Less
than an hour into Wednesday, 20 May, 1863, the city of Vicksburg was
rocked by a stomach turning thud, originating from the river at its
feet. Explained the post war diary of the 3rd Louisiana
regiment, “A huge iron-clad approached from below, and commenced a
furious bombardment of the city, which was rapidly responded to by
our heavy batteries...The hoarse bellowing of the mortars, the sharp
report of rifled artillery, the scream and explosion of every variety
of deadly missiles, intermingled with the incessant, sharp reports of
small-arms...” And thus began the siege of Vicksburg.
As
the sun finally rose that Wednesday, 48 year old Lieutenant General
John Clifford Pemberton commanded just under 20,000 men, 72 heavy
guns and 103 field cannon stretched in an 8 mile “D” around the
city The military adage that the defense multiplied
defender forces by 3, meant that Pemberton's 20,000 men should
withstand 60,000 attackers. And for the previous six months, the
spade and the engineer's diligence had struggled to reinforce that
adage.
The
river batteries formed the backbone of the “D”, from South Fort
rising above Stout's Bayou to the Hill Fort, frowning down upon the
DeSoto bend of the Mississippi river –
From south to north, there was The South Fort (above)...
and The Widow
Blakely Battery (above), whose cannon was known as "Whistling Dick". The Marine Hospital Battery, The Brooke Battery, The
Railroad Battery, The Depot Battery and the Whig Office Battery,...
...then
across the Glass Bayou to Wyman's Hill Battery (above)...
...and Batteries 4
through 7 to the Hill Fort (above). Together these contained 37 heavy guns
and 13 field cannon, manned by some 3,500 men.
That
left the 6 ½ mile long landward defensive line, with 1 infantryman
for every 2 feet of trench. Their weapon was the rifled muskets, with
a truly effective range of 150 yards and an effective rate of fire of
3 rounds per minute. Pemberton's artillery on the land side
consisted of 35 heavy guns and 90 cannon in earthen redans (V-shaped
forts) and redoubts (French for 'a place of retreat'), averaging one
cannon for every 250 yards, with a safe rate of fire of 1 round per
minute. But the design of these fortifications had been developed
over a thousand years to concentrate the defenders and cannon at
critical points.
All
trees up to 300 yards beyond the defenses were clear cut to provide a
an unimpeded field of fire. The wood was then used in the three
medieval defensive lines. First a 10 foot deep ditch was excavated,
in the north above The Military Road, running ¾ of a mile eastward
from the Hill Fort. Any attacker would find themselves forced into
this depression directly in front of the defending gunners.
In the
trenches interior wall, abatis were half buried – a felled tree or
bush with the branches facing the attacker, or man made
constructions, a Cheval de Fris (above), to slow and disrupt an attacker.
Dirt
scooped from the trench was used to raise the steep rampart walls of
the second and primary defense positions - a broken line of lunettes
and redans, on high ground above the terminations of the numerous
gullies steams had carved through the Vicksburg loam.
In
architecture, a lunette (rights) – French for little noon – is the
recessed arch above a doorway. In fortifications it is a similarly
shaped defense position with an open rear. A redan (center) is generally
larger, some at Vicksburg had 20 foot thick earthen walls, and a
single “V” rampart thrusting into the attack. The rear of all
these positions are open except the 4 walled "Redoubt", French for place of retreat.
The
objective is to force the attacker to either smash their strength
against a single high point, or flow around the obstruction,
dissipating their strength and offering their flanks at close range
to the defending marksmen inside the fort. Should the enemy attack
the undefended rear, he would then present their own rear to a
counter attack from troops in the third line of trenches.
The
top of the “D” was the Stockade Redan, at the eastern end of the
northern line, so named because a Poplar stockade wall stood
across the junction of the Military and the Graveyard Road. Defending
the Stockade Redan was the 27th
Louisiana and 36th
Mississippi Infantry regiments, with three Missouri regiments in reserve, behind in a 7 foot deep trench line.
South
of this stood Green's Redan defended by the 37th
Mississippi Infantry, with the 26th
Louisiana Infantry in reserve. A quarter mile further south was the
3rd
Louisiana Redan, and then The Great Redoubt, so called because it
was the largest fort in the Confederate , with four rectangular
earthen walls.
South
of the Great Redoubt the ground in front of the line was too broken
support an attack, so there was only the a mile long ditch with
abatis and manned trenches behind. But then came the 2nd
Texas Lunette and the Railroad Redan (above), named because the South
Railroad ran through the gully, along with Potter's Chapel Road.
A
quarter mile south west, as the “D” began to angle back toward
its base, was The Square Fort, later named Fort Garrott after its
namesake, 36 year old Colonel Isham Warren Garrott from the 20th
Alabama regiment. Garrott was cut down by a sniper's bullet during
the siege. A half mile further southwest, guarding the ravine where
Hall's Ferry Road left Vicksburg, was the Salient Redan. The steep
ravine carved by Stout's Bayou, as well as broken ground and lack of
roads over the next 1 and ¾ miles made this section unsuitable for
either an attack or defense. But the Vicksburg defenses were tied
down with the powerful South Fort, guarding the Warrenton Road.
With
the arrival of dawn, Grant's artillery joined the bombardment.
According to the 3rd Louisiana diary, “The place was a
perfect pandemonium...The hoarse bellowing of the mortars, the sharp
report of rifled artillery, the scream and explosion of every variety
of deadly missiles, intermingled with the incessant, sharp reports of
small-arms, made up a combination of sounds not such as described by
the poet as being a " sweet concord."
There was much more to come. And much worse.
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