USA > Wisconsin > History of the First Wisconsin Battery Light Artillery > Part 16
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At sunrise, May 18th, we met their line of battle on the sec- ond range, on heights outside of Vicksburg, and the right gun unlimbered in the road just in front of a large white house that became a hospital, and sent a few shells into the line of rebel infantry, and they retired beyond the crest. In the garden the "husky cannoneers" noted a bed of onions rapidly wilting under the morning sun, probed, found resistance, and unearthed a large box of silverware; but before they could divvy the provost guard took possession. Soon we were taken over on the left, and General Lee, being out on the skirmish line, looking for a position where we could do the most good, came back with a bullet wound in the head, and Osterhaus, who was up in a carriage, again took command. Our troops were all day getting into position, and we fired but few rounds until. towards sundown, the right section was taken back into the road and sent forward to the next range of heights, occu- pied by the rebels in the morning. The Regulars, with their 30-pounders, were pounding away in the road at the top of the hill, and the right section took position on the brow of a hill to the left. Here we found a 12-pounder brass gun that had been adandoned by a Chicago Battery, and the rebel bullets buzzing like bees. We immediately opened fire, and the Chi- cago gun squad soon came and dragged their gun away by hand. There were no dead artillerymen around and the gun appeared uninjured. Soon the section was taken back into the road and run up to the position occupied by the Regulars, whose gun had been hauled back below the crest and around the turn in the road. As we came up, the gun-squad was doing considerable grumbling about using heavy artillery as field pieces in the advance line. After reconnoitering the cannon- eers unlimbered and with the assistance of the drivers, ran the pieces forward by hand. Our skirmish line was but a few paces in front and the fighting was stubborn. The rebels were crowded back into the fortifications of Vicksburg, and the dome of the court house was in sight-the objective point upon which we were to. gaze longingly for 47 long, weary, hot, dusty, bloody days.
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The left and center were occasionally talking to rebels from the left and the right had little trouble in closing up the rebel pieces in their front, but the rebel bullets were particularly vicious, and a gun from an unexpected quarter on the left, or far to our right, would smash a shell at us. The infantry pressed up closer to the rebel works, and the left and center sections advanced a half mile on a line with the right, but far over to the west. Osterhaus had swung far over to the left and had left the center and left sections with Hovey, who came up during the day, and the right section with Carr.
Night came down with our line on the left close up to the rebel works, and the connoneers lay down by their guns, while the drivers dropped back into a valley to water their stock, and for the first time in many days and nights to unharness their weary horses, and those not too tired undressed for a sleep from dark to daylight almost. That night slight earth epaulements were thrown up on commanding points and the guns moved in. Headquarters, forge, battery wagon, caissons, drivers and horses, were established in rear of our guns with Hovey. The gun drivers of the right piece and Green, lead driver of the caisson, pitched their Alabama fly and made themselves comfortable in a pleasant nook in rear of the right section with Carr. This section was to the west of the main road and railroad to Jackson.
The rebels opened a brisk fire at daylight from batteries in front of us, but we soon put a stop to that business, and only at intervals would they open from a gun or battery during the day. Our entire line got into place, and in the late after- noon an assault was made. Our troops were not all up, but Grant depending on the demoralizing defeats they had sus- tained, thought no stubborn resistance would be made. But they were 10,000 stronger than we knew, and putting up a good fight, the assault was unsuccessful. That night we strengthened our works and the infantry crept closer.
THE ASSAULT.
The morning of May 22, 1863, broke hot and unrefreshing. We intuitively felt that desperate work lay before us. Grant had his men all up and the artillery well pushed forward and protected by epaulements. After we had eaten our dinner with what appetite we could. orders came to open with every gun on the rebel works, and there then broke forth a storm of shot, shell, caseshot and shrapnel from the whole line that shook the hills and silenced every opposing gun. Soon our in- fantry broke from the pits and double-quicked down the slopes under the fire of our artillery, and with a wild hurrah dashed up the rebel slopes. Of course we could do nothing with the Battery but hold our fire and watch with breathless interest the
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blue line meet the gray. The enemy had their artillery double- shotted with canister, and cut loose on the blue line with every gun and poured in volley after volley of musketry, tear- ing gaps and holes through the advancing lines; but still the blue squads, for they were but squads now, struggled up the slope, through the chevaux-de-frieze, into ditch, out, up the epaulement and at the crest were met by, and used, bayonet and musket-butt. Back and forth they struggled, now over the works, now back, and at last fell sullenly back, loading and firing as they went, leaving the intervening space dotted with blue; Sergeant Griffin, of an Iowa regiment, bringing 11 rebels and a Lieutenant with him. But some remained on the outer slope of the principal rebel fort in front of us to guard two flags planted on the crest. And there "Old Glory" waved for hours flaunting defiance in their very faces, defend- ed by our men who had made for themselves standing places in the slope, and with watchful eyes and ready rifle kept it flying. It would take pages to tell of those hours of heroic effort, and every man who thus watched and defended those colors on that day deserves the "medal of honor," which is now so freely dispensed. As soon as our infantry fell back we opened fire with a viciousness born of our first check since crossing the river. It was easy to silence their artillery, and in great measure to keep down their riflemen, but what of those planted flags and the wounded on the field.
McClernand twice sent word to General Grant of the situa- tion, and expressed confidence that with reinforcements and a demonstration all along the line, he could carry the works in front of Carr. General Sherman, in his Memoirs, says that General Grant was visiting his position, and in conversa- tion with him, when an officer came up and handed the former a paper in McClernand's handwriting. "to the effect that his troops had captured the rebel parapet in his front; that the flag of the Union waved over the stronghold of Vicksburg, and asking him (Grant) to give renewed orders to McPherson and Sherman to press their attacks on their respective fronts, lest the enemy should concentrate on him (McClernand). General Grant said, 'I don't believe a word of it;' but I reasoned with him that this note was official, and must be cred- ited. and I offered to renew the assault at once with new troops. He said he would instantly ride down to McClernand's front, and if I did not receive orders to the contrary by 3 o'clock, I might try again." Notwithstanding this lack of confidence General Grant acquiesced and before sundown reinforcements filed past the trails of our guns and clustered in the ravine close to our left. Then at a signal the artillery again opened, and again the same bloody tragedy was enacted, but in front of us bloodier, fiercer than before. Men ceased to be men, and
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lost in the mad rage of contending passions all sense of fear or danger. Again the squads in blue came back, this time sullen and dejected, feeling that the last struggle was use- less, leaving their wounded behind them, and losing the flags they had guarded so faithfully during the day, just as the setting sun lighted the fearful scene. In the darkness the wounded nearest us were gathered, and the artillery kept up a regular fire at stated intervals all through the night.
Much controversy ensued over this last charge on the heights of Vicksburg, and Senator Cockerell, then commanding a brigade in our immediate front, says that McClernand was right, and that if Grant had properly supported him the city would have fallen at that time. But this seems improbable when we remember that for two or more years the most scien- tific engineering had been brought to make it the most elab- orately fortified place on earth, combined with a favorable topography. Men of European fame have so pronounced it. Every redoubt was commanded by others in rear and flank, back to the city, and the works were manned by 30.000 gun- bearing soldiers, every one of them having had previous bat- tlefield experience, and Grant had not that many in line against them on that day. General Sherman says: "I have since seen the position at Sevastapol, and without hesitation I declare that at Vicksburg to have been the more difficult." It is difficult to see how the result could have been otherwise. General Grant says: "The Union forces that had crossed the river at this time were less than 13,000 men. One division, Blair's, only arrived in time to take part in the battle of Champion Hill, but was not engaged therein : and one brigade, Ransom's, of McPherson's corps, reached the field after the battle. The enemy had at Vicksburg, Grand Gulf. Jackson, and on the roads between those places, over 60.000 men." That day Grant estimated them at 15,000. He never estimated them at above 20.000, and must have been equally surprised and elated when over 29,000 surrendered at the rounding up.
THE SIEGE.
We learned to distinguish through all the din our own 20- pounders, as it were. answering or encouraging each other, although a mile apart. Other sounds were easily distinguish- able even to an unpracticed ear. One was a quarter or a yard, more or less, of railroad iron passing close by the ear of a recruit or veteran, for they daily sent us such compliments. Another was when "Whistling Dick" cut loose. "Whistling Dick," or the Whitworth, was a breech loading gun of Eng- lish make, with a six or eight sided, spiral bore. It fired noth- ing but solid shot, but they were very long and cast and finish- ed with sides or surfaces to fit the inner surfaces of the gun.
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It was impossible for the projectile to leave the gun without taking the rifle, and this was so "twisting" that the shot, as it passed through the air, produced a terrific, whistling shriek, but which, so far as we were ever informed, did no damage to anything or anybody further than to "harrow" up the nerves of those within sound of its music. The gunners were evidently ignorant of its range and carrying power, as all the shots went away over us and so far to the rear that they found nothing on which to spend their force. This gun was found to have been disabled from a defect in the breech, either of construction or faulty material. A man in the field would make a blow snake of himself when he heard one of those shot coming, the clay around there being too tenacious for him to crawl into to avoid the searcher. Our "Whistling Dick" is now in the Navy Yard at Washington; it is entirely of iron, carriage and trail.
Reinforcements were sent down from the North and the line from the Yazoo to the Mississippi completed and com- munication cut off; still up to July scouts got in and out through the lines. Nearer we drew and closer was our grasp on the doomed garrison, and our pickets at night walked side by side with the rebel pickets, there being a mutual agreement not to shoot except under certain circumstances and conditions.
About the middle of June Generals McPherson and Sher- man wrote to General Grant, complaining of a "fulsome con- gratulatory order " which General McClernand had issued to his corps, and which had been furnished to the papers of the North, reflecting unjustly on their troops. General Grant, who had never seen or heard of the order, sent for a copy of the same, and upon its receipt promptly relieved McClernand from command and ordered him to report to Sprigfield, Ill., as publishing of such orders was forbidden by both his and the orders of the War Department.
McClernand was not a favorite with the other corps com- manders of that army, or with General Grant. He was a civilian and something of a politician, and was ambitious, which to the average West Pointer was an unpardonable sin. But his corps liked him, in which liking the Battery shared its full quota. and today he has a lively recollection of our Battery, averring that it had no superior for discipline or efficiency. It was. McClernand's custom to ride among his troops and inspect the camp, attended only by an Orderly. if anybody, and woe to the luckless commander that neglected his duties. After an early morning inspection of his camp one morning, he issued the following order which was read to the troops of the entire corps at dress parade :
"1. The General Commanding has witnessed with pride the exemplary discipline and good conduct of the officers
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and privates of the 1st Wisconsin Battery, Captain Foster Commanding.
"2. This order to be read to the troops of the 13th Army Corps encamped before Vicksburg at dress parade.
"By order of JOHN A. McCLERNAND, Major General."
Both McClernand and Osterhaus expressed every confidence in the efficiency of the 1st Wisconsin Battery, upon any and all occasions, which feeling seemed to have been shared by other corps and division commanders, as we were loaned and borrowed for special and important services by such more than any other Battery in Grant's command. Upon one occasion the Ram Queen of the West, which had been run below Vicks- burg, and had been captured by the rebels and turned against us, came up to the mouth of the canal to give us some trouble, and a section of some battery of one of the other divisions of the corps was directed to engage her, which it did, but with- out effect, other than to let the boat off without being hit. General Osterhaus, who was standing by witnessing the en- gagement, expressed himself in some very vigorous compound language to the effect that if the 1st Wisconsin Battery had been there the boat would never have gotten away. As an evidence of his sincereity the General sent the left section, un- der Eph Hackett. to watch for her reappearance with a view of putting a shot or two below her water line, but she did not again venture in the neighborhood.
General E. O. C. Ord succeeded McClernand, with whom we never became very well acquainted. We might remark en passant that General Ord was a grandson of George the IV of England and the beautiful Mrs. Fitz Herbert.
Many of the rebel forts were being mined, and as a curtain raiser General Logan blew up a fort in his front, but no espe- cial preparations were made to take advantage of it, so noth- ing was gained. Logan ran his tunnels too far. and the mine was planted in the rear of the fort. and the epaulement itself was not badly shattered. The explosion sent "a man and brother" sailing through the air and landed him inside our lines somewhat shaken, but not much battered. Upon re- gaining breath he exclaimed: "The Lord bless you-all. I'se wanted to come to you dis long time, but didn't want to come dis vere way." About the 1st of July we felt that the final struggle was near; what would be its nature we could but guess.
THE SURRENDER.
All the world knows of the surrender upon the birthday of our Nation, and the story. Early in the morning of July the Fourth we slackened and then ceased firing. About 10 o'clock a white flag went up off to the right : soon one went up
LUCIUS BARTHOLOMEW.
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in front of us, and was taken down; both sides seemed to be dealing in uncertainties in our vicinity. Then one went up to the left; some of their men and some of ours came out and lay down on the grass outside the riflepits. The movements were so erratic and the white flags so uncertain that no cheer at any time went up from our lines. At noon a National salute of blank cartridges was fired, soon after which the rebels marched out of their works and stacked their arms. Presently, in squads, our boys began to flock into town, after inspecting the works nearest. In the city we peered curiously into the caves dug for the protection of the people from the shells of Porter and the Mortar Batteries on the river, in- spected the havoc done by our shells, raided the stores and judiciously reduced their meager stocks, called at the print- ing office, getting copies of the paper of July 3d printed on the blank side of common wall paper, interviewed the citizens, smiled upon the scowling women, and jubilated with the Jack Tars from the gunboats which had arrived at the land- ing.
Soon it became known that we should get back to our guns; so we returned. making but a short visit on this occasion. Later the "Johnnies" came over and shared our hardtack and coffee. And lo, the gun was dumb, and silence followed the boom of the cannon, the shriek of the shell, the myriad-sounding "minnie" and the rebel yell. .
Pending the paroling of the Confederate Army, the soldiers of the two opposing forces, who had been shooting at each other with a deadly purpose for so many weeks, mingled to- gether and were as friendly toward each other as if it had been a huge pic-nic between two friendly communities. There was no disposition on the part of the victors to rejoice over the discomfiture of the vanquished, while the latter accepted the situation and the hardtack and the coffee of the former with complacency and gratitude. For five days this friendly intermingling of the "Yanks" and the "Johnnies" continued without an interruption, and when the rebels marched out of the garrison they were escorted to the lines more as de- parting visitors than as paroled prisoners of war.
A short recapitulation may be interesting: At Thompson's Hill, Magnolia Hill or Port Gibson. the 13th Corps lost 875 killed, wounded and missing; at Champion Hills, Baker's Creek or Edwards. we lost 1,363; at Big Black River Bridge, 421: in the two assaults on Vicksburg. 1,275; being a total of 3,934 men. The Confederates lost 2,872 during the siege, and we found 5.496 sick and wounded in the hospitals. The total surrender was 30.638. From crossing the river to Vicksburg we captured 7.621 prisoners and 58 pieces of artillery. One
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hundred and thirty-one pieces were surrendered, not including many unserviceable.
We will now add a word for the benefit of General Grant's villifiers, taken from Admiral Porter's "Anecdotes and Remi- niscences of the Civil War." Said he:
"In the history of the world's sieges nothing will be found where more patience was developed. more endurance under privations or more courage shown than by the Union forces at the siege of Vicksburg, while on the part of the besieged it was marked by their great fertility of resources in checking almost every movement of ours, and for the long months of suffering and hardship they underwent.
"It belongs of right to General Grant to tell the story of that event, for in no case during the war did he so clearly show his title to be called a great general, nor did he else- where so fully exhibit all the qualities which proved him to be a great soldier. If General Grant had never performed any other military act during the war, the capture of Vicks- burg alone would have entitled him to the highest renown. He had an enemy to deal with of twice his force, and protect- ed by defences never surpassed in the art of war. I saw, myself, the great strongholds at Sebastopol, of the Malakoff tower and the Redan, the day after they were taken by a combined army of 120.000 men; and these strongholds, which have become famous in ballad and story, never in anyway compared with the defenses of Vicksburg, which looked as if a thousand Titans had been put to work to make these heights unassailable.
"After it was all over and General Grant could see the - conquered city lying at his feet, he could well afford to laugh at his vile traducers, who were doing all they could to hamper him by sending telegrams to the seat of government question- ing his fitness for so important a command.
"When the American flag was hoisted on the ramparts of Vicksburg, my flagship and every other vessel of the fleet steamed up or down to the levee before the city.
"We discerned a dust in the distance and in a few moments General Grant. at the head of nearly all his Generals, with their staffs. rode up to the gangway and, dismounting, came on board. That was a happy meeting. with great handshaking and general congratulation. I opened my wine lockers, which contained only Catawba on this occasion. It disappeared down the parched throats which had tasted nothing for some time but bad water. Yet it exhilerated that crowd as weak wine never did before.
"There, was one man there who preserved the same quiet demeanor he always bore, whether in adversity or victory. and that was General Grant. There was a quiet satisfaction in
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his face that could not be concealed, but he behaved on that occasion as if nothing of importance had occurred.
"General Grant was the only one in that assemblage who did not touch the simple wine offered him; he contented him- self with a cigar; and let me say here that this was his habit during all the time he commanded before Vicksburg, also while he commanded before Richmond, though the same de- tractors who made false representations of him in military matters before Vicksburg, misrepresented him also in the matter above alluded to."
In connection with this matter we will also give the tes- timony of Mrs. Livermore, known of late years as the "Queen of the American Platform," and who was largely identified with the Sanitary Commission during the war. Of her visit to General Grant during the siege of Vicksburg she says: "We had seen enough in our progress down the river, at the differ- ent headquarters, where we had called, to render us anxious, lest our brave army should be jeapordized, if not our holy cause itself, by the intemperance of its commanders. But the clear eye, clear skin, firm flesh, and steady nerves of General Grant gave the lie to the universal calumnies, then current, concerning his intemperate habits and those of the officers of his staff. Our eyes had become practiced in reading the diagnosis of drunkenness."
This surely ought to be sufficient vindication of "Our Great Commander."
CHAPTER XIII.
FROM VICKSBURG TO JACKSON.
"On came the whirlwind-like the last But fiercest rush of tempest blast: On came the whirlwind-steel gleams broke
Like lightning through the rolling smoke: The war was waked anew."
W E tarried not to jubilate over our hard-fought-for prize. The horses were brought up, chests filled, guns limbered and long before sunset on that Fourth of July, 1863, we rear-faced and were moving back on the trail by which we came, leaving McPherson and his 17th Corps to garrison the town and parole the prisoners, and Grant ab- sorbed and thoughtful over Halleck's restraining order hold- ing his hand from taking his entire force and sweeping through Mississippi, Alabama, to Tennessee and beyond. Sher- man commanded the short campaign. But we were not the effective Battery that crossed the river three months before. During the campaign and siege we had fired over 12,000 rounds at the enemy, and the rifling of our guns was so badly worn that half the shells would "corkscrew" or "tumble."
That night we camped near where the enemy's line was struck on the morning of May 1Sth. the first in which we had sunk to slumber in silence since the 13th of May; not a shell having been pitched at the enemy since early morning, and ten-thousand-million mosquitoes came out and sucked our blood. We didn't so much grumble at what they took as at their throwing it up and returning for more.
Moving out on the Jackson Road early on the morning of the 5th, escorted by the 12th Wisconsin Infantry, Hovey's division, we knew that. in obedience to Grant's prime charac- teristic, our objective was the rebel army under Johnston. We had just bagged one army entire, and without an hour's delay were reaching out for the next.
That night we camped at Black River and learned that our own division had moved on in front and would be first into the fight. We also knew that shortly thereafter Oster- haus, or one of his Aids, would come pounding down the road inquiring for the 1st Wisconsin Battery; that the interven- ing troops would oblique out of the road to right or left, and we go forward to our own, ownest comrades in the battle- line. We could anticipate the smile of gratulation on their dust-smutted, smoke-begrimed faces. the cheer as we should go into battery. and the shouts of the nearest: "Boys, we're
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