onstration against Macon. Finding the railway-station there well defended, Forbes had proceeded toward that of Enterprise, but on arriving at the latter place with his small band he had fallen in with the whole of Buford's brigade, which Pemberton had despatched toward that point. Without appearing in the least disconcerted, he steps forward as the bearer of a flag of truce, demanding the surrender of the place. The Confederate general, believing that the whole Federal cavalry is at hand, takes this proposal in a serious sense, and asks for time to reflect. "I will come in an hour for my answer," says Forbes to him; and he makes off immediately at full gallop. Falling again into Grierson's track, he follows it for several days, and finally overtakes him without having lost a single man or horse.

On the very day that the Federal column crossed Pearl River it reached the Mississippi Central Railroad at Hazelhurst, and set to work at once to destroy it. A considerable amount of supplies and ammunition was captured both at Hazelhurst and farther down at Gallatin. Grierson was marching directly upon Grand Gulf. But the enemy had at last fathomed his design, and Wirt Adams' cavalry, superior in numbers to his own, was preparing to block his way. He exchanged a few musket-shots with it, the first he had fired. Adams had intended to attack him on the 29th, but Grierson succeeded in getting away from him. In order to make him believe that his object was to gain Grand Gulf, which Porter was storming on that very day, he made a feint in the direction of Fayette village, near Rodney on the Mississippi; then, suddenly turning southward, he reached Brookhaven Station along the railroad, where he surprised a drilling-camp and took two hundred prisoners, whom he released on parole. Following the track, he continued his work of destruction; but this time the Confederates started in pursuit of him in earnest, for they could no longer have any doubt as to the road he had taken, Baton Rouge being the only point which he could henceforth reach. Consequently, holding his little band close together, he pushed on by forced marches, notwithstanding the exhausted condition of his men and horses. Being obliged to cross the Tickfaw River twice, he encountered each time some bands of the enemy, which he dispersed after a few shots. A considerable

water-course, Amite River, still separated him from Baton Rouge, and the only bridge by which he could cross it was located in the dangerous vicinity of Port Hudson. Thanks to the rapidity of his movements, he succeeded in taking possession of it on the evening of the 1st of May, two hours before the arrival of a column of infantry which had been sent to dispute his passage. Henceforth he was almost without opposition. Having encountered on his route the camp of Hughes' cavalry, sent in pursuit of him, he surprises and destroys it, taking a large number of prisoners; a little farther on another detachment of cavalry, charged with guarding Comite River, experiences the same treatment, leaving forty men in his hands. After this last success the Union general, fording the river, arrives at Baton Rouge on the 2d of May, where his small band is received with acclamations by Augur's division, which had come in solid phalanx to meet these bold partisans, who were thus emerging from the very heart of the enemy's country. They only left behind them three men killed, seven wounded, five sick (one a surgeon), and nine missing; they had taken more than five hundred prisoners, who were all released on parole-in a somewhat irregular way, it is true; destroyed between fifty and sixty miles of railroad and telegraphic wires and a considerable amount of provisions, and thrown the utmost confusion into the movements of the enemy. They had avenged themselves for the disaster of Holly Springs, and demonstrated by this raid into the interior of the Confederacy that the latter, as was said by Grierson, was but a hollow shell. While all the forces and all the resources were conveyed to the frontier, there were left in the interior neither available men nor horses, nor any other supplies except those belonging to the government. Nowhere could there be found materials with which to organize any kind of resistance; the negroes, finding that all the whites had gone to the war, worked in a slovenly way; agriculture languished, commerce was suspended, misery reigned everywhere.

VOL. III.-15

CHAPTER II.

PORT GIBSON.

EFORE resuming the narrative of the campaign which Grant and Porter have just opened, we must, as we have intimated, cast a glance at the armies that are watching one another in the other sections of the immense basin of the Mississippi north-east and north-west of Vicksburg. They are feeling each other without daring to come in contact, each seeming to have no other object in view than to prevent its opponent from joining Grant or Pemberton without its knowledge. In Louisiana the Unionists are striving to capture Vicksburg from the rear; the Southerners are sparing no efforts to harass their march. We will continue the recital of these secondary operations till the early part of May, and resume it in the following chapter, when we shall reach that phase of the history when the surrender of Vicksburg shall change the entire face of the war in the West.

Rosecrans, unwilling to acknowledge himself as vanquished on the borders of Stone River, has gathered the fruits of his obstinacy; he occupies Murfreesborough, which Bragg has abandoned to him by retiring as far as Tullahoma. He strongly intrenches himself, unable to do more in his new positions. Thomas, in the centre, is stationed above Murfreesborough along the routes leading straight to the enemy by way of Woodbury, Bradyville, Manchester, and Shelbyville; McCook on the right and Crittenden on the left each keeps his respective wing from being drawn into action, in order to surround Murfreesborough and form a junction on Stone River below this city. As the latter will not always enjoy this protection, the genius of the Federals conceives the idea of converting it into a stronghold which may serve as the basis of operations in an offensive campaign and a rallying-point in case of defeat, without being exposed to a sudden attack like

that of Van Dorn upon Holly Springs. While the troops are building intrenchments along the whole vast circumference they occupy, earthworks, more compact and of greater strength, encircle the city itself, and are erected around a large central fortress susceptible of serving as an intrenchment. But the place will possess no value unless it is strongly connected with the Northern States, which supply the army with food: this is the first condition required for reinforcing this army, and thereby enabling it to resume the offensive. The reconstruction of the railroad from Nashville is therefore the first object to occupy Rosecrans' attention: the work is pushed with vigor. The task of guarding the city of Nashville and the railroad-track is entrusted to Steedman's division, recently arrived from Kentucky. The Cumberland being easily navigable above this city, and of great assistance in supplying Rosecrans with provisions, Forts Heiman, Henry, and Donelson, which dominate its course, are placed within the sphere of his command on the 25th of January. This riverroute is the more useful on account of the long railway line from Louisville to Nashville being greatly exposed to incursions from the enemy's guerillas. These partisan bands set the closest vigilance at defiance. Thus, for instance, since the opening of the Nashville and Murfreesborough branch on the 25th of January they have captured one train. Twice, on the 15th and 26th of February, between Louisville and Nashville, they have seized trains destined for the army: on the second occasion the perpetrators of this bold stroke conceived the atrocious idea of running a locomotive at full speed, without an engineer, to meet an ordinary train of passengers, and if, by a fortunate chance, it had not been stopped before meeting it, the shock would undoubtedly have cost the lives of many innocent persons. The necessity of guarding these long railway lines abstracts from the Unionists more than one-third of their active forces: besides Steedman's division, another, and a very large one, under General Gordon Granger, is kept within the borders of Kentucky. So that, notwithstanding the apparent superiority of his effective forces, Rosecrans cannot bring into line more soldiers than his adversary beyond Murfreesborough. The Federal government promises him reinforcements. In the mean while, his army, previously desig

nated as the Fourteenth corps, is reorganized, divided into three corps, and called the Army of the Cumberland. Thomas, McCook, and Crittenden each retains the troops under his respective command, forming the Fourteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-first corps.*

The positions taken by Bragg are very strong. The great plateau of the Cumberland, forming the échelon farthest west of the Alleghanies, extends southward as far as the thirty-fourth degree of latitude; the Tennessee, after traversing from east to west the first chain of hills, called Waldron's Ridge at the north and Lookout Mountain at the south, hugs the eastern base of the plateau as far as Guntersville, where it winds around its extremity as it flows in a westerly direction. The waters which descend on the opposite side of this plateau toward the plains of Tennessee are absorbed on one side by Duck River, and on the other by the tributary of the Cumberland called Caney Fork. These two rivers cover Bragg's front, which extends from McMinnville on the right to Columbia on the left, passing through Manchester and Shelbyville. The infantry is concentrated between these two latter points and Tullahoma; the first two mentioned are occupied by Morgan's cavalry on the right and Wheeler's on the left. All ΑΠ the roads traversing the plateau of the Cumberland pass through defiles easy to defend the aridity of the soil and the rough climate of this plateau are moreover calculated to oppose a serious obstacle to the Federals if they attempt to force the line of Caney Fork and of Duck River. But, on the other hand, the character of this section of country does not afford the Confederate army the necessary means of subsistence. These must be sought for at Columbia, and even farther yet in the rich country between Duck River and the Tennessee. As we have stated, the cavalry which Van Dorn had organized at Grenada came, during the month of February, to occupy this section of country and to protect it effectively against the incursions of the Federals. It was, besides, the only reinforcement granted to Bragg. He had asked for twenty thousand men to repair his losses: the Richmond government did not even reply to him.

* General Orders, No. 9, War Department, Adjutant-general's Office, January 9, 1863.-ED.