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THE WAR WITH THE SOUTH:

A HISTORY OF THE

GREAT AMERICAN REBELLION.

CHAPTER I.

The Condition of Vicksburg after the Surrender.-Comparatively little Ruins.-Marks of the Bombardment.—The Hospitals.-Persistence of the Defenders of Vicksburg. Starved out. -Mule Meat.-A Soldier's Bill of Fare.The Efforts made by the Enemy to relieve Vicksburg.-Proofs of Weakness.-Determination of General Pemberton.-Fighting to the "last dog."-Effects throughout Mississippi. Retreat of Johnston.-General Sherman in Pursuit. Jackson evacuated.-Sherman occupies Jackson. -Destruction of Railroad Property.-"Nothing goes well in the Southwest."-Mississippi abandoned by Johnston.-Sherman's return to Vicksburg.-Surrender of Port Hudson.-Operations of General Banks in Louisiana.-Operations in the Teche Region.-Capture of the Diana. - Battle of Beasland. —Advance of Banks to Franklin.-Co-operation of the Navy.-The Queen of the West burned. ―The Diana blown up.—A Fleet of Transports destroyed.-Fort Butte La Rose captured.-General Grover forms a junction with Banks.--Banks at New Iberia.-At Martinsville.-At Opelousas.-At Alexandria.

THE condition of the city of Vicksburg and its defences, when entered 1863. by the victorious army of General Grant, was such, notwithstanding the tremendous fire to which they had been so long exposed, as to surprise every observer. It was natural to expect a general scene of ruin, yet few of the buildings were demolished, and most of the houses were so little injured as to be easily rendered habitable. The shot and shell which had been poured so continually into the city had, however, left their marks everywhere. The streets were ploughed up, the pavements shattered, and the yards, gardens, and other inclosed spaces, pitted with great holes. The shrubberies and cultivated grounds

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through the streets I could not find firing was very severe. The excavations

them.

"I entered perhaps twenty buildings in all, and found frightful-looking holes in the walls and floors of every one. The house occupied by General Pemberton as his headquarters, has a hole in the first room you enter on the left side of the hall, which a mule could crawl through without difficulty. The publisher of the Vicksburg Citizen invited me into his residence, and interspersed his remarks while showing me around with frequent cautions not to tread here and there, for fear a shattered piece of its flooring would let me through into the cellar. And so it is all over the place. The northern portion of the city suffered most, and I cannot convey any idea of the damage sustained better than by saying it has been smashed.

"Notwithstanding the evidences every where visible of the terrible ordeal through which the people and city have passed, the Vicksburgers persistently assert that they have not been much damaged; that shells are comparatively innocent things-' nothing when you get used to them;' that they could have held out a year if they had had provisions, etc. They also claim to have learned how to dodge shells, and say that those fired from the mortars had become favorites with the people. Shots from Parrott guns were not so popular.

"The most noticeable feature of the city is the group of caves in every hillside. In these caves the women and children were sheltered during the night, and occasionally in day-time when the

branch out in various directions after

passing the entrance. I should not imagine them very desirable bed-chambers, but they seem to have answered a very good purpose. In one or two instances shells entered them, and two women and a number of children were thus killed during the siege.'

The inhabitants and the soldiers of the garrison, though they had suffered severely, as the hospitals indicated, which were filled with from four to five thousand sick and wounded, persisted in declaring that they would have still held out if there had been any hopes of relief.

"There is but one reason," says the observer already quoted, "given by the rebels for their surrender. They say they discovered that they would be starved out before it would be possible for Johnston or anybody else to raise the siege; and although they could have held out six or seven days longer, they would have gained nothing thereby, the prospect being that at the end of that time Johnston would be as far off as he is now. They repel the suggestion that they were afraid of an assault in column on the 4th of July, and say that they would have been able to repel any such assault. However this may be, the fact that they were brought to desperate straits for something to eat is indisputable. All prejudices against mule meat were thoroughly conquered by hunger and the army was using it freely, esteeming it better food than the blue beef and rancid pork upon which they

formerly subsisted. The little remnant money enough to buy them is a fact of breadstuff which they have on hand beyond all dispute. That those who also attests the extremity to which they did not pay them suffered much, is were reduced, and their soldiers are this equally true. The victims are loud and moment praising the 'hard tack' or bitter in their denunciations of the expilot bread given them by our men, as tortioners, who were protected by the if it were the most delicious bread ever military authorities from robbery or baked. interference. One of the first things done after the surrender was the breaking open and sacking of a few of the most obnoxious Jew stores. The outbreak was promptly suppressed, but I would gladly have seen them emptied of all their contents."

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"A rebel staff officer informed me,
while making inquiries on this subject,
that they have frequently communicated
with Johnston, and that their last hope
of relief was destroyed by a communi-
cation from him.
"The citizens of Vicksburg were in
much worse plight than the army in
many respects. No food was issued to
them from the army stores, and specu-
lators had run up the prices upon them
to a most prodigious extent. A man
could not procure a good meal of victuals
for one thousand dollars. The following
list of prices was made out for me by the
publisher of the Citizen, who assures me
that he has not over-priced anything:

"Flour, $5 per lb., equal to $1,000 per bbl.
"Beef, $1 to $1 25 per lb., supply exhausted.
"Pork, $2 50 to $3 per lb., supply exhausted.

Notwithstanding the failure of the enemy to relieve the beleaguered city, great efforts were made. That they were unsuccessful, proved not only the skilful disposition by General Grant of his great resources to render them abortive, but the weakness to which the enemy had been reduced. With a full consciousness of the importance to their cause of holding Vicksburg, they made the most desperate attempts to defend and relieve it. General Pemberton, who commanded the place, was stimulated to

"Butter sold five weeks ago at $2 50 to $3 per lb., almost superhuman effort, for the sake

since which time there has been none in market.

46

'Rice, 75 to 80 cents per lb.

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Sugar, 70 cents per lb.

"Molasses or treacle, $10 per gallon.

"Corn meal, $40 per bushel, supply exhausted.

"Tea, $15 to $20 per lb. ; none on hand for four weeks

past.

of his own good name, which had been tarnished by his failure to prevent the approach of General Grant. Every word he uttered proved the passionate resolve of a man who had but one

"Coffee, $7 50 to $10 per lb. ; none on hand for four throw of the dice left to retrieve him

weeks.

"Mule meat, $1 per lb.

self, and upon which he was determined

"Louisiana rum (only liquor in market), $40 to $100 to risk his all. per gallon.

"Clothing beyond all price, a man refusing $100 for an ordinary white shirt.

"That these stunning prices were freely paid by all who could produce

While retiring before the victorious. troops of Grant, he uttered this passionate appeal to his soldiers :

"The hour of trial has come. The

enemy who has so long threatened Vicksburg in front, has at last effected a landing in this department, and his march into the interior of Mississippi has been marked by the devastation of one of the fairest portions of the State. He seeks to break communication between the members of the Confederacy, and to control the navigation of the Mississippi River. The issue involves everything endeared to a free people. The enemy fight for the privilege of plunder and oppression. You fight for your country, homes, wives, children, and the birthrights of freemen. Your Commanding-General, believing in the truth and sacredness of this cause, has cast his lot with you, and stands ready to peril his life and all he holds dear for the triumph of the right. God, who rules in the affairs of men and nations, loves justice and hates wickedness. He will not allow a cause so just to be trampled in the dust. In the day of conflict let each man, appealing to Him for strength, strike home for victory, and our triumph is at once assured. A grateful country will hail us as deliverers, and cherish the memory of those who may fall as martyrs in her defence.

Soldiers! be vigilant, brave, and active; let there be no cowards, nor laggards, nor stragglers from the ranks; and the God of battles will certainly crown our efforts with success."

Again, while at bay, within the closely beleaguered walls of Vicksburg, the unfortunate Pemberton is said to have exclaimed to his soldiers:

"You have heard that I was incompetent, and a traitor, and that it was my intention to sell Vicksburg. Follow me, and you will see the cost at which I will sell Vicksburg. When the last pound of beef, bacon, and flour; the last grain of corn; the last cow, and hog, and horse, and dog, shall have been consumed, and the last man shall have perished in the trenches, then, and only then, will I sell Vicksburg."

Throughout Mississippi and its border States, great efforts were made to arouse citizens of all ages to rally under General Johnston, who strove, but in vain, to recruit a force of sufficient strength to attack Grant's large army, and compel it to raise the siege of Vicksburg. When Pemberton, at last hopeless of relief and reduced to starvation, surrendered the place, Johnston, who had been hovering in the neighborhood in impotent menace, was obliged to retreat hastily with his meagre and ill-conditioned army. General Sherman was at once sent out with a strong force in pursuit. At Bolton, on the 5th of July, the enemy's rearguard was overtaken, surrounded, and forced to surrender. Johnston succeeded, however, in escaping with his main body to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. Here, within the intrenchments, he made a brief stand, but Sherman coming up and attacking him briskly, he was forced to evacuate during the night. On the next morning, July 16th, General Sherman occupied Jackson, and thus obtained, although much had been destroyed by Johnston before his retreat, a large quantity of the enemy's

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