THE STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST TWO ADVANCES ON VICKSBURG. of 1861 and 1862. THE first two volumes of The Story of the Civil War have told of the operations of 1861 and 1862, excepting some of those in the States bordering on the Mississippi River. The plan for crushing the rebellion was to surround the Confederacy with the Campaigns Federal Army and Navy, and so cut off all supplies from without, while the Federal Army advanced, and destroyed the Army and occupied the territory of the Confederates. After the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April, 1861, some time elapsed before the opposing forces were assembled. In the summer, the Federal armies were defeated at Bull Run in the East and at Wilson's Creek in the West. In the summer and autumn, lodgments were made by the Federal Army on the Atlantic Coast in support of the blockade by the Federal Navy. In the winter, all was quiet on the Potomac, but in the West, the Federals won the battle of Mill Springs, captured Forts Henry and Donelson, and secured the State of Kentucky to the Union. In the spring of 1862, the Federals in the East landed on the Peninsula, and advanced as far as the outskirts of Richmond; and in the West, they won the battles of Shiloh and Pea Ridge, captured Island No. 10, and advanced as far as the northern part of Mississippi and of Arkansas. The Federal Navy entered the Mississippi River and captured New Orleans. In the summer, the tide turned. In the West, the great Federal Army that had been assembled at Corinth was broken up. In the East, Federal troops were withdrawn from the Peninsula; and a new army was assembled in Northern Virginia, and defeated at the second battle of Bull Run. In the autumn, the Confederate power reached its high-water mark for this year. Its armies invaded Maryland, Tennessee, and Kentucky, but they were soon checked at the Antietam in the East and at Perryville in the West. The Federal armies then advanced, and recovered the lost ground; the end of the year was marked by their disastrous defeat at Fredericksburg and their partial victory at Murfreesborough. Military Before reviewing the situation in the winter of 1862 and 1863, we have yet to describe the campaigns in the States bordering on the Mississippi River. importance In the spring of 1862, although the blockade of the was partially established from Chesapeake Mississippi. Bay to the Rio Grande and the Federal armies occupied a line reaching from the Potomac to the north of Arkansas, yet the Confederates still held the Mississippi River and its shores from Fort Pillow to New Orleans, and the circuit could not be completed until the gap could be closed between the I See Map I. Federal Army in the West and the Federal fleet in the Gulf of Mexico. Supplies were constantly poured in from Mexico and carried across the Mississippi to supply the armies of the Confederacy. The States of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas are said to have supplied the Confederacy with most of its sugar, beef, and grain; and to have furnished 100,000 recruits for the Confederate Army. On the other hand, all the produce of the great Northwest was cut off from its natural outlet down the Mississippi River; and as the Northern armies were largely recruited from these States, many of the troops felt that they were neglecting their homes, and fighting other people's battles. The opening up of the Mississippi was therefore one of the great problems of the war. If its shores were held by the Federal Army, its waters could be occupied by the Federal Navy. The blockade of the South would be closed, and that of the Northwest would be opened; the Confederacy would be cut in two; and the river would form a new base from which the Federal armies could concentrate their forces upon each fraction in turn. The Western troops would fight with greater zeal when, in the language of President Lincoln "the father of waters flowed unvexed to the sea." Mississippi River and basin. The Mississippi River from Memphis to the Gulf of Mexico flows through an alluvial basin of its own making, so low that an area of 23,000 square miles, varying in width from 12 to 80 miles, is sometimes submerged at high water. This basin is, in general, bounded by bluffs rising steeply for about 150 to 250 feet above the water. The river leaves the eastern bluffs at Memphis'; and its general course bends slightly to S. W., S., and S. E., striking the bluffs again at Vicksburg and form See Map I., and map, p. 8. |