July 7th. Sherman was at his heels, the Union troops crossing Big Black the same day. The sun poured down its fiercest rays; the troops suffered for want of water and from heat. The Confederates strengthened the intrenchments. Sherman was too wise to attempt to storm the breastworks. The Fifteenth Corps was in the centre, the Thirteenth on the right, the Ninth on the left, north of the town. The cannonade began, and there was constant skirmishing. Sherman's wagons were bringing bales of cotton for breast works, while the Union cavalry swept north and south along the railroad, destroying the track.

While this is going on at Jackson let us look at the last stronghold of the Confederates on the Mississippi-Port Hudson. Slaves had been at work many months building Confederate intrenchments upon the bluff overlooking the river. The works were very strong, the parapet twenty feet thick, and the ditch outside the intrenchments fifteen feet deep. Along the river were twenty heavy siege-guns. Admiral Farragut had tried in vain to silence them with his fleet, but his vessels had been roughly handled, and some of them destroyed.

The river makes a bend, running north-east, then turning sharply south, and the great guns in the fortifications could send a plunging fire upon the fleet. The place could be captured only by an army.

The Confederate works protecting the rear began a mile below the town, near Ross's Landing, ran east amid hills and knolls, came out upon an open plain dotted with trees, then ran parallel with the river a mile cast of it to Thompson's Creek, a little stream that trickles amid the knolls. There were thirty cannon along these intrenchments. Seven thousand Confederate troops, under the command of Major-general Gardner, held the place.

General Johnston at the outset saw that a Union army under General Banks, which had been operating west of the Mississippi, was moving east, and would cross the Mississippi, get in rear of Port Hudson, and begin a siege. He sent a messenger, May 19th, with orders for Gardner to evacuate the place; but the messenger did not arrive till the 23d. He was a day late, for the Union troops were landing below the city and closing around it Gen. T. W. Sherman's division, near Ross's Landing; then Augur's division, south-east of the town, Paine's in the centre, and Weitzel's north. Grierson's cavalry, after a three-weeks' rest, had been scouring the country east to hold in check any Confederate forces gathering in that direction.

"Assault along the whole line," was the order of General Banks.

The sun had just risen, May 25th, when the Union artillery opened fire.

Through the forenoon the uproar went on. It was mid-afternoon before the grand assault began. The troops advanced over broken ground, and their progress was difficult and slow. They were in the open field and suffered severely, while the Confederates, behind their intrenchments, lost few men. With a hurrah the Union troops rushed upon the fortifications, reached the ditch, to see that it would not be possible for them to scale the parapet. They were compelled to fall back, leaving the ground strewn with nearly two thousand killed and wounded. It had been a brave but fruitless assault. The Confederate loss was hardly three hundred.

On the morning of the 26th the Union soldiers placed siege-guns in position, which sent heavy shells into the Confederate lines. The Union line was seven miles long, and no end of labor had to be done-earth shovelled, trees cut down, trenches dug, cannon moved.

On June 13th General Banks sent a summons to General Gardner to surrender, who refused. Once more the Union troops rushed upon the Confederate works, but they could not cross the ditch. They gained new ground, and held it, but at a cost of nearly two thousand killed and wounded.

The shovel, and not the bayonet, did its work. Every night the trenches were carried nearer the Confederate lines.

On July 7th a messenger arrived from Vicksburg with the news that it had surrendered. A wild cheer went up from the Union line. The soldiers tossed their hats into the air and screamed themselves hoarse. They shouted the news to the Confederates, "Vicksburg is ours!" A white flag came out from the Confederate lines. An officer brought a letter from General Gardner to General Banks asking if the news is true, and carried back a copy of Grant's letter.

The morning of July 8th dawns. Again the white flag flies above the Confederate intrenchments. General Gardner is ready to surrender. His provisions are exhausted. His troops are eating mule-meat. Some of them have eaten cats and dogs. It is useless to prolong the contest. nine o'clock three Union and three Confederate officers meet between the

lines to arrange the terms of capitulation. Seven thousand troops, fiftyone cannon, and all the stores are given up.

Going back now to Jackson, we see, on July 12th, Lauman's division of Union troops falling upon the Confederates, to be repulsed with a loss of five hundred.

Sherman needs ammunition for his artillery. The trains arrive July 16th, but on the morning of the 17th, when the cannon are ready to open fire, not a Confederate is to be seen. Johnston has stolen away, marching east towards Alabama. Sherman burns bridges and depots, levels the for

tifications, distributes food to the poor people, and then turns west towards Vicksburg.

The last vestige of Confederate power and authority had disappeared from the Mississippi. Once more its waters were free to the commerce of the great West. On the 16th, while Johnston was hastening eastward from Jackson, the steamboat Imperial, from St. Louis, was rounding up to the levee at New Orleans amid the shouts of the multitude. The great river