v1.1.2 / chapter 53 of 93 / 01 oct 09 / greg goebel / public domain
* The Union victory at Gettysburg was followed by another great triumph at Vicksburg, with the fall of the city effectively cutting the Confederacy in half. Southerners realized that their cause had taken a blow from which their cause might never recover.
* Grant's stranglehold on Vicksburg left Confederate leadership in Richmond desperate to break the siege. Richmond sent frantic messages to the generals in the region, encouraging them to act quickly.
General Theophilus Holmes, Confederate commander in Arkansas, had attempted to disrupt Grant's downriver thrust in mid-April by sending General John S. Marmaduke into Missouri with 5,000 cavalry. The objective of the raid was to torch Union supply centers on the west bank of the Mississippi north of Cairo, Cape Girardeau being a particular target. After sending Federal outpost garrisons fleeing, Marmaduke surrounded Cape Girardeau on 25 April and demanded its surrender. The Union commander refused, driving back the Confederates with little effort when they attacked. Union reinforcements arrived and Marmaduke was forced to flee with the Yankees in hot pursuit. The rebels were back to where they started from in Arkansas by 1 May, having suffered more casualties than they inflicted.
Holmes remained largely idle until mid-June, when he received a message from Confederate Secretary of War Seddon suggesting that retaking Helena, Arkansas, might divert Union pressure from Vicksburg, or if not at least give the Confederacy an advantage in later efforts. Holmes spoke with Sterling Price about the idea; Price was enthusiastic, since he had obtained intelligence that the Yankee garrison in Helena had been depleted by sending reinforcements to Grant. The two Confederate generals managed to accumulate about 5,000 infantry and 2,500 cavalry, with the little army moving out on 26 June. Or at least they tried to move out, because they were immediately bogged down in torrential rains that turned the land to mud. They actually didn't get on the road until 1 July.
The rebels reached the outskirts of Helena on the evening of 3 July, and the next morning massed up to attack. Holmes correctly estimated that there were only about 4,000 Yankees in the town and felt he could overwhelm them with superior numbers. However, the Federal commander in Helena was Benjamin M. Prentiss, who had held out in the Hornet's Nest at Shiloh until he and his division had been overrun and captured; he had been sent back North on a prisoner exchange a few months later. Prentiss had skill as well as spine, and had spent six months turning the town of Helena into a deathtrap, with fortifications expertly sited on high ground to provide interlocking fields of fire. Furthermore, Confederate movements and intent had been obvious, the Federals had been alert for days, and the garrison was as prepared for an attack as they could be. Prentiss had even arranged for the timberclad gunboat TYLER to be on hand to supply supporting fire with the vessel's big 8 inch (20 centimeter) guns.
Prentiss's major worry was that his men had little combat experience; all he could do was hope that drill and discipline had paid off. When the sun came up on 4 July, the Confederates charged in their usual enthusiastic way. They scattered the picket line and managed to seize some of the outer batteries, but that was as far as they got. The Union gunners had the presence of mind to take all the friction primers needed to fire the guns, making them useless to the Confederates.
The interlocking nature of the defenses made the captured batteries little protection from fire from fortifications remaining in Federal hands, and then the TYLER began to pour out broadsides of heavy shells, pinning the Confederates down. Terrorized, large groups of rebels put up the white flag and surrendered to the Yankees, while their own enraged sharpshooters took potshots at them from behind. After six hours of fighting, Holmes decided that he'd had enough and pulled out after a short rear-guard action. Prentiss didn't have enough men to pursue, but he otherwise had reason to be very satisfied: the Confederates had lost almost 1,600 men, while he had lost less than 240. All the dash in the world didn't make much difference if the enemy was professional, well-supplied, and well-prepared: aggressiveness just got more men killed.
* By the first of July, all evidence showed Grant that Vicksburg couldn't hold out much longer. Artillery bombardment and sharpshooter fire were picking off the defenders, and those that remained were slowly starving.
Pemberton had tried to coordinate food distribution, but once reserves of livestock were gone there wasn't much left for soldiers and citizens to eat. They turned to horses and mules, then dogs and cats, and gathered blackberries and weeds to eat. They made a wretched bread of ground peas. Even water was in short supply, since the Mississippi was too dirty to drink and there were few wells in Vicksburg. Pemberton's men were emaciated, weak, and covered with parasites. They could not hold out indefinitely.
Grant was aware of all of this. He planned a final assault for 6 July. Johnston, in the meanwhile, had finally decided that he had to attack Grant's positions to help Pemberton's army escape, and scheduled his attack for 7 July. That wasn't soon enough to help Pemberton, who knew the defense of the city was on its last legs. On 1 July, he consulted his division commanders to learn the condition of their troops. The response was that the men were too exhausted to even break out the city.
On 3 July, Pemberton sent General John Bowen over to the Union lines under a flag of truce to discuss surrender. Bowen was dying of dysentery, but he had been friends with Grant before the war, and hopefully that might count for something in the negotiations. Grant told Bowen that the only thing he wanted was "unconditional surrender", but agreed to further discussions. That afternoon, Pemberton and several of his officers came across the lines and met with Grant and a handful of his generals.
Grant insisted that Pemberton surrender unconditionally. Pemberton was not cowed by this in the least and the meeting did not go well. After the Confederates had returned to their lines that evening, Grant sent over final terms that were surprisingly lenient, in particular indicating that all of Pemberton's men would be paroled. This was done for practical reasons. Grant did not want to deal with 30,000 prisoners when he could better use his resources to keep up the pressure on the Confederacy. Furthermore, it was likely very few of the rebels were in any physical condition to do much fighting for the Confederacy any time soon, and most were too discouraged to want any more of the war.
Sometime after midnight, Pemberton sent a message to Grant. Grant, sitting in his tent with his son Fred, read the note and said to the boy: "Vicksburg has surrendered." It was the 4th of July, 1863.
The Federals quickly moved into the city. There was little gloating and Union soldiers brought sacks of food to help the famished Confederates. One Federal outfit raised a cheer for "the gallant defenders of Vicksburg." There was a degree of fraternization between the soldiers of the two sides as well, and even some edged joking. One Confederate called out to a Union engineering officer named Major Lockett, who had been on the move a great deal while working on Federal siegeworks: "See here, mister, you man on the little white horse! Danged if you ain't the hardest feller to hit I ever saw. I've shot at you more'n a hundred times!" Lockett took it in good humor.
Porter sent a fast steamer up the Mississippi to Cairo, the nearest place
where news could be wired to Washington, and on 7 July Navy Secretary Welles
dashed into Lincoln's office with a telegram signed by Porter:
I HAVE THE HONOR TO INFORM YOU THAT VICKSBURG HAS
SURRENDERED TO THE US FORCES ON THIS 4TH DAY OF JULY.
The President, who had been close to despair over Meade's reluctance to
follow up his victory at Gettysburg, was elated at the news and immediately
had it wired to Meade in hopes of encouraging him to greater efforts.
Lincoln did stop to put an arm around Gideon Welles' shoulders and say:
"What can we do for the Secretary of the Navy for this glorious intelligence?
He is always giving us good news. I cannot in words tell you my joy over
this result. It is great, Mr. Welles, it is great!"
Lincoln wasn't alone in his joy. There was celebration throughout the North. Churches rang bells and cities fired off cannon salutes. There was depression in the South over the defeat, as the perceptive among the Confederate leadership realized that their hopes of winning the conflict had just greatly faded. In hindsight, in fact, the Confederacy had just all but lost the war.
* There remained the problem of Port Hudson, but not for long. Banks' men had dug their way close to Confederate lines and planned to blast craters in them on 11 July to allow a storming party of a thousand men to pass through. Fortunately for them, on 7 July the news arrived that Vicksburg had fallen.
There were loud celebrations in the Yankee positions. When the Confederates on the other side of the lines were told the news by their opponents, many refused to believe it, one calling it "another damned Yankee lie". The next morning, General Gardner took the sensible approach of requesting under a flag of truce evidence from Banks that Vicksburg had in fact fallen. Gardner was provided with convincing evidence, and surrendered Port Hudson on 9 July 1863.
The surrender didn't happen a moment too soon. Richard Taylor, having gone back down the Mississippi after the rebel fiasco at Milliken's Bend, had resumed his movement on New Orleans. On 23 June he had captured the Union garrison at Brashear City, on the Gulf Coast west of the city. Taylor took 1,700 Yankees prisoner; he also seized badly-needed supplies and arms in enormous quantity. Although Taylor's men took a nasty bloodying on 28 June in an attack on Union troops dug in at Fort Butler, on the road to New Orleans, the rebels succeeded in their primary objective of setting up guns to block Federal river traffic on the Mississippi and sending out horse patrols to sow fear among the handful of Federal troops that Banks had left in New Orleans.
After the fall of Port Hudson, Banks paroled all the enlisted Confederate prisoners, though he kept the officers. Banks had reason to feel magnanimous and sent a wagon train loaded with rations to the starved defenders. He also graciously returned Gardner's sword to the rebel general at the end of the formal surrender ceremony "in recognition of the heroic defense".
Banks had let most of the Port Hudson garrison go because he wanted to be free to deal with Taylor's threat to New Orleans. Banks' men promptly loaded up on transports, went downstream on the Mississippi, disembarked, and got ready for a fight. Taylor immediately recognized that he was outmatched; on 13 July the rebels withdrew from their positions on the Mississippi, though only after giving the over-confident Federals a minor bloodying that morning before escaping. Taylor and his men, well-armed with captured Yankee weapons, retreated up the Teche to wait for Banks to move on them again, though they would remain undisturbed for some time.
Despite the loss of ground on the Teche, the Federals had won something much more significant in clearing the Mississippi, and Banks was in high spirits. He wrote his wife: "We have taken from them the power to establish an independent government. It can never be done between the Mississippi and the Atlantic. You can tell your friends that the Confederacy is an impossibility."
* Although Vicksburg had fallen, Grant still had Joe Johnston to worry about. Catching and destroying Johnston and his army was unlikely, but at least they could be driven off the playing board for the time being.
Johnston's men had reestablished themselves on the Yazoo, and so Grant ordered 5,000 men to steam upriver under the protection of three of Porter's gunboats. Grant sent orders to Sherman as well: "I want Johnston broken up as effectually as possible, and roads destroyed." Grant suggested that MacPherson's corps be split off to assist Banks in front of Port Hudson, but that proved unnecessary with the surrender of the fortress downriver.
The Yazoo river expedition set out on the morning of 12 July. On the 13th, the force encountered fire at Yazoo City from guns manned by rebels under the enterprising Isaac Newton Brown. The Federals landed troops and forced the Confederates to withdraw, but when the Eads ironclad gunboat BARON DE KALB, previously SAINT LOUIS, steamed back upstream that evening, it hit two torpedoes and sank. None of the crew was seriously hurt, and though Porter was unhappy about the loss of the ironclad, it was more than acceptable for what had been gained. The expedition had succeeded in driving out Confederate forces and smashing what few resources they had were able to assemble.
Sherman had been on the move for a week by this time. He had been forced to spend time rebuilding bridges, but on 6 July he set out in pursuit of Joe Johnston. Johnston, on learning that his attempt to relieve Vicksburg had become pointless with the city's surrender, had retreated back to Jackson to set about improving its defenses. The countryside was dry and dusty and he hoped thirst would force Sherman into a rash attack that would be driven off with great loss.
Johnston greatly underestimated the stamina of Sherman's men, who drank from the few ponds where water remained, even though the Confederates had thrown carcasses of livestock in them to pollute them. Then torrential rains fell. It turned the roads into quagmires, but the Federals now had plenty of drinking water and they weren't going to be stopped by some mud.
Sherman's men converged on Jackson on 10 July. While Johnston was not a Lee who knew how to risk all on the offensive, there was no one keener on the defense, and Sherman knew better than to attack head-on. Instead, he worked around Jackson in an attempt to invest it, sending out parties to destroy the city's connections with the rest of the Confederacy. On 12 July, however, one of his divisions accidentally stumbled into a crossfire, with the lead brigade cut to pieces, losing 465 men; the division commander was sacked. Sherman's assessment of Johnston was confirmed. Sherman wrote Grant a few days later: "If he moves across the Pearl River and makes good speed, I will let him go."
In fact, Johnston realized he was close to being surrounded and decided to withdraw on 16 July. That night he and his men pulled out of Jackson quietly and efficiently, taking with them everything they could carry of military value. During the fighting for Jackson, they had managed to inflict 1,122 casualties on the Federals at a loss of 604 to themselves. Sherman was as good as his word and let Johnston go. The Federals then moved into the town and completely demolished it. When they left the place, they nicknamed it "Chimneyville".
Sherman was an unusually complicated man, part amusing and part frightening, often sensible but sometimes a bit mad. Although he found satisfaction in the misery his troops had inflicted on the rebellious population, he was careful to provide the locals with food and other supplies to allow them to survive over the short term. Even in this, he still found some satisfaction, gloating: "The inhabitants are subjugated. They cry aloud for mercy."
* Grant was not quite finished inflicting pain on Mississippi. On hearing reports that the rebels were busily running goods through Natchez, downriver from Vicksburg, Grant sent a brigade from MacPherson's corps under Brigadier General T.E.G. Ransom to investigate. Ransom arrived there in mid-month and found the hunting good, collecting a vast haul of ammunition and thousands of head of Texas cattle; he didn't lose a man on the raid.
A month later, Grant dispatched two cavalry columns towards Grenada, a rail junction on the Yabolusha River, a tributary of the Yazoo. Much of the Mississippi Central Railroad's rolling stock was stockpiled there, trapped by the destruction of railroad bridges in Jackson. One cavalry column moved south from Memphis while the other was sent north by Sherman, and they converged on the town on 17 August. The outnumbered garrison fought briefly and then fled. The raiders had a party destroying dozens of locomotives, hundreds of railroad cars, as well as the railyard itself. They were a little embarrassed to learn later that the rebels managed to salvage the valuable locomotive drive wheels. Sledgehammers would become a common item of equipment on future raids.
* On 13 July, Lincoln penned a congratulatory letter to General Grant, admitting that he, the President, had doubts of the wisdom of Grant's strategy, but events had proven "you were right and I was wrong." Nathaniel Banks also received personal praise from the President.
On 16 July, the Union cargo steamer IMPERIAL arrived in New Orleans, having traveled the full length of the Mississippi undisturbed. Soon after, Lincoln summed up the victory in a melodious phrase: "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea." Grant had already received his reward, being promoted to major general with the rank retroactively effective to 4 July, and Sherman and MacPherson were promoted to the permanent rank of brigadier general.
Not everyone in the Union was entirely pleased by Grant's performance at Vicksburg. One noisy faction was greatly disturbed by Grant's willingness to let Pemberton and his soldiers go free on parole, predicting that these men would soon be back in the lines and would have to be beaten all over again. They sent a delegation to Lincoln to demand that Grant be sacked. Later, Lincoln told a friend: "I thought the best way to get rid of them was to tell the story of Sykes' yellow dog. Have you ever heard about Sykes' yellow dog?"
Sykes, as the President explained, was a childhood acquaintance who had a yellow dog he was very fond of, but the other children hated. They finally decided to deal with the dog by wrapping a piece of meat around a blasting cap. They whistled for the dog, and when he came to chew on the meat, they lit the fuze. The dog was blown to bits, and when Sykes came out to investigate, he picked up the tail and the pieces connected to it, saying: "Well, I guess he'll never be much account again, as a dog." Lincoln, having reached the punchline, added the moral: "I guess Pemberton's forces will never be much account again as a army."
Most of the delegation wasn't there to hear it. As Lincoln told his friend: "The delegation began looking around for their hats before I had got quite to the end of the story, and I was never bothered any more about superseding the commander of the Army of the Tennessee."
* Grant's belief that the defenders of Vicksburg had all they wanted of war was borne out by events. As Pemberton led his parolees across country to Demopolis, Alabama, they faded out of the ranks with every mile.
Pemberton had been instructed to report to Joe Johnston. One moonlit evening Pemberton approached Johnston's camp. Johnston had been good friends with Pemberton, and in fact at one point had wanted him to be his adjutant. Johnston got up and put out his hand: "Well, Jack old boy, I'm certainly glad to see you!" Pemberton simply went to attention, saluted, and said: "General Johnston, according to the terms of parole prescribed by General Grant, I was directed to report to you."
There was an awkward silence. Johnston lowered his hand. Pemberton saluted again, then turned his back on Johnston and walked away. They never saw each other again.
Pemberton's credibility in the Confederacy was so low that in mid-July, Jefferson Davis detached Hardee from Bragg's command and sent him to Demopolis to take control of what was left of Vicksburg's army. That left Pemberton without a command, and no one wanted to give him another one. Jefferson Davis was sympathetic. He believed that Pemberton had done the best he could under difficult circumstances, and Davis always stood by his friends when all others abused them. In fact, Jefferson Davis felt that it was Joe Johnston's lack of aggressiveness that had doomed Vicksburg, not any failing of Pemberton's. Relations between Davis and Johnston, never good, had taken a turn for the worse.
Pemberton went to Richmond, where he spent the better part of a year looking for an assignment. He finally could bear it no more and submitted his resignation as a lieutenant general to become a lieutenant colonel of artillery. Such was Pemberton's dedication to his adopted nation, or possibly his refusal to accept humiliation, that he went back into combat when no one wanted him to, at a time when the cause was clearly lost.
