their own. At this time the minor fortress of Port Hudson was established to guard the rear of Vicksburg. In November Grant, with 57,000 men, began to move down from the north against General J. C. Pemberton, who had superseded the talented Van Dorn. A converging movement made by Grant from Grand Junction, W. T. Sherman from Memphis, and a force from Helena on the Arkansas side, failed, owing to Pemberton’s prompt retirement to Oxford, Mississippi, and complications brought about by the intrigues of an able but intractable subordinate, McClernand, induced Grant to make a complete change of plan. Sherman was to proceed down the great river, and join the ships from the Gulf before Vicksburg, while Grant himself drove Pemberton southwards along the Mississippi Central railway. This double plan failed. Grant, as he pushed Pemberton before him to Granada, lengthened day by day his line of communication, and when Van Dorn, ever enterprising, raided the great Federal depot of Holly Springs the game was up. Grant retired hastily, for starvation was imminent, and Pemberton, thus freed, turned upon Sherman, and inflicted a severe defeat on that general at Chickasaw Bayou near Vicksburg (December 29). McClernand now assumed command, and on the 11th of January 1863 captured Fort Hindman near Arkansas Post. This was the solitary gain of the whole operation. Meanwhile Vicksburg was steadily becoming stronger and more formidable.
18. Fredericksburg.—McClellan, after the battle of the Antietam, paused for some time to reorganize his forces, some of which had barely recovered from the effects of Pope’s unlucky campaign. He then slowly moved down the east side of the Blue Ridge, while Lee retired up the Valley on the west side of the same range. On the 6th of November the Army of the Potomac was at Warrenton, Lee at Culpeper, and Jackson in the Valley. When on the point of resuming the offensive, McClellan was suddenly superseded by Burnside, one of his corps commanders. Like Buell, McClellan had tempered the tools with which others were to strike; he was not again employed, and in his fall was involved his most brilliant subordinate, Fitz John Porter (q.v.). Burnside was by no means the equal of his predecessor, though a capable subordinate, and indeed only accepted the chief command with reluctance. He began his campaign by cancelling McClellan’s operation, and, his own plan being to strike at Richmond from Fredericksburg, he moved the now augmented army to Falmouth opposite that place, hoping to surprise the crossing of the Rappahannock. Delays and neglect, not only at the front, but on the part of the headquarters staff at Washington, permitted Lee to seize the heights of the southern bank in time. When Burnside fought his battle of Fredericksburg (q.v.) an appalling reverse was the result, the more terrible as it was absolutely useless (December 13).
19. Closing Operations of 1862.—Chickasaw Bayou and Fredericksburg ended the Federal initiative in the west and the east; the Army of the Cumberland under Rosecrans alone could claim a victory. Buell’s successor retained the positions about Nashville, whilst a new Army of the Ohio prepared to operate in east Tennessee. Bragg lay at Murfreesboro (see Stone River), where Rosecrans attacked him on the 31st of December 1862. A very obstinate and bloody two days’ battle ended in Bragg’s retirement towards Chattanooga. During these campaigns the United States navy had not been idle. The part played by the gunboats on the upper Mississippi had been most conspicuous, as had been the operations of Farragut’s heavier ships in the lower waters of the same river. The work of Du Pont and Goldsborough on the Atlantic coast has been alluded to above. Charleston was attacked without success in 1862, but from June to August 1863 it was besieged by General Gillmore and Admiral Dahlgren, and under great difficulties the Federals secured a lodgment, though it was not until Sherman appeared on the land side early in 1865 that the Confederate defence collapsed, Fort Fisher near Wilmington also underwent a memorable siege by land and sea. Certain incursions were from time to time made at different points along the whole sea-board. Minor operations moreover, especially in Arkansas and southern Missouri, were continually undertaken by both sides during 1862–1863, of which the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas (December 7, 1862), was the most notable incident. Meanwhile the blockade had become so stringent that few ordinary vessels could expect to break through, and a special type of steamer came into vogue for the purpose.
20. Capture of Vicksburg.—In 1863 the campaigns once more divided themselves accurately into those of east, centre and west. This year saw the greatest successes and the heaviest reverses of the Union army, Gettysburg and Vicksburg and Chattanooga against Chancellorsville and Chickamauga. Operations began in the west with the second advance upon Vicksburg. One corps of the Army of the Tennessee was detached to cover the Memphis & Charleston railway. Grant, with the other three under Sherman, McClernand and McPherson, moved by water to the neighbourhood of the fortress. Many weeks passed without any success to the Union arms. Vicksburg and its long line of fortifications stood on high bluffs, all else was swampy lowland and intricate waterways. As Sherman in 1862, so now Grant was unable to obtain any foothold on the high ground, and no effective attack was possible until this had been gained. At last, after many trials and failures, Grant took a daring step. The troops with their supplies marched round through a network of lakes and streams to a point south of Vicksburg; Admiral Porter’s gunboats and the transports along with them “ran” the batteries. At Bruinsburg, beyond Pemberton’s reach, a landing was made on the eastern bank and, without any base of supplies or line of retreat, Grant embarked upon a campaign which made him in the end master of the prize. On the 4th of July Pemberton surrendered the fortress and 37,000 men. Grant’s endurance and daring had won what was perhaps the greatest success of the war. General Joseph Johnston with a small relieving army had appeared at Jackson, Mississippi, but had been held in check by General F. P. Blair and a force from the Army of the Tennessee; when Vicksburg surrendered a larger force was at once sent against him, whereupon he retired. In the meanwhile Banks had moved upstream from New Orleans, and laid siege to Port Hudson. Operations were pressed with vigour, and the place surrendered four days after Vicksburg. A Confederate attack on the post of Helena, Arkansas, was the last serious fight on the great river, and before the end of July the first merchant steamer from St Louis discharged her cargo at New Orleans.
21. Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.—In Virginia Burnside had made, in January 1863, an attempt to gain by manœuvre what he had missed in battle. The sudden swelling of rivers and downpour of rain stopped all movement at once, and the “Mud March” came to an end. A Federal general could retain his hold on the men after a reverse, but not after a farce: Burnside was replaced by General Joseph Hooker, who had a splendid reputation as a subordinate leader. The new commander displayed great energy in reorganizing the Army of the Potomac, the discipline of which had not come unscathed through a career of failure. Lee still held the battlefield of Fredericksburg and had not attempted the offensive, and in April he was much weakened by the detachment of Longstreet’s corps to a minor theatre of operations. Hooker’s operations began well, Lee was outmanœuvred and threatened in flank and rear, but the Federals were in the end involved in the confused and disastrous battle of Chancellorsville (q.v.). Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded, but his men and those of Longstreet’s who had remained with Lee defeated Hooker and forced him to retire again beyond the Rappahannock, though he had double Lee’s force. But Hooker could at least make himself obeyed, and when Lee initiated his second invasion of the North a month after the battle of Chancellorsville, the Army of the Potomac was as resolute as ever. On the 9th of June the cavalry combat of Brandy Station made it clear to the Federal staff that Lee was about to use the Valley once more to screen an invasion of Maryland. Longstreet, A. P. Hill and Ewell (who were now Lee’s corps commanders) were at one time scattered from Strasburg in the Valley to Fredericksburg, and Hooker earnestly begged to be allowed to attack them in detail. Success was certain, but the scheme was
