CHAPTER X.
On the 20th, our troops had had a hard little fight but were repulsed by the rebels, after they had charged up close to the strong rebel forts. On the 21st we moved up near our advance lines and on the 22nd a general charge all along the lines was ordered. Our regiment supported the 7th Kentucky.
Several of our regiments in front had planted their flags on the rebel forts and the destruction of men was horrible. The earth trembled under the powerful explosives. Many of our boys were slain in hand to hand fights.
From some unknown cause, the rebel army in our front was reinforced and we were driven back with a heavy loss. The blame was laid to General McClernand, the commander of our 13th corps. He was superceded and I never heard of him afterwards. He was a fine looking general. Thus the name of the 13th corps was lost at Vicksburg.
The nurses and wounded whom we had left at Champion Hill, had been captured but were paroled. They came to us about this time.
Our troops were driven back and some of the regiments lost their flags. At night some of the wounded were carried away but the rebs would shoot at any little noise. Many of the wounded perished that night for want of help.
During all of the siege. Admiral Porter bombarded the city with twenty-two inch mortars and other heavy guns. It was a sight to see those huge shells raised to the distance of four miles, and then explode and send the pieces of shell humming to theground, and making a noise like thunder.
On the 24th, we went to work digging rifle pits and preparing for the siege. Our large guns kept up a continuous firing all along the lines.
On the 25th, our dead, who had fallen in the charge of the 22nd, had not yet been buried. The rebels had refused to let us bury them. But the corpses stunk them out and they gave us a four hour’s armistice in which to bury the dead.
Two of those in our regiment were wounded while working in the rifle pits. We were relieved from this duty by the second brigade. We then moved back in a deep hollow to rest.
On the 26th we moved up to support the first regular siege guns. Our duty was heavy skirmishing all day and digging rifle pits and planting batteries at night.
On the morning of the 28th our batteries opened a heavy fire all along the line. They blew up one of the rebel’s magazines, thus causing a terrible explosion. The rebels returned fire but after an hour of heavy bombarding they were silenced. On the 30th, a small dram of commissary whisky was issued all along the line.
On the 31st we took our position on the lines where we remained until the surrender. Osterhos moved his brigade back to Black River and began building breastworks to protect our rear.
The rebel generals, Johnson and Breckenridge, had come up with forty thousand men to raise the siege.
On the morning of the first day of June, 1863, our troops were stationed on the lines as follows: General Herring on our extreme left flank, next to the Mississippi River; General Lawman’s division joined on to them; our division, under General Hovey next; the first brigade of General Osterhos’ troops, next, which brigade reached the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad;Generals Carr, Smith, and Quinby next came in; General Logan’s corps was fronting that strong fort called “The Queen of Vicksburg,” which afterwards became the noted part of the drama of Vicksburg; next General McPherson; and General Sherman’s corps as has already been stated, took their place on the extreme right at Haines’ Bluffs, near the Yazoo River. We were reinforced by Burnsides’ ninth corps, which was moved back to strengthen our rear, and Osterhos’ second brigade, and to fortify the banks of Black River.
We now had one hundred thousand troops in this vicinity. General Logan’s troops began tunneling under the largest fort at Vicksburg that morning. The rebels opened up with several of their heavy guns but they were soon silenced as we were advancing our rifle pits in close range and our sharpshooters were getting to be good marksmen.
At night General Lawman’s division tried to advance their rifle pits, and the rebels in front opposed their advance. There were several hard charges made on both sides. The rebels would drive our boys out of the pits and fill them up and then Lawman’s men would charge back and open up the rifle pits again. It was quite an exciting scene to witness.
Everything was quiet in front of Hovey’s division, but we were looking for the rebels to oppose our advance at night. On the morning of the second of June, our army was digging wells all along the line to supply us with water. We got plenty of water at a depth of eighteen feet.
The rebel batteries opened up a heavy cannonading, but our boys soon silenced them. On the morning of the third we were still advancing our rifle pits and the rebels were getting in a few shots with their big guns. They were now getting short of ammunition and were loading their guns with pieces of our mortar shells and railroad iron.
Breckenridge, the rebel, had forty thousand men at our rear, but we were too well fortified for him to make an attack. On the eighth a force of rebel cavalry attacked our guards and sick at Millikin’s Bend, but they were repulsed and driven back with a slight loss.
On the 11th a continual firing was kept up all day. One man in Company B of our regiment was killed. He was hit in the back with a piece of one of our own shells, while he was lying on his bunk.
On the 12th a detail from our regiment planted some heavy eighty-four pound guns in our rear and fifteen thousand men were sent back to Black River to reinforce our rear guard which was looking for an attack every hour, as things were getting desperate with the rebel army which was cooped up in Vicksburg.
On the 14th the rebels opened fire with some small mortars, on General Herring’s troops. Several were killed and wounded by mortar shells. They also threw some shells into Logan’s division.
At night some of our boys met the rebs half way between our lines and exchanged coffee for the papers which the rebels were printing in Vicksburg. We found much valuable information in these papers.
Since they had been cooped up in Vicksburg, the rebels had been in communication with Breckenridge’s army by means of some spies. We also often traded coffee with the rebels for tobacco or something which we wanted, while we were on picket duty.
On the 16th the rebels opened fire with some of their heavy guns on our rifle pits which we were advancing within a short distance of their forts. But they were soon silenced by our sharpshooters.
On the 17th, a battery of our twenty-four pound siege gunsthrew hot shot into the city and tried to set the houses on fire, but they failed to do much damage, as the buildings were so far apart. The most of them had been pounded down by Porter’s big mortar shells, and very many of the citizens had dug out houses in the railroad cut, sixty feet below the top of the ground. Some of the houses had been dug out in solid rock and they were proof against Porter’s big shells that rolled to the height of four miles, then dropped and went into the ground fifteen feet, then they exploded and tore out holes in the ground as large as a house.
It seemed impossible for any living being to exist in such a hell through forty-eight days in the presence of those death-dealing monsters. The earth and air were both filled with iron and lead.
On the morning of the 18th, our company was relieved out of the rifle pits by Companies C and E. While we were yet standing there two of the boys were killed by rebel sharpshooters. One was out of Company C and the other out of Company E. The bullets passed through the loop in our head logs and then went through the boys’ heads. We were only sixty yards from the fort at this time. Admiral Porter used his fleet of mortars and ironclads continually. There was neither rest nor quiet during those hot days, made still hotter by the whizzing shells and zipping minnie balls.
On the 23rd we received two months’ pay. We now had money and could catch a little time to bet on our old familiar game called chuck-a-luck.
General Logan’s men had their tunnel underneath the “Queen of Vicksburg” completed. On the morning of the 25th, we received orders for every man to fire fifty rounds of cartridges and each battery to fire one hundred rounds, all along the entire line. Just imagine eighty thousand anxious men, standing in the riflepits, awaiting orders and ready to charge the mighty Gibraltar of Vicksburg.
Everything was quiet and not a sound disturbed the still air. Many were thinking of home and God and wondering what was coming next. About ten o’clock we saw a cloud of black smoke go up like the upheaval of a volcano. It carried with it to the height of a mile, hundreds of tons of earth and debris and a great number of men. This was followed by a mighty shaking of the earth, and the “Queen of Vicksburg” was no more. She was up in midair with hundreds of mangled human bodies dropping back to the earth.
At this moment five hundred cannon and eighty thousand small arms opened fire, and every man yelled at the top of his voice. Just think for a moment what a panorama this must have been. In five minutes nothing could be heard except the crash and roar nor could anything be seen on account of the smoke. Sheets of flame and clouds of black smoke shot up from the mouths of those great monster guns.
After an hour of work in this awful scene of death and destruction the lines all ceased firing. A few rebels in front of us gave three cheers to let us know that they were not all dead. The destruction then continued in Logan’s division, and it lasted until after dark.
I cannot give a full account of the work of destruction that went on in that division because I was not there, and got only a brief sketch of the horrors in that awful crater. After the explosion of the fort, Logan’s men charged in and tried to make an opening in that terrible place. They fought the rebels hand to hand, and both sides used hand grenades. These caused a great destruction on both sides. The rebels were reinforced and drove our men out, capturing several prisoners.
On the 26th, we moved one section of Captain Foster’stwenty-pound Parrot guns into our rifle pits, not over one hundred yards from the main rebel forts. We had to put collars on the guns to protect the eyes of our gunners.
Hard fighting was going on between Logan’s division and the rebels. They were fighting for the possession of the crater which was blown out between the two armies. They used all kinds of devices for holding that “bone of contention.” At night General Hovey had our rifle pits extended to within forty paces of their large fort. The rebels opened on us with canister, but it took no effect as our works were too strong.
At night our pickets and the rebels stood only ten feet apart and talked to each other. When four o’clock came, the first one that got into the rifle pits fired at the other, sometimes cutting the dirt close to his heels as he went over into the ditch on his head. He then lay there panting for breath.
The rebels built a wire fence and defied us to cross it. On the night of the 28th Captain Jackson of our pioneer corps and a working squad advanced our pits as far the fence. The rebel pickets were called into the fort and several shots fired. We then sent for reinforcements. The commander of the fort called out to know who the officer was who dared to intrude on his rights. We were now within thirty feet of the fort and were lying under two big guns whose muzzles one could crawl into.
Our captain answered the rebel thus, “Sir, I am Captain Jackson of the pioneer corps, and have orders from U. S. Grant to dig you out of here, and who are you, sir?”
“I am Colonel Jackson of the 20th Alabama Confederate, and have my orders form General Pemberton to blow you out of existence if you cross that wire fence.”
They met each other between the lines, shook hands, and had a long interview, for they proved to be uncle and nephew. I thought that we were in for it that night when their picket wascalled in and I heard the gunner call out, “Double shot with cannister, Number Four.” But now all was settled and we rested in our rifle pit until morning.
On the 29th the rebels planted a heavy gun to dismount our twenty-four pounders, that lay to our rear. They had fired two shots which took no effect, when one of our twenty-pound Parrots in the rifle pit threw a shot which knocked the rebel gun out of existence.
July 1, 1863, the rebels made a charge on part of McArthur’s division, but they were driven back into their works, with a counter charge. They lost thirty killed and taken prisoners. They also charged out on Lawman’s advance, capturing and filling up several rifle pits. They covered up several of our wounded, who perished before we recaptured the pits. That part of the line was reinforced and we established our line nearer their fort.
On the 3rd, we advanced our works by sapping and mining. We dug up some negro skeletons as this had been a negro graveyard. We were building ladders and preparing for a general charge. We could throw clods of dirt into the rebel’s forts. They had planted several mines under our rifle pits by digging tunnels.
We all knew that something was going to happen, as this kind of warfare could not last much longer.
At nine o’clock, on the morning of the 3rd of July, a flag of truce came out from the rebel lines, and was received at General Grant’s headquarters. Then came the order to cease firing all along the line for a three hours’ armistice. But Porter, who had not received the order, kept his big mortars busy, and threw some large pieces of shell over the rebels, and into our lines.
This rest was a good thing for all of us. Both rebel andunion troops sat up on our works and talked over the business of the day.
This is a day long to be remembered by many, both of the North and the South. At twelve o’clock at noon both armies resumed their places in the works and renewed that long struggle, but the firing was not as heavy as it had been.
At six o’clock in the evening, we saw the second flag of truce and firing ceased all around the lines. On the morning of the 4th of July, at eight o’clock, a salute of eight blank cartridges was shot from each heavy gun all along the line. At nine o’clock General Pemberton and his staff rode out and met General Grant under a large live oak tree, near the lines. Here Grant accepted the surrender of Vicksburg with twenty-seven thousand prisoners, fifty thousand stands of small arms and three hundred and fifty pieces of artillery.
White flags went up on each fort and the rebels marched out and stacked their guns. Yanks and rebs were soon all mixed up and talking as sociably as if nothing had happened. They were almost starved and soon we were all at the same tables, eating a good square meal of hardtack, sow belly and coffee.
Later I went inside their works and found several kettles of poor mule beef, cooking on fires back of their forts. It was horrible to witness the sights in the town, especially the hospitals. It did not take long to get enough of sight seeing for the rotten smell in that hole of death was terrible.
General Grant soon went to Washington, D. C. to receive thanks and congratulations for the part he had taken in putting down the rebellion, and General Sherman took temporary command of the army at Vicksburg.