Page images
PDF
EPUB

Bruinsburg, they took up the line of march, the Fourteenth, under Carr, taking the lead, followed by the Ninth, under Osterhaus, then by the Twelfth (comprising the old Army of Arkansas), under Hovey, and finally by the Tenth, under Smith. The troops had been on the march nearly the whole night, exchanging musket-shots with the enemy's skirmishers, and lighting up the woods by means of a number of shells thrown at random over the woods in the direction where the enemy was supposed to be lodged-quite a common practice in America. The night was warm and beautiful, and, notwithstanding their fatigue, the troops were full of ardor; for after four months of thankless labor in mud and water they found themselves at last upon solid ground and fronting that adversary whom they had so much trouble in overtaking. Consequently, at daybreak on the 1st of May they commenced the attack with vigor. Osterhaus' division takes the road to the left; McClernand, with the other three, that on the right. Carr's division, which is in advance on this side, having been received by a well-directed fire, fails to effect a breach in the position of the Confederates, and has even several of its guns dismounted by a battery posted on their extreme left. But Hovey soon comes to its assistance, detaching one brigade for the purpose of menacing the enemy's right across an almost impenetrable thicket; and, making a vigorous attack upon Bowen's left, he carries the battery which had checked the progress of Carr's soldiers. Four cannon, with several hundred prisoners, fall into his hands. But the Confederates retire upon a second ridge, where they find a still stronger position than the first. During this time Osterhaus is exhausting himself in fruitless efforts to dislodge them from the position they occupy on the other road, which forms their extreme right.

In the mean time, the booming of cannon has penetrated as far as Bruinsburg. Grant, borrowing a cavalry-horse, has repaired to the battlefield about ten o'clock, and after ascertaining the progress made by McClernand has proceeded to the left, where reinforcements are most needed. He has not long to wait for them, for McPherson, hastening his march, appears on the scene of action with two of his brigades before noon. The latter are immediately sent to Osterhaus' relief. But Bowen also receives

fresh troops. Baldwin's brigade, which had left Hankinson's Ferry the previous day, comes to swell the number of his troops to about seven thousand five hundred men. The Federals, on their side, who have nearly nineteen thousand men on the ground, can only bring a small portion of them into action at once. The arrival of McPherson, however, has changed the aspect of the battle on the left. While Osterhaus is renewing the attack in front, he has caused a diversion to be made by J. E. Smith's brigade, which, crossing a ravine, falls upon the right. flank of the Confederates, throwing disorder into their ranks. On the other side McClernand is slowly gaining ground. Notwithstanding the number of men at his disposal, he asks for immediate and strong reinforcements, and at last Grant sends him Stevenson's brigade of Logan's division of the Seventeenth corps; but the latter only arrives in time to witness the retreat of the Confederates. Although staggered by this unequal and desperate struggle, Bowen's soldiers preserve their ranks nevertheless, and defend themselves most stubbornly.

Night supervenes at last. The Federal troops, worn out by successive watches, come to a halt within two miles of Port Gibson, where their victory secures them an easy entrance for the following day. This combat had cost them one hundred and thirty killed and seven hundred and eighteen wounded. Bowen had four hundred and forty-eight men disabled, leaving six pieces of cannon and all his wounded, with three hundred and eightyfour able-bodied prisoners, in the hands of Grant. The Confederate general Tracy was killed.

Bowen's movement upon Port Gibson, which would have been successful if sufficient reinforcements had reached him in the course of the day, was probably too rash: his defence had been excellently conducted, but his defeat, although an honorable one, was not the less complete. Thenceforth, Grant was firmly established upon the left bank of the river. After four months of effort and labor he had at last turned the positions of Vicksburg: the real campaign was about to commence in earnest. During the first three months, devoted to the expeditions of Yazoo Pass and Steele's Bayou, in the vain attempts to open the Williams channel and that of Lake Providence, nothing that

[ocr errors]

he undertook had proved successful. If the season of the year was not taken into account, one might almost accuse him of having too long persisted in the search of byways, to fall back at last upon the only effective means, the passage of the gunboats and transports before the batteries of Vicksburg, which plan had presented itself to him from the first. him from the first. But the campaign which was opened on the 1st of May by the brilliant fight at Port Gibson would not have been practicable during the first three months of the year, for at that period the muddy roads would not have allowed Grant to put his army in motion and to supply it, as he did in the month of May. The mild weather had come, and both in the West and East people were preparing for a decisive struggle in the summer of 1863. Without bringing the war to a close as yet, this struggle was to establish definitively the superiority of one or the other belligerent.

CHAPTER III.

CHAMPION'S HILL.

RANT had the choice of various plans of campaign. He

GRAN

might have tried to assist Banks with a portion of his army and reduce Port Hudson, whilst the remainder, stationed at Grand Gulf, could have prevented Pemberton from interfering with this operation. But Banks being still on the Bayou Teché, much time would have been lost in waiting for him. The land-route being impracticable, the small number of transports to be found below Grand Gulf limited to a very small figure the number of the forces which Grant could bring before Port Hudson. A large portion of the army would have remained inactive, and all Banks' troops coming to aid Grant in the attack upon Vicksburg after the capture of Port Hudson would scarcely have compensated for the advantages which this long delay would have given to the Confederates. Grant being, moreover, well aware that Port Hudson was only an advanced post of defence, whose fate was bound up with that of Vicksburg, resolved to attack the latter place at once, to the neglect of all posts of secondary importance. After having seen his slow movements become a subject of derision with the enemy, he was about to confound the latter by the boldness of his action and the rapidity of his blows.

On the very evening of the fight at Port Gibson, Bowen, with his brave little band, had recrossed the southern branch of Bayou Pierre, which runs east of the town, leaving a detachment at the north charged with the defence of the railway-bridge and with preventing the enemy from turning it at this point.

On the morning of the 2d, McClernand was upon his tracks. Aided by a diversion made by his left, he constructed a floating bridge over the southern branch of the bayou, whilst Logan's division, on his right, ascended its course, to cross it higher up

by fording. Crocker, who, like the latter, belonged to McPherson's corps, followed him closely. He had landed at Bruinsburg the previous day, when his soldiers, hastily placing three days' provisions in their haversacks, marched the whole night in order to join their comrades.

Bowen had halted on the 2d in the neighborhood of Grand Gulf with the greater portion of his troops. Loring, who was coming to his assistance, was at Rocky Springs when he learned of his defeat. He immediately despatched Tilghman's brigade to Grindstone Ford, on the northern branch of Bayou Pierre, in order to dispute its passage to the Federals, who were advancing on that side, and who might, by a forced march, have cut off the only line of retreat which Bowen had left, that of Hankinson's Ferry bridge on the Big Black. Leaving his troops near this bridge, he proceeded to Grand Gulf, the evacuation of which, ordered by Pemberton even before the combat at Port Gibson, was at once commenced. From the moment that Porter had braved its batteries and Grant had turned them by land, this place had ceased to possess any importance. The siege-guns, together with the magazines, were destroyed, and all the troops started for Hankinson's Ferry. Loring could not, in fact, with his limited resources, think of defending the passes of Bayou Pierre. After having made the best resistance he could, Tilghman had been compelled, on the morning of the 3d, to abandon Grindstone Ford to McPherson, whose troops formed the head of the Federal column, and shortly after the latter crossed the river over the bridge, which had been imperfectly destroyed. All the Confederate forces which happened to be south of the Big Black were already wending their way toward Hankinson's Ferry. The Federals were marching with all possible speed, and the rear-guard of the Confederates, in spite of its fatigue and want of ammunition, was several times obliged to face about to hold them in check. But Loring, with the bulk of his troops, had greatly the advance, and when the Federals finally reached Hankinson's Ferry on the evening of the 3d, there was not a single enemy left south of the Big Black. They had, however, pressed the Confederate rear-guard so hard that the latter had no time to destroy the bridge behind it.

« PreviousContinue »