Under Siege! (12 page)

It was reassuring to know that Pemberton had left behind 10,000 soldiers to guard the city when he had gone out to meet Grant. They were rested and ready for combat, and as they marched through the streets, Mary Loughborough reported that chivalry—so much a part of the Southern code of honor—won the day as “the ladies waved their handkerchiefs, cheering them, and crying, ‘These are the troops that have not run. You’ll stand by us, and protect us, won’t you? You won’t retreat and bring the Federals behind you.’ And the men, who were fresh and lively, swung their hats, and promised to die for the ladies—never to run—never to retreat.”

The battle-weary soldiers from Champion’s Hill and the Big Black River began to regroup and join the efforts to shore up defenses around the city. Soon everyone was working together, their spirits much improved. Still, Mary wrote, “What a sad evening we spent—continually hearing of friends and acquaintances left dead on the field, or mortally wounded and being brought in ambulances to the hospital. We almost feared to retire that night. No one seemed to know whether the Federal army was advancing. Some told us that they were many miles away, and others that they were quite near. How did we know but in the night we might be awakened by the tumult of their arrival!”

P
EMBERTON
felt a surge of confidence when he inspected the eight miles of Confederate fortifications guarding Vicksburg. They were brilliant in concept. In some places, the trenches, rifle pits, and small forts were protected by deep ravines full of cane and underbrush, and in other places they were guarded by steep hills. In areas that were more open, the Confederates had cut down trees, dragged them in front of the trenches, and woven the branches together with wire and sharp stakes. To reach the trenches, the enemy had to get through this barricade first. The Confederates
had only a hundred cannon, and to make it look like they had more, they had painted logs black and mounted them so they appeared to be regular cannon. These would help to fool the Yankees until Joe Johnston came to their rescue.

And he would come, wouldn’t he? This worried Pemberton. Johnston’s messages had stated that he felt Pemberton was going to have to surrender now that Grant had reached Vicksburg, and that trying to defend the city was a lost cause. But Pemberton and his generals were in agreement that they had to try. Their president, Jefferson Davis, wanted this, too. Pemberton continued asking Johnston for help. “I still conceive [Vicksburg] to be the most important point in the Confederacy,” he wrote. And in one message he concluded, “I have decided to hold Vicksburg as long as possible.”

L
IKE
P
EMBERTON
, Ulysses Grant knew that Joe Johnston was the wild card. Up to now Johnston had avoided any actual confrontation with the Union army, but Grant knew from spies that he was only fifty miles away. Surely he must be getting reinforcements and would soon attack. Grant planned to take Vicksburg quickly, before that could happen. When he saw the hills and ravines and the impressive Confederate fortifications that protected the city’s north, south, and east sides, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. But Admiral Porter’s naval fleet would fight from the river while Grant’s troops attacked on land. There was no stopping his Army of the Tennessee. In the past twenty days Grant had achieved every goal, inflicting 7,000 casualties while losing only 4,500 of his own men. With reinforcements, he still had 31,000 troops. More reinforcements were on their way. Ammunition and supplies were plentiful. All the men were eager to finish this and to be the ones who opened the Mississippi River for the North.

Grant decided that the action would start at two o’clock sharp on May 19. It would begin with artillery fire, followed by the order to charge.
At that moment, thousands of bluecoats would rush forward, in some places forging through deep ravines, to scale the Confederate entrenchments, their guns blazing as they quickly overwhelmed the defenders. Grant expected little resistance and was so certain of victory that he had already directed his division commanders on how to keep their victorious soldiers under control when the battle was over.

Vicksburg’s powerful guns.

Not everyone with Grant was as confident as he. A Union officer preparing to help storm the Confederate lines recorded what they were up against: “A long line of high, rugged, irregular bluffs clearly cut against the sky, crowned with cannon … Lines of heavy rifle pits … ran along the bluffs, connecting fort with fort, and [were] filled with veteran infantry. In front, on the slopes, was a tangle of fallen timber, tree-tops, interlaced to make an almost impenetrable abatis … The approaches to this position were frightful—enough to appall the stoutest heart.”

A
New York Times
reporter who was with the Union troops was more
succinct in his assessment, stating that the troops were now attempting to take a mountain.

O
N
M
AY 19
, the bluecoats were in position. Precisely at two o’clock, commanders throughout the Union line gave the signal and artillery exploded in unison. The bluecoats charged, yelling at the tops of their lungs as they rushed forward. The Rebels were ready for them, and on signal from their own commanders, they fired straight into the Union line. Falling back, stumbling over the injured and dead, Grant’s men tried again and again to storm the Confederate ridge, but each time they were driven back in an explosion of gunfire. Over and over, fresh troops moved forward to take the places of the men who fell.

Finally, with darkness corning on, Grant called a halt. The assault had failed. Almost a thousand of his men lay dead. One Union regimental flag had been shredded by fifty-five bullets.

Sherman said simply, “At every point we were repulsed.” But to his wife he wrote, “This is a death struggle and will be terrible.”

T
HE
R
EBELS WERE JUBILANT
and the citizens of Vicksburg cheered in the streets. All afternoon Mary Loughborough and her friends had watched from Sky Parlor Hill and from the cupola of the courthouse. “The excitement was intense in the city,” she wrote. “Groups of people stood on every available position where a view could be obtained of the distant hills, where the jets of white smoke constantly passed out from among the trees … The hills around near the city, and indeed every place that seemed commanding and secure, were covered with anxious spectators-many of them ladies—fearing the result of the afternoon’s conflict.”

That only 200 Confederate soldiers were killed seemed miraculous,
though once again the wounded poured into the city’s hospitals, where doctors, the dedicated Sisters of Mercy, and citizen volunteers cared for them.

Townspeople understood the significance of the day’s victory for Pemberton and his troops. They became both hopeful and determined, their spirits renewed. But that night they had a taste of what would be required of them. Two Union gunboats moved into range and began to shell the city. They took occasional hits from the Vicksburg cannon on shore but were not damaged enough to stop firing.

“We ran to the small cave near the house,” Mary said, “and were in it during the night… The caves were plainly becoming a necessity, as some persons had been killed on the street by fragments of shells … I shall never forget my extreme fear during the night, and my utter hopelessness of
ever seeing the morning light. Terror stricken, we remained crouched in the cave, while shell after shell followed each in quick succession … Morning found us more dead than alive.”

Fred (shown here fourth from left) was liked and accepted by his father’s officers. Grant (standing in the middle of the photo) is wearing a hat.