, passing the forts in the night, and towards the end of the month retired altogether from the vicinity. The land force had been endeavoring to dig a canal across the tongue of land known as Young's Point, directly opposite Vicksburg. The canal was a failure, as water could not be made to run through it, and the land force retired at the same time as the lower fleet. The upper gun-boats also went away, and before the first of August there was no enemy in sight of Vicksburg. This first siege lasted altogether more than two months, and though 25,000 shot and shell were thrown into the place from the Union
