of Grant's force, (b) the river column under McClernand and Sherman, (c) the operations in the bayoux, and (d) the final “overland” campaign from Grand Gulf. The country in which these operations took place divides itself sharply into two zones, the upland east of the river, upon which it looks down from high bluffs, and the levels west of it, which are a maze of bayoux, backwaters and side channels, the intervening land being kept dry near the river itself by artificial banks (levees) but elsewhere swampy. At Vicksburg, it is important to observe, the bluffs trend away from the Mississippi to follow the course of the Yazoo, rejoining the great river at Memphis. Thus there are two obvious lines of advance for the Northern army, on the upland (Memphis and Grand Junction on Grenada-Jackson), and downstream through the bayou country (Memphis-Helena-Vicksburg). The main army of the defenders, who were commanded by Lieut.-General J. C. Pemberton, between Vicksburg and Jackson and Grenada, could front either north against an advance by Grenada or west along the bluffs above and below Vicksburg.
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| Emery Walker sc. |
The first advance was made at the end of November 1862 by two columns from Grand Junction and Memphis on Grenada. The Confederates in the field, greatly outnumbered, fell back without fighting. But Grant's line of supply was one long single-line, ill-equipped railway through Grand Junction to Columbus, and the opposing cavalry under Van Dorn swept round his flank and, by destroying one of his principal magazines (at Holly Springs), without further effort compelled the abandonment of the advance. Meantime one of Grant's subordinates, McClernand, was intriguing to be appointed to command an expedition by the river-line, and Grant meeting half-way an evil which he felt himself unable to prevent, had sent Sherman with the flotilla and some 30,000 men to attack Vicksburg from the water-side, while he himself should deal with the Confederate field army on the high ground. But the scheme broke down completely when Van Dorn cut Grant's line of supply, and the Confederate army was free to turn on Sherman. The latter, ignorant of Grant's retreat, attacked the Yazoo bluffs above Vicksburg (battle of Chickasaw Bayou) on December 29th; but a large portion of Pemberton's field army had arrived to help the Vicksburg garrison, and the Federals were easily repulsed with a loss of 2000 men. McClernand now appeared and took the command out of Sherman's hands, informing him at the same time of Grant's retreat. Sherman thereupon proposed, before attempting fresh operations against Vicksburg, to clear the country behind them by destroying the Confederate garrison at Arkansas Post. This expedition was completely successful, at a cost of about 1000 men the fort and its 5000 defenders were captured on the 11th of January 1863. McClernand, elated at his victory, would have continued to ascend the Arkansas, but such an eccentric operation would have been profitless if not dangerous, and Grant, authorized by the general-in-chief, Halleck, peremptorily ordered McClernand back to the Mississippi.
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| Emery Walker sc. |
Retreating from the upland. Grant sailed down the river and joined McClernand and Sherman at Milliken's Bend at the beginning of February, and, superseding the resentful McClernand, assumed command of the three corps (XIII., McClernand; XV., Sherman, XVII., McPherson) available. He had already imagined the daring solution of his most difficult problem which he afterwards put into execution, but for the present he tried a series of less risky expedients to reach the high ground beyond Pemberton's flanks, without indeed much confidence in their success, yet desirous in these unhealthy flats of keeping up the spirits of his army by active work, and of avoiding, at a crisis in the fortunes of the war, any appearance of discouragement. Three such attempts were made in all, with the co-operation of the flotilla under Captain David D. Porter. First, Grant endeavoured to cut a canal across the bend of the Mississippi at Vicksburg, hoping thus to isolate the fortress, to gain a water connection with the lower river, and to land an army on the bluffs beyond Pemberton's left flank. This was unsuccessful. Next he tried to make a practicable channel from the Mississippi to the upper Yazoo, and so to turn Pemberton's right, but the Confederates, warned in time, constructed a fort at the point where Grant's advance emerged from the bayoux. Lastly, an advance through a maze of creeks (Steele's Bayou expedition), towards the middle Yazoo and Haines's Bluff, encountered the enemy, not on the bluffs, but in the low-lying woods and islands, and these so harassed and delayed the progress of the expedition that Grant recalled it. Shortly afterwards Grant determined on the manœuvre in rear of Vicksburg which established his reputation. The troops marched overland from Milliken's Bend to New Carthage, and on the 16th of April Porter's gunboat flotilla and the transports ran past the Vicksburg batteries. All this, which involved careful arrangement and hard work, was done by the 24th of April. General Banks, with a Union army from New Orleans, was now advancing up the river to invest Port Hudson, and by way of diverting attention from the Mississippi, a cavalry brigade under Benjamin Grierson rode from La Grange to Baton Rouge (600 m. in 16 days), destroying railways and magazines and cutting the telegraph
