316 WHY THE REBELS BURNED A HOTEL. [1863. "What's our bill?" asked Dana, as the chief and his party were leaving. "Ninety dollars," replied the landlord. A hundred-dollar confederate note being proffered, Boniface said, hesitatingly : "I didn't know you were going to pay in that money, or I should have charged more." "Very well; charge whatever you like. We do propose to pay in this money." Confederate currency was cheap, for our forces had captured a large quantity at Port Gibson. The bill was settled for two hundred confederate dollars. When the rebels reentered the town they actually burned the hotel because its lessee had refused to take the Southern currency from Grant's party at the same rate as greenbacks! They were as wise as some other political economists of more experience and higher pretensions! 1863.] GRANT INTERCEPTS A REBEL DISPATCH. 317 CHAPTER XXVI. THE GAME AT BAY. MONTHS before, Hurlbut, with great ado and show of disgrace, had drummed a man out of Memphis on the allegation that he was a rebel. Actually he was a Union spy, and this expulsion secured him the confidence of leading confederates. Now he brought to Grant a dispatch which Johnston had intrusted to him, instructing Pemberton to attack Sherman, who was at Clinton.* From the feeble Pemberton there was not much to fear, but Johnston had retreated northward, and Grant was anxious lest he might form a junction with Pemberton, or the latter might escape. Not Vicksburg, but the main rebel army, was now the prize he sought. Neither Johnston nor Pemberton suspected that the General had cut loose from his base, and Pemberton was making a fruitless attempt to sever his communications! Though repeatedly ordered by Johnston to evacuate Vicksburg lest he should be shut up in it, Pemberton had as often disobeyed. At last, when it was too late, he saw his danger, and determined to get north of the railroad and escape. But two of his men deserted to our lines with the information, whereupon Grant sent emphatic orders to his corps commanders to concentrate instantly on the rebel front. From all quarters our hard-worked men, now thoroughly enthusiastic, came marching forward with ringing cheers. About three in the morning, tas Pemberton was beginning to move, our advance encountered him at Champion Hill, on the railway, half way between Jackson and Vicksburg. The rebel general, utterly unsuspicious that Grant's May sixteenth. *Map, page 280. 318 THE BATTLE OF CHAMPION HILL. [1863. army was in the neighborhood, thought he had encountered. only a small detachment. His position, on a ridge several hundred feet high, gashed with ravines and covered with dense undergrowth, was exceedingly strong. Through the morning there was hot skirmishing. Grant, with his staff and son, was under fire, though a little protected by a hill. On its farther side, Hovey, commanding our advance, was driven back across a ravine and up toward the crest. An ubiquitous correspondent witnessing this, rode back to get out of a hot place and to inform Grant. On the way he passed a detachment of Union soldiers with two guns, which they had just captured, pouring shells into the enemy, while a few hundred yards away, the rebels were replying with the four remaining pieces of the battery. The General was told that Hovey was repulsed. GRANT.—“I guess not." JOURNALIST.-"He is-pouring back pell-mell." JOURNALIST.-"Yes." GRANT (to McPherson, who had just come up).—“Cadwallader reports that Hovey is being driven back." MCPHERSON.-"Yes, I understand so." GRANT (speaking with great quickness and precision).— "Then I think I would move Quinby right up. Form a line here. Just put a battery in there and another over there." These dispositions were completed just as Hovey's stampeding men poured over the crest. The two batteries opened on the pursuing rebels, staggered them, and shortly drove them back, our men yelling and chasing in turn, over heaps of dead and wounded. Grant had delayed the battle as long as possible, that McClernand might come up. While it raged he was constantly sending messages to that commander-a few miles southward, and detained by a small rebel force-to press forward at all hazards. The General directed operations on the front, through hours of fierce fighting, hardly equaled during the war, except at Shiloh and Spottsylvania. Hovey, Logan, and Crocker took the brunt of it. The ground was 1863.] GRANT REACHES THE BIG BLACK. 319 so covered with torn and blackened corpses that our soldiers called it the "Hill of Death." At four P. M. Logan's division, by a skillful movement on our right, got almost in the rear of the weary confederates, causing an alarm which, increased by a vigorous charge in front, sent them flying westward-toward the railwaycrossing of the Big Black, ten miles out of Vicksburg,—for it was impossible for them to move north. Out of fifteen thousand men engaged, the Union army had twenty-three hundred killed and wounded, but only two hundred missing. The rebels lost as many from wounds, beside three thousand prisoners and many fieldpieces. General Lloyd Tilghman, whom Grant had captured at Fort Henry two years before, was among their killed. Just after the last gun was fired, McClernand's corps reached the field. Its delay was owing solely to its commander, for only a handful of men had been lost. Loring, a one-armed rebel general, imitating the insubordination of his chief, disobeyed Pemberton's order to fall back toward Vicksburg. He led his division southward, around our forces, and after ten days of hard and costly marching, succeeded in reaching Johnston's army. Grant, leaving a detail to bury his dead, followed the shattered enemy in close chase, securing twelve heavy guns, many small-arms, and hundreds of stragglers, who surrendered themselves voluntarily. After dark the enemy halted at the Big Black, and headquarters were established at a farm-house, half a mile in the rear. It was still occupied by wounded rebels, one of whom walked raving about with his brains protruding through a bullet-hole. Grant had carried out his hazardous plan of cutting loose from his base of supplies without consulting the Washington authorities. Confident that they would not approve it, he had not telegraphed the general-in-chief until just before starting. Cairo was the nearest station, so he could not receive a countermanding order under ten days. To-night came a dispatch from Halleck, written on learning of his 300 LAWLER MAKES A BRILLIANT CHARGE. [1863. plan, and counseling him to effect a junction with Banks before moving on Vicksburg. He read it with a smile, doubtless wondering what the military theorist would think on learning of this bit of military practice by a once despised subordinate. The General and staff slept on their blankets, under the porch, as well as the groans of the sufferers within would permit. Sunday morning* found the rebel army west of the river. But two brigades were left upon a sort of island, on the east side, to protect the bridge-head for Loring's division, which was still expected. Between our front and this island ran a broad muddy bayou full of reeds, and seemingly impassable. Just beyond were the well-manned rifle-pits of the enemy. Our line here was held by the brigade of "Mike Lawler," an impetuous Illinois brigadier. Months earlier at Cairo, Lawler had summarily court-martialed and hanged one of his men for an outrage upon a woman. The punishment was utterly beyond his authority, but the victim being undoubtedly guilty, Grant let off his subordinate with a sharp reprimand. Lawler, full of energy and pluck, had exceeded his authority on two or three later occasions, and was still in disfavor. But now his zeal proved opportune. Glancing over the cotton field and the reedy bayou at the rebel work, he said: "Boys, here's a chance to go in." Starting at the word they charged yelling across the cleared land, and through the water up to the arm-pits, pushing away obstructions, and many losing their muskets. Unchecked by the brief shower of bullets they reached the opposite shore, went down into the trenches, then over the breastworks, and the camp was theirs! Had not the enemy been utterly demoralized he would have eaten them up, but they lost only two hundred and fifty men. The flying confederates crowded upon the bridge, until their comrades on the other side, panic-stricken lest our men *May seventeenth. |