USA > Indiana > Greene County > Vicksburg > Indiana. Vicksburg National Military Park Commission. Indiana at Vicksburg > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
Thus far the prospect was inexpressibly encouraging. But it had a very dark side. General Pemberton was in Vicksburg and along the Vicksburg and Jackson railroad with many thousand men. General Johnston was on his way to Jackson, where reinforcements were constanly arriving from the South and collecting from the North and East. If Grant met these forces united, they might easily overwhelm him; if he succeeded in striking one separate, the. disengaged force could cut his line of communication with the Mis- sissippi. President Lincoln disapproved, and General Halleek was opposed, both desiring that he should turn his efforts against Port Hudson. His subordinate officers were full of doubt and mis- giving. Sherman, one of the most daring, had offered an earnest remonstrance before the expedition started from Milliken's Bend, and his views remained unchanged.
It may be supposed that General Grant weighed the question well. It is certain that he was resolute in his determination to ad- vance. He was rapid in his preparations. Meantime, the army lay on the Big Black, with the exception of strong reconnoitering parties, which pushed out on the west side of the river, within six miles of Vicksburg.
On the 8th of May Steele's and Tuttle's Divisions of Sherman's Corps arrived. The army immediately began to move out. On the 11th all preliminaries were consummated, and Grant solved one of the greatest difficulties, the question of defending his line of com-
--- -
-----
181
THE INDIANA SOLDIER AT VICKSBURG.
munication, in Alexander's style of cutting the Gordian knot. He swung loose from his base, and, being supplied with hard bread, coffee and salt, became dependent on the country for other rations. To prevent the union of the rebel forces, he directed his march toward the northeast. McClernand had the right, moving on a ridge; McPherson the left, hugging the Black, and Sherman the rear, following on both roads. In Sherman's Corps were the 83d and 93d Indiana.
The enemy fell back, lightly skirmishing, until the 12th, when, two miles south of Raymond, General Gregg, with artillery and in- fantry, about 5,000 strong, took a positive stand. His artillery, on an elevation, commanded the approach, and his infantry was wholly hidden by a thick woods bordering a small stream.
The relative position of Grant's Corps had changed, and Me- Pherson was now on the right. In his advance was Logan, and in Logan's advance was the 23d Indiana, under the command of Lieu- tenant Colonel Davis. Logan moved briskly to meet the fire of the enemy. The fight which followed was severe. It lasted two hours and a half, and threatened at one time to be disastrous, but was, in the end, a complete victory. The First Brigade of Crocker's Division, in which were the 48th and 59th Indiana, reached the ground just in time to lend wings to the already flying rebels. The 48th took position under a shower of shot and shell, which wounded several, but killed none. The 23d went into the field 375 strong, rank and file, and lost 132, 18 killed 87 wounded and 27 captured; nevertheless it maintained its place in the line of battle. The en- tire loss was 442. The rebels lost 405, killed and wounded, and 415 captured. General Grant called the battle of Raymond one of the hardest small battles of the war.
Resting that night in Raymond, McPherson resumed the march carly the next morning, through Clinton, and destroying the rail- road. Sherman advanced at the same time on the direct road from Raymond. Their movements were so timed as to enable them to press simultaneously upon Jackson from the southwest. On the 14th, they were marching vigorously in the midst of pouring rain. when several pieces of artillery, advantageously posted, gave notice that Jackson was not to be tamely surrendered. The 1st and 2d Brigades of Crocker's Division, which was in MePherson's ad- vance, immediately took position, distant about one mile from the rebel line of battle. The 48th was posted near the right of the line. in a cornfield. The 59th was on the extreme right. Thick and fast came shells and balls, but, as for the most part they passed harm-
182
INDIANA AT VICKSBURG.
lessly over, they were only a subject of merriment to the brave men, who were anxiously awaiting the order to advance. Soon it came. With fixed bayonets, they moved to the charge. Drenched to the skin, and weary with marching over miry and slippery roads, they nevertheless went forward on double-quick, shout answering shout throughout the line. Passing over one hill, they rapidly began the ascent of another, on which the enemy was posted, dashing to the ground fences that intervened, and never flinching under a leaden hail. They gained the heights. The enemy broke and fled. They pursued into Jackson. The skirmishers of the 59th Indiana, under Captain Simpson, were the first to enter the city, and the tattered flag of the 59th was the first to wave over the capitol of Mississippi.
The same night Sherman reached the city, having broken the force below him by pressing both the front and the left flank.
MePherson's loss in his fight before Jackson was 265. He in- Hicted a loss of 845 upon the enemy, seventeen pieces of artillery and a large amount of army stores.
General Grant, who accompanied Sherman to Jackson, faced about the next morning. moving MePherson's Corps along the line of the railroad towards Edwards Station, which is half way be- tween Vicksburg and Jackson, and ordering MeClernand, who, with Blair's Division, was now in the vicinity of Raymond, in the same direction. The sudden turn was due to intelligence which Grant had received that General Johnston had, on the day of his retreat from Jackson, the 14th, ordered Pemberton to move with all the force he could muster, at least 25,000 men, upon Grant's rear.
On the evening of the 15th. Pemberton, having become aware of the loss of Jackson and the retreat of Johnston, and having already freed himself of encumbrances by sending his train back to Vicksburg, took up an immensely strong position a few miles east of Edwards' Station. His line was about four miles long. His left, and the key to his position, was on Champion's Hill, which rises sixty to seventy feet above the surrounding country. Its bald top afforded his artillery a wide sweep, while its wooded and pre- cipitous sides threatened to hold entangled an advancing force.
General Grant immediately sent back for Sherman, whom he had left in Jackson to destroy the railroad and rolling stock, in order to prevent the possible use of that place in the future for the concentration of forces in his rear ; he ordered MePherson, who was moving north of the Vicksburg road and parallel to it, and Me- Clernand, who was sontheast with Blair, Carr and Osterhaus, to hasten up: and directed Hovey, who was sweeping on toward the
i !
183
THE INDIANA SOLDIER AT VICKSBURG.
enemy's center, and not far from it, with right and left unpro- tected, to hold off. MePherson found no difficulty in carrying his order into effect. McClernand met with some detention. Ilovey was already and inevitably within the outer limits of the maelstrom of battle.
It was about 9 in the morning, and while his skirmishers were engaged with the enemy's pickets, that Hovey formed his line. McGinnis on his right. Slack on his left. The skirmishers grad- ually drew together ; their firing, from being warm at intervals, be- came incessant. It was necessarily supported by the masses on either side. Against Hovey were two or three times his number, yet he persisted in crossing two cornfields, and in aseending an open slope, and he succeeded in pushing the rebels from their first line of protecting woods. He was nobly seconded by his subordi- nate officers, as they were by their men. Seldom, perhaps never, was a battle more earnestly fought. Vicksburg. so long striven for, was understood to hang in the balance of this day, as it was the garrison of the city which contested the field. Two batteries were captured-the 11th Indiana and the 29th Wisconsin, with a desperate struggle, taking one, and the 46th assisting in the cap- ture of the other.
McPherson, shortly after the cpening of the contest, reached the ground. He advanced one brigade after another of Crocker's Di- vision to Hovey's support, while with Logan's Division he fell upon the enemy's left and threatened his rear. If Carr, Osterhaus and Blair had come up on the right, according to orders, Hovey would not have found the pressure on his front more than he was able to bear. Even without them he stood and withstood, bravely ad- vancing and skilfully retreating, until the sun, in the east when the battle was joined, declined toward the western horizon.
Lieutenant Colonel Swaim, of the 34th Indiana, fell mortally wounded, and with Colonel Macauley, who was dangerously wounded, was carried from the field.
Lieutenant Colonel Barter, of the 24th, seizing the falling colors of his regiment, was shot in his right arm.
When out of ammunition, the men of several regiments in Slack's and McGinnis' Brigades supplied themselves from the cartridge-boxes of their dead and wounded comrades.
It is impossible to enumerate the brave deeds which were done. or the brave men who fell. Men and officers all, and equally. did their duty.
184
INDIANA AT VICKSBURG.
Hovey's troops swayed, rising and falling like a sea lashing the shore; receding at last, though temporarily, before overpowering force, and leaving the captured guns, spiked, behind. Hovey turned his backward movement to the best account, to triumph, indeed, by massing his artillery on high ground at his right and raining on the rushing Rebels an enfilading fire. The advancing host was checked. One more charge was made upon it. Exultant cheers proclaimed the success of that last desperate onset and the
View from Connecting Avenue.
Showing Place where the "Cincinnati" Sank, and the Canal through which the Yazoo River now Runs into Lake Centennial.
proud delight of the victors. Then they were withdrawn. Hovey rode along their thinned and broken ranks as they rested. IIe stopped in front of his old regiment, the 24th, missing many a familiar face. "Where are the rest of my boys?" "They are lying over there," replied the men to whom he spoke, pointing to the hollow across which the division had rushed forth and back according as it drove or was driven, and had at last made the de- cisive charge. General Hovey turned his horse and rode away weeping.
F
185
THE INDIANA SOLDIER AT VICKSBURG.
The Rebel retreat was hastened into flight by the timely, though hard won. success of MePherson, who, charging through ravines and over hills, gained the road in the rear of Pemberton's left and threatened to cut him off from Vicksburg. As it was, he separated General Loring's command from the main force and sent it on a wide march around the Union army to Jackson.
Carr's and Osterhaus's divisions of MeClernand's Corps, newly arrived and waiting on the Raymond road for orders, advanced as soon as the Confederates turned to retreat and chased them as fast as the men could run until after dark.
The battle of Champion's Hill was the hardest fought battle of the campaign and the most important, as it definitely and forever separated the forces of Pemberton and Johnston.
Ilovey's Division bore the brunt of the fighting and suffered nearly half the entire loss, losing 1,202 men, or one from every three, and 59 officers. The same division captured 700 men and 3 batteries.
The Indiana loss was as follows:
The 11th, 167. 28 of whom were killed; 24th, 201 ; several com- panies in the 11th and 24th lost more than half; 34th, 69; 47th, 140; 48th, 38; 59th, 10: 23d, 18. The 46th took into action but 350 men, of whom it lost 84 in killed and wounded. The flag of this regiment was riddled with balls.
Several of the 16th and 69th were wounded in the pursuit.
Lieutenant Colonel Darnall had command of the 11th after Macauley was carried from the field. Spicely. Cameron, Bring- hurst and MeLaughlin were all unhurt, although under the hottest of the fire from three to five hours.
Grant had about 15,000 men engaged in the battle and Pember- ton had nearly 25,000.
In the flight Pemberton's troops were seattered and demoral- ized, and Grant's pursuing force was superior in number as well as in spirit. MePherson's Corps and Carr's and Osterhaus's Di- visions pushed on until eight o'clock in the evening.
Hovey's tired heroes slept on the bloody field.
Shortly after daylight the next morning, the 17th. the enemy was found posted for resistance, his main force west of the Big Blaek, on a high bluff, and a brigade on the east behind earthworks along a semi-circular bayou which flows into the river shortly after flowing out. Carr's Division led MeClernand's Corps. Benton's Brigade was in advance of Carr, and the 8th Indiana was at the
186
INDIANA AT VICKSBURG.
head of the brigade. There were no ravines to give shelter to sharpshooters, but thick groves. of which the Rebels took advan- tage, falling back, however, behind their bayou and steadily await- ing an onset there. It came sooner than they could have expected, and with irresistible impetus. While Carr's front kept up a regu- lar fire, artillery pouring in rapid volleys, his right brigade, Law- ler's. 150 of its men falling by the way without checking its sweep, reached the bayou, plunged into the stagnant water, went at the Rebels with fixed bayonets and forced them to surrender or fly. The Rebel officers ordered, exhorted and threatened to no purpose.
The panic-stricken fugitives, who first gained a footing on the further side, fired the railroad bridge and a hastily constructed bridge of steamboats. Officers and men less fortunate sprang pell- mell into the stream, large numbers sinking to rise no more. A whole brigade surrendered in the trenches. In all 1,500 men sur- rendered. with eighteen guns and several thousand stand of arms.
General Grant's entire loss in the Black River Bridge fight was 279.
From Bruinsburg to Black River General Hovey's Division lost more men and took more prisoners and material of war than any other division. Its captures almost equaled those of all the rest of the army, as did also its losses.
To ascertain whether the river was passable four bold fellows from the 8th plunged in and swam across under a shower of bul- lets. The fire of their comrades protected their return.
Floating bridges were built during the night. MeClernand and McPherson pushed on the next day, meeting no resistance, finding constant proofs of the demoralization of the enemy and hoping to enter Vicksburg with him or close after him.
Meantime Sherman, having struck out to the right, crossed the Big Black at Bridgeport on a pontoon and marehed toward the Yazoo. At noon he stood on the very bluff which had so terribly repulsed him six months before, and seeing for the first time the wisdom of General Grant's plan acknowledged it. "This is a cam- paign, " he declared ; "this is a success if we never take the town."
General Grant, who was at his side, made no reply, as free from elation now as he was from despondency in the dreary months of the past.
The army was not able to press into Vicksburg on the heels of the retiring enemy; but by the 19th of May it as nearly invested the city as its strength would permit, Sherman's corps lying on the right, MePherson's in the center and MeClernand's on the left.
1
1
187
THE INDIANA SOLDIER AT VICKSBURG.
Allowing no time for the recuperation of Pemberton or for the advance of Johnston, who, with large reinforcements, was close at hand, General Grant at two o'clock in the afternoon moved to a general assault. His left and center succeeded simply in getting good positions nearer the works with little loss. Sherman engaged in severe battle, Blair's Division struggled under fire through rugged ravines which were choked with standing and felled tin- ber, and three of his regiments, one of which was the 83d Indiana, gained the exterior slope of the Rebel earthworks only to be with- drawn at night.
During twenty days the troops had but five days' rations and the gleanings of the country. They now received supplies which Admiral Porter brought up the Yazoo and landed near Haines's bluff.
Neither General Grant nor his army was willing to sit down to the regular and tedious approaches of a siege until another assault had been attempted. His soldiers, it is said, "felt as if they could march straight through Vicksburg and up to their waists in the Mississippi without resistance." Accordingly roads were con- structed, cannon were planted and all necessary preparations were rapidly made. The hour was set at ten in the forenoon of Friday the 22d. Orders were given for columns of attack to advance with fixed bayonets and without firing a gun till they had stormed the outer works.
During Thursday night and until nearly noon of Friday Ad- miral Porter kept six mortars firing into the city, and much of the time engaged the batteries along the river with his gunboats. At three o'clock in the morning all the batteries of the besiegers opened and a tremendous cannonade began. Fire girdled and lashed the city. Smoke hovered over and dropped down upon it. Unbroken, overwhelming roars shook it to its center and rocked hills and waters.
At ten the cannonade ceased ; a sixty-four pounder pealed forth a signal ; the troops on right, left and center moved with stern faces and swift steps from under cover toward redoubts, bastions, pits and forts in which the Rebels were well sheltered and were keenly on the alert. Steele, on Sherman's right and resting upon the Mississippi, rose over hills and plunged into gullies, advancing with desperate fighting. Sharpshooters skirmished in front of Blair's Division, which was a half mile to the left of Steele's; a storming party-a forlorn hope-carried rails to bridge the ditch; Ewing's Brigade, Giles Smith's and Kilby Smith's followed, and for a lit-
188
INDIANA AT VICKSBURG.
tle while, under the partial shelter of the road and the protection of five batteries, which concentrated their fire on a bastion eon- manding the approach, made rapid progress. Suddenly the head of the column eame under a terrific fire and was fairly beaten down. But Ewing's Brigade pressed on, crossed the ditch, climbed the outer slope of a bastion which commanded the approach and set its colors on the outside of the parapet. Giles Smith's Brigade swerved to the left, and, finding or making cover, formed line three hundred yards to the left of the bastion. Kilby Smith also found a good position and fired on every head peering above the parapet. Giles Smith, with Ransom, of MePherson's Corps, attempted at last to storm the parapet. They were repulsed with fearful loss.
Of MePherson's Corps Ransom had the right, in ravines, Logan was in the center, on the main Jackson road, and Quinby had the left, also in ravines. Their assault was not less daring, nor bloody, nor vain.
A. J. Smith was on Quinby's left. Carr joined Smith's left. Osterhaus was next, Hovey was still further to the left, McCler- nand's advance was comparatively steady and continuous, but not the less was it also a bloody failure.
Lawler's and Landrum's Brigades at the first rush carried ditch, slope and bastion, a dozen men even gaining the interior of one of the forts.
Burbridge wound along a hollow, up a ridge, crossed the ditch and climbed the slope of a strong earthwork, planting his colors on the left and standing side by side with Benton.
General Benton, on the extreme right of MeClernand's corps and on the right of the Jackson railroad, marched to the attack with steady tread and compressed lips.
His regiments, the 18th in reserve, moved by the flank along a hollow which ran directly to. the fort. When about half way up they turned and passed over the ridge on the left, receiving a kill- ing fire of musketry and cannister. "Come on, my brave 33d, I will lead you !" shouted Colonel Shunk as he saw the field officers of the 33d Illinois had fallen and that the regiment was without a leader. At the word the faltering 33d sprang forward and, with the 8th, came within fifty yards of the fort.
Scarcely ten minutes from the moment of starting had elapsed when the 18th was ordered in advance. The men pressed forward with bounding steps, turning neither to the right nor left, and proudly bearing the battle flag from height to height. The gallant
189
THE INDIANA SOLDIER AT VICKSBURG.
Washburn led directly to the fort, from whose embrasures torrents of death poured and over whose ramparts a serried line of bayonets glittered. Fifty men on the right of the regiment rushed into the deep, wide diteh, while the remainder crowded up to its edge, Sergt. Francis M. Foss planting the colors there. Over the ramparts and into the embrasures they poured an incessant fire. The fort was sileneed.
Meanwhile the fifty men in the ditch found they could get out on neither side, and wrote a line to that effect, wrapping the paper around a lump of earth and throwing it over to their comrades. An answer was written on the same paper and thrown baek, while a treneh into the ditch was commenced as soon as the tools could be obtained. A third line was added by the men in the diteh with the intelligence that they were making steps with their hayonets by which they could effect an escape, and again the paper was thrown up. It fell at the feet of a man who was unaware of the previous communication. Supposing it to be a taunt from the fort, he instantly hurled it over to the Rebels. Soon round shells with lighted fuses, rolled from the top of the fort into the ditch, an- nounced that the Rebels had read the dispatches. But fortunately the bayonet steps were completed and the men were already clam- bering out.
To the joy of Benton and Burbridge, Crocker, with two bri- gades, came to their relief shortly before dark, marching directly in the face and fire of the enemy and over multitudes of dead and dying. But the Rebels, relieved at other points, had massed their forces here, and all that could be done was to guard against a charge by digging a rifle pit across the road, running around the right of the fort ; by keeping up an incessant fire till darkness would give an opportunity to retire. A piece of artillery was dragged up the hollow by a long rope and planted within a few yards of the large embrasure in the corner of the fort, into which it hurled shell after shell. The Rebels, much annoyed, rolled a bale of cotton into the embrasure. The 18th set the cotton on fire by sending with each ball a wad of tow, with which almost every man had provided himself from the artillery cartridge boxes for the purpose of wiping out his gun. The bale was rolled away and the interior of the fort again exposed.
Meantime, in a renewed assault made by the center and right to distract the forces concentrating on MeClernand, Steele was se- verely repulsed, although not driven from the hillside beneath the
190
INDIANA AT VICKSBURG.
Rebel parapet ; Tuttle succeeded in placing his colors on the works in a line with Blair, and MePherson could make no progress. On the extreme left Osterhans and Hovey assaulted and were repulsed.
Never was night and never were clouds and rain more welcome. Under their friendly cover and coolness the assailants slowly with- drew, leaving nearly 3,000 wounded and dead who could not be carried from the field.
Confederate Howitzer in the Foreground; Union Line in the Background ; Mint Spring Bayou Between the Two Lines,
The 8th Indiana lost 117. Among its slain were three captains O'Daniel, Wysong and Vandevender.
Maj. John C. Jeneks, of the 18th, acting as chief of Benton's staff, while waving his sword and cheering his comrades onward, received a rifle shot in the thigh, from the effects of which he died a few days afterward, regretted by all for his excellence as an officer and a man.
The 69th lost twelve. Maj. John II. Finley and Lient. Henry Stratton were mortally wounded.
191
THE INDIANA SOLDIER AT VICKSBURG.
The 67th lost twenty-nine.
The 59th, which was attached to Boomer's Brigade until Crocker moved to the relief of Burbridge and Benton, lost 111.
General Grant had been under a misapprehension in regard to the number and spirit of Pemberton's force, occasioned by the rapidity and disorder of its retreat from Black river. That force was now most formidable. Falling back through the fortifications of Vicksburg and taking position behind them, it had been com- forted and inspirited by the extraordinary aspect of. strength dis- played both by the natural and artificial defenses. Reinforced also by 8,000 fresh troops who had remained in the city, it now amounted to upward of 30,000, slightly outnumbering the army which at- tempted the assault.
Grant's troops were the better satisfied to make slow and cau- tious advances, as the situation was not unhealthy and not by any means the most disagreeable of their experience.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.