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Had the attempt been made the garrison of Vicksburg would have been drowned, or made prisoners on the Louisiana side. General Richard Taylor was expected on the west bank to co-operate in this movement, I believe, but he did not come, nor could he have done so with a force sufficient to be of service.
From the captured contrabands Porter learned that the attempt to cut off his retreat was directed by the military authorities at Vicksburg. This was a startling revelation. He had thought that the Confederates were in entire ignorance of his movement; and now it turned out that the wily Pemberton had kept a sharp lookout on the marauding gunboats, and was shrewdly planning for their capture.
They believed that Vicksburg was held by fifteen thousand men at the utmost. "What do you think of it, Colonel?" asked Dick, as they sat horseback on one of the highest hills. "It will be hard to take, despite the help of the navy. Did you ever see another country cut up so much by nature and offering such natural help to defenders?" "I've heard a lot of Vicksburg.
The body of the deceased lady was claimed by Dalhousie, in behalf of Jaspar, and interred in Vicksburg. In company with the new overseer and his wife, Jaspar returned the next day to Bellevue. "Say quick! quoth he; I bid thee say, What manner of man art thou? "Forthwith, this frame of mine was wrenched With a woful agony, Which forced me to begin my tale; And then it left me free."
Little was said of the events taking place around us, but the King made many inquiries concerning the war of the rebellion, particularly with reference to Grant's campaign at Vicksburg; suggested, perhaps, by the fact that there, and in the recent movements of the German army, had been applied many similar principles of military science.
The object of our expedition was to cooperate with General Grant in the reduction of Vicksburg, but General Banks did not know until he arrived at New Orleans that Port Hudson was fortified and manned by almost as large a force as he could bring against it, or that fifty miles west of New Orleans was a force of five or six thousand men ready to move on the city and cut his lines of communication the moment he moved up the river.
The flag-of-truce officer came back flushed and angry. "General Grant says that no human being shall pass out of Vicksburg; but the lady may feel sure danger will soon be over. Vicksburg will surrender on the 4th." "Is that so, general?" inquired H. "Are arrangements for surrender made?" "We know nothing of the kind. Vicksburg will not surrender."
While the eyes of the nation were fastened upon the great drama being enacted near the capital, events scarcely less momentous were occurring in the Southwest. The campaign against Vicksburg, the great Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi river, had been in active progress, under the personal command of General Grant, for several months.
He had at this time a larger force than I had had at any time prior to the battle of Champion's Hill. As soon as the news of the arrival of the Union army behind Vicksburg reached the North, floods of visitors began to pour in.
He was a member of the Philadelphia Whig Convention of 1848. In 1855 and 1857 was elected to the Senate of Ohio. In 1861 he was appointed Colonel of the Seventy-Second Ohio Infantry, and commanded a brigade in the battle of Shiloh. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, and participated in the siege of Vicksburg.
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