VICKSBURG Chapter Eight - Three

On the Wednesday afternoon of 24 June, 1863, Captain Ferdinand Osmin (Fred) Claiborne, commander of the Maryland 3^rd Light Artillery, received word that the Yankees appeared to be moving to attack  the rebel trench line, a quarter mile north of the Hall's Ferry road. 

The Maryland cannon were supporting Colonel Alexander Reynold's Tennessee brigade, which had seen little action so far, in part because the ground here was more broken, and in part because it was five miles from the Yankee supply base at Chickasaw Bayou, and a Yankee Supply road was still under construction. So it seemed unlikely the Yankees were serious in their movements. Still, anxious to be involved in the great siege, Fred borrowed a handheld telescope from his cousin, Colonel William Howard Claiborne, and hurried forward to see for himself.

Neither Captain Claiborne, nor most of the crewmen in his battery, were from Maryland. Fred himself had been born in Vicksburg, but had joined the Confederate army in New Orleans. He had been transferred to the 3^rd Maryland while in Richmond, Virginia, at the behest of one of his many cousins.  Because of the continual "wastage" of war, most of the 100 men in the unit had been drafted from East Tennessee or Georgia. So far, they had done most of their fighting in Tennessee and Mississippi. Like an increasing number of Confederate units, after 3 years of war, the 3^rd Maryland Artillery, were orphans.

Since the core ideology of the Confederacy was state's rights,  state regiments were supplied by state governments,   And with no state politicians to protect them, the 6 guns of the 3^rd Maryland were repeatedly split up, the parts sent on distant duties.  Back in April, 3 guns had been assigned to the captured boat “Queen of the West”.  And when it had been sunk at Grand Lake, Louisiana,  all of those guns were lost, and 9 gunners drowned.

Just days earlier, Fred had noted the sad condition of his men. “Our rations are growing more scarce every day...We have a quantity of bacon yet on hand, but...the men receive only one-quarter rations... such as rice, pea meal and rice flour. The corn has given out long since. Rations of sugar, lard, molasses and tobacco are issued, but this does not make amends for the want of bread, and the men are growing weaker every day.” 

Today, seeing that the Yankees had pushed a battery forward, and were opening fire, Fred Claiborne gave the signal for his 3 remaining cannon to open fire as well. And as he did so, a Yankee shell burst nearby and a chunk of spinning shrapnel sliced off much of the Captain's face, killing him instantly. Just another young man sacrificed to defend Vicksburg.

Doctor Colonel Ashbel Smith (above), a Texan by choice and a reluctant rebel, watched the decline of his men in the Texas Lunette as only a doctor could.  He noted the rations issued to his men had been, “...reduced to little more than sufficient to sustain life. Five ounces of musty corn-meal and pea flour were nominally issued daily. In point of fact, this allowance did not exceed three ounces.” Educated at Yale and in Paris, the 57 year old Doctor Smith had intimately witnessed epidemics of cholera and Yellow Fever. Despite his own iron constitution, the doctor recognized the inevitable prognosis for Vicksburg. “...The health of the men did not seem to suffer immediately from want of rations, but all gradually emaciated and became weak...many were found with swollen ankles and symptoms of incipient scurvy.”

Weeks earlier, a “wag” within the city – unknown if they were civilian or military – had written out a bill of fare for an imagined “Hotel de Vicksburg”. The fantasy meal included “Mule Tail Soup, followed by Mule Rump Roast Stuffed with Rice. Or perhaps the discerning customers might prefer Mule Spare Ribs Plain with Mule Liver Hashed” But those hard times had given way when all but a hand full of the mules had been killed by federal artillery or slaughtered. The current bitter joke among Pemberton's hungry army was “Whatever became of Fido?” But in its turn, even that desperate jibe was losing it's humor.

Across the lines, Grant could smell victory. A regular occupant of his headquarters, Charles Dana (above)  - the man sent by Secretary of War Stanton to keep an eye on Grant – caught the general's optimism. On Monday, 29 June, 1863, Dana notified Stanton that “Two separate parties of deserters from Vicksburg agree... rations have now been reduced lower than ever; that extreme dissatisfaction exists among the garrison, and that it is agreed on all hands that the city will be surrendered on Saturday, July 4, if, indeed, it can hold on so long as that.”

One week more. Inside the trench lines, the rebels had been hoping and praying for salvation, a salvation with a name – the persnickety and talented 56 year old Joseph Eggleston Johnston.

                                   - 30 - 

VICKSBURG Chapter Thirty - Six

 

One of the things America lost in the 20^th century, was a familiarity with death. Consider the life of one daughter of Mississippi, Mary Hynum. She was born in early April of 1805.  In 1825 she became the third wife of Abner Pipes, who owned a plantation on the southern edge of the Chocktaw nation, 4 miles west of Rocky Springs, near the Harkinson's Ferry over the Big Black River. They had three children, first two sons, James born in 1827 and Isaac Newton Pipes, born in 1829. Six years later in 1835, the patriarch Abner Pipes died, just a few days before his and Mary's newborn son also died.

Even after the February 1839 passage of the Married Women's Property Act, women in Mississippi still could not sign legal documents. And with 2 minor sons, the 34 year old widow Mary Hynum Pipes was in constant danger of losing the plantation. So in 1839 she married 49 year old Samuel Bagnell, 

He and Mary had 4 additional children – an infant who died shortly after birth, Ciaus, who died on 27 July, 1845, just 2 days short of his third birthday, 15 month old Emma who died 2 days after Ciaus, and William, who died at the age of 9 in the summer of 1846.  

Then, in August of 1847, at 54 years of age Samuel Bagnell, also died. That left Mary living in the house with only the two sons from her first marriage.  Two years later 20 year old Isaac Pipes married Ann Eliza Evans from Bastrop, Louisiana, and brought her home to Mississippi.

By the spring of 1863 both James and Isaac were serving as privates among the 200 or so members of the Fourth Mississippi cavalry “Battalion” called to the defense of their homes. The 4^th skirmished with Grant's army after the defeat at Port Gibson, and both sons would survive the war. But their service left now 58 year old Mary Hynum Pipes Bagnell and her daughter-in-law alone with the house servants, until Wednesday, 6 May, 1863 when Yankee Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant chose her home as his headquarters.

Camped around the Pipes Bagnell house were the 19,350 men of the XIII Corps, under 52 year old Lincoln doppelganger Major General John Alexander McClernand, with forward elements still holding the bridge over the Big Black River at Harkinson's Ferry.   Four miles to the east, around Willow Springs, was the XVII Corps, 17,390 men under 34 year old West Point graduate Major General James Birdseye McPherson. 

Still left behind in Louisiana was the XV Corps, 15,975 men under 53 year old Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. The XV Corps was waiting while 2 million rations of hardtack and ammunition were stockpiled in Grand Gulf.

Separated from Grant, Sherman's imagination of pending disaster for the entire army cut off in Mississippi, had once again gotten the better of him.  But on Wednesday, 6 May, as the first of his men began the crossing from Hard Times Landing,  Sherman (above) dispatched a reassuring message to the commander of his 2^nd division, 42 year old Missourian Major General Francis Preston Blair. Sherman assured the tail end Charlie of the Army of the Tennessee, “Grant reports plenty of meat and corn on the other side...”. That same morning, 60 wagons loaded with ammunition, left Grand Gulf for Willow Springs, guarded by 300 troopers of Federal cavalry.

As Major Mark S, Hurley observed in his 1992 paper, “Union Logistics in the Vicksburg Campaign”,

“Grant's original plan....(was to) detach McClernand's corps to General Banks to cooperate in the reduction of Port Hudson....(but then) he learned that Banks was moving up the Red River instead of up the Mississippi.”

So, with Banks tied down in southern Louisiana for at least the next 30 days, Grant decided to act alone. On 3 May, he notified his boss. 48 year old General-in-Chief, Henry Wagner Halleck  (above) that “The country will provide all the forage required for anything like an active campaign. Other supplies will have to be drawn from Milliken's Bend." The next morning, from Mary Pipes Bagnell's parlor,  he ordered that supply base shifted south, to Grand Gulf.

That Wednesday, 6 May, he again telegraphed Halleck. “ I will move as soon as three days rations (are) received and send wagons back to the (Grand) Gulf for more to follow.” But where would the army go next?  He might use the bridge at Harkinson's Ferry to strike directly at Vicksburg.  But, as Major Hurley notes, “...the broken nature of the ground favored the Confederates.”  And such an attack might give Pemberton's army an escape route north, into the Yazoo basin. However, “Skirting east of Vicksburg...could deny the Confederates access to supplies and reinforcements from Jackson....(and) the Confederates would not be able to easily tell whether Grant's main effort was against Jackson,...or Vicksburg. Furthermore, marching east gave Grant flexibility because he could easily turn either town into his main attack.”

On Thursday, 7 May, the first of Sherman's battalions left Grand Gulf and began marching up the Rodney Road toward Willow Springs. At the same time the three brigades of 37 year old Major General John Alexander Logan's (above)  3^rd division, of McPherson's Corps, set out on a 3 mile march north along the Natchez Trace for Rocky Springs.  Grant was riding with General Logan, and for anyone aware of his phobia against retracing his steps, that was a highly significant journey. It was also important because Grant was no longer traveling with the troublesome General McClernand. He was close, but Grant felt the need for a wider view.

Rocky Springs (above) was a little village of 2,600 whites operating 3 stores and 13 shops. Within the surrounding Claiborne county were perhaps 300 more whites and some 2,000 black slaves. None of the white residents of Rocky Springs lifted a hand against the Yankee infantry as they marched in, but they did not welcome the invaders, either. Still, despite the hate filled stares, said one Yankee soldier, “...we have good, cold spring water...”

On the same day, elements of John McClernand's XIII Corps marched further up the Rodney Road to Big Sand Creek, about 5 miles to the northeast. He was under strict orders to avoid a fight. The steps were small, but the army kept moving, both to keep the rebels uncertain about its exact location, and to keep moving to fresh territory for foraging.

Charles Anderson Dana (above), the Special Investigating Agent for Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, was supposed to be keeping an eye on Grant, and had arrived in Rocky Springs with the general.  But after years of editing and managing Horace Greely's New York Tribune, and months spent knee deep in the political maze of Washington, D.C, the 42 year old Dana had “gone native”, and reverted to being a journalist. He liked Grant, and filed positive reports about him.

It was Dana's reports supporting Grant, and questioning McClernand's capabilities, which inspired the autocratic and occasionally hysterical Stanton (above) to send a 5 May telegram to Dana. “General Grant has full and absolute authority to enforce his own commands, and to remove any person who by ignorance, inaction or any other cause interferes with or delays his operations. He has the full confidence of the government, is expected to enforce his authority, and will be firmly and heartily supported, but he will be responsible for any failure to exert his powers. You may communicate this to him.” However, because Grant was moving, this note would not reach Dana until 10 May.

While in camp at Rocky Springs, Dana watched the forage parties dispatched each morning, returning with a bounty of pork, chicken and beef every night. The expedition had briefly assumed the air of a hunting trip, and Dana waxed romantic about the soldier's life. “Away yonder, in the edge of the woods, I hear the drumbeat that calls the soldiers to supper...Pretty soon after dark they are all asleep, lying in their blankets under the trees...Their guns are all ready by their sides, so that if they are suddenly called at night they can start in a moment. It is strange in the mornings before daylight to hear the bugle and drums sound the reveille, which calls the army to wake up."  It was clear that the Army was going to stay on the move.

                                   - 30 -

VICKSBURG Chapter Eighty-One

 

On the Wednesday afternoon of 24 June, 1863, Captain Ferdinand Osmin (Fred) Claiborne, commander of the Maryland 3^rd Light Artillery, received word that the Yankees appeared to be moving to attack  the rebel trench line, a quarter mile north of the Hall's Ferry road. 

The Maryland cannon were supporting Colonel Alexander Reynold's Tennessee brigade, which had seen little action so far, in part because the ground here was more broken, and in part because it was five miles from the Yankee supply base at Chickasaw Bayou, and a Yankee Supply road was still under construction. So it seemed unlikely the Yankees were serious in their movements. Still, anxious to be involved in the great siege, Fred borrowed a handheld telescope from his cousin, Colonel William Howard Claiborne, and hurried forward to see for himself.

Neither Captain Claiborne, nor most of the crewmen in his battery, were from Maryland. Fred himself had been born in Vicksburg, but had been raised, educated and joined the Confederate army in New Orleans. He had been transferred to the 3^rd Maryland while in Richmond, Virginia, at the behest of one of his many cousins.  Because of the continual "wastage" of war, most of the 100 men in the unit had been drafted from East Tennessee or Georgia. So far, they had done most of their fighting in Tennessee and Mississippi. Like an increasing number of Confederate units, after 3 years of war, the 3^rd Maryland Artillery, were orphans.

Since the core ideology of the Confederacy was state's rights,  state regiments were supplied by state governments,   And with no state politicians to protect them, the 6 guns of the 3^rd Maryland were repeatedly split up, the parts sent on distant duties.  Back in April, 3 guns had been assigned to the captured boat “Queen of the West”.  And when it had been sunk at Grand Lake, Louisiana,  all of those guns were lost, and 9 gunners drowned.

Just days earlier, Fred had noted the sad condition of his men. “Our rations are growing more scarce every day...We have a quantity of bacon yet on hand, but...the men receive only one-quarter rations... such as rice, pea meal and rice flour. The corn has given out long since. Rations of sugar, lard, molasses and tobacco are issued, but this does not make amends for the want of bread, and the men are growing weaker every day.” 

Today, seeing that the Yankees had pushed a battery forward, and were opening fire, Fred Claiborne gave the signal for his 3 remaining cannon to open fire as well. And as he did so, a Yankee shell burst nearby and a chunk of spinning shrapnel sliced off much of the Captain's face, killing him instantly. Just another young man sacrificed to defend Vicksburg.

Doctor Colonel Ashbel Smith (above), a Texan by choice and a reluctant rebel, watched the decline of his men in the Texas Lunette as only a doctor could.  He noted the rations issued to his men had been, “...reduced to little more than sufficient to sustain life. Five ounces of musty corn-meal and pea flour were nominally issued daily. In point of fact, this allowance did not exceed three ounces.” Educated at Yale and in Paris, the 57 year old Doctor Smith had intimately witnessed epidemics of cholera and Yellow Fever. Despite his own iron constitution, the doctor recognized the inevitable prognosis for Vicksburg. “...The health of the men did not seem to suffer immediately from want of rations, but all gradually emaciated and became weak...many were found with swollen ankles and symptoms of incipient scurvy.”

Weeks earlier, a “wag” within the city – unknown if they were civilian or military – had written out a bill of fare for an imagined “Hotel de Vicksburg”. The fantasy meal included “Mule Tail Soup, followed by Mule Rump Roast Stuffed with Rice. Or perhaps the discerning customers might prefer Mule Spare Ribs Plain with Mule Liver Hashed” But those had times had been given way when all but a hand full of the mules had been killed by federal artillery or slaughtered. The current bitter joke among Pemberton's hungry army was “Whatever became of Fido?” But in its turn, even that desperate jibe was losing its humor.

Across the lines, Grant could smell victory. A regular occupant of his headquarters, Charles Dana (above)  - the man sent by Secretary of War Stanton to keep an eye on Grant – caught the general's optimism. On Monday, 29 June, 1863, Dana notified Stanton that “Two separate parties of deserters from Vicksburg agree... rations have now been reduced lower than ever; that extreme dissatisfaction exists among the garrison, and that it is agreed on all hands that the city will be surrendered on Saturday, July 4, if, indeed, it can hold on so long as that.”

One week more. Inside the trench lines, the rebels had been hoping and praying for salvation, a salvation with a name – the persnickety and talented 56 year old Joseph Eggleston Johnston.

- 30 -

VICKSBURG Chapter Thirty-Three

One of the things America lost in the 20^th century, was a familiarity with death. Consider the life of one daughter of Mississippi, Mary Hynum. She was born in early April of 1805.  In 1825 she became the third wife of Abner Pipes, who owned a plantation on the southern edge of the Chocktaw nation, 4 miles west of Rocky Springs, near the Harkinson's Ferry over the Big Black River. They had three children, first two sons, James born in 1827 and Isaac Newton Pipes, born in 1829. Six years later in 1835, the patriarch Abner Pipes died, just a few days before his and Mary's newborn son also died.

Even after the February 1839 passage of the Married Women's Property Act, women in Mississippi still could not sign legal documents. And with 2 minor sons, 34 year old widow Mary Hynum Pipes was in constant danger of losing the plantation. So in 1839 she married 49 year old Samuel Bagnell, 

He and Mary had 4 additional children – an infant who died shortly after birth, Ciaus, who died on 27 July, 1845, just 2 days short of his third birthday, 15 month old Emma who died 2 days after Ciaus, and William, who died at the age of 9 in the summer of 1846.  

Then, in August of 1847, at 54 years of age Samuel Bagnell, also died. That left Mary living in the house with only the two sons from her first marriage.  Two years later 20 year old Isaac Pipes married Ann Eliza Evans from Bastrop, Louisiana, and brought her home to Mississippi.

By the spring of 1863 both James and Isaac were serving as privates among the 200 or so members of the Fourth Mississippi cavalry “Battalion” called to the defense of their homes. The 4^th skirmished with Grant's army after the defeat at Port Gibson, and both sons would survive the war. But their service left now 58 year old Mary Hynum Pipes Bagnell and her daughter-in-law alone with the house servants, until Wednesday, 6 May, 1863 when Yankee Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant chose her home as his headquarters.

Camped around the Pipes Bagnell house were the 19,350 men of the XIII Corps, under 52 year old Lincoln doppelganger Major General John Alexander McClernand, with forward elements still holding the bridge over the Big Black River at Harkinson's Ferry.   Four miles to the east, around Willow Springs, was the XVII Corps, 17,390 men under 34 year old West Point graduate Major General James Birdseye McPherson. 

Left behind in Louisiana was the XV Corps, 15,975 men under 53 year old Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. The XV Corps was waiting while 2 million rations of hardtack and ammunition were stockpiled in Grand Gulf.

Separated from Grant, Sherman's imagination of pending disaster for the entire army cut off in Mississippi, had once again gotten the better of him.  But on Wednesday, 6 May, as the first of his men began the crossing from Hard Times Landing,  Sherman (above) dispatched a reassuring message to the commander of his 2^nd division, 42 year old Missourian Major General Francis Preston Blair. Sherman assured the tail end Charlie of the Army of the Tennessee, “Grant reports plenty of meat and corn on the other side...”. That same morning, 60 wagons loaded with ammunition, left Grand Gulf for Willow Springs, guarded by 300 troopers of Federal cavalry.

As Major Mark S, Hurley observed in his 1992 paper, “Union Logistics in the Vicksburg Campaign”,

“Grant's original plan....(was to) detach McClernand's corps to General Banks to cooperate in the reduction of Port Hudson....(but then) he learned that Banks was moving up the Red River instead of up the Mississippi.”

So, with Banks tied down in southern Louisiana for at least the next 30 days, Grant decided to act alone. On 3 May, he notified his boss. 48 year old General-in-Chief, Henry Wagner Halleck  (above) that “The country will provide all the forage required for anything like an active campaign. Other supplies will have to be drawn from Milliken's Bend." The next morning, from Mary Pipes Bagnell's parlor,  he shifted that supply base south, to Grand Gulf.

That Wednesday, 6 May, he again telegraphed Halleck. “ I will move as soon as three days rations (are) received and send wagons back to the (Grand) Gulf for more to follow.” But where would the army go next?  He might use the bridge at Harkinson's Ferry to strike directly at Vicksburg.  But, as Major Hurley notes, “...the broken nature of the ground favored the Confederates.”  And such an attack might give Pemberton's army an escape route north, into the Yazoo basin. However, “Skirting east of Vicksburg...could deny the Confederates access to supplies and reinforcements from Jackson....(and) the Confederates would not be able to easily tell whether Grant's main effort was against Jackson,...or Vicksburg. Furthermore, marching east gave Grant flexibility because he could easily turn either town into his main attack.”

On Thursday, 7 May, the first of Sherman's battalions left Grand Gulf and began marching up the Rodney Road toward Willow Springs. At the same time the three brigades of 37 year old Major General John Alexander Logan's (above)  3^rd division, of McPherson's Corps, set out on a 3 mile march north along the Natchez Trace for Rocky Springs.  Grant was riding with General Logan, and for anyone aware of his phobia against retracing his steps, that was a highly significant journey. It was also important because Grant was no longer traveling with the troublesome General McClernand. He was close, but Grant felt the need for a wider view.

Rocky Springs (above) was a little village of 2,600 whites operating 3 stores and 13 shops. Within the surrounding Claiborne county were perhaps 300 more whites and some 2,000 slaves. None of the white residents of Rocky Springs lifted a hand against the Yankee infantry as they marched in, but they did not welcome the invaders, either. Still, despite the hate filled stares, said one Yankee soldier, “...we have good, cold spring water...”

On the same day, elements of John McClernand's XIII Corps marched further up the Rodney Road to Big Sand Creek, about 5 miles to the northeast. He was under strict orders to avoid a fight. The steps were small, but the army kept moving, both to keep the rebels uncertain about its exact location, and to keep moving to fresh territory for foraging.

Charles Anderson Dana (above), the Special Investigating Agent for Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, was supposed to be keeping an eye on Grant, and had arrived in Rocky Springs with the general.  But after years of editing and managing Horace Greely's New York Tribune, and months spent knee deep in the political maze of Washington, D.C, the 42 year old Dana had “gone native”, and reverted to being a journalist. He liked Grant, and filed positive reports about him.

It was Dana's reports supporting Grant, and questioning McClernand's capabilities, which inspired the autocratic and occasionally hysterical Stanton (above) to send a 5 May telegram to Dana. “General Grant has full and absolute authority to enforce his own commands, and to remove any person who by ignorance, inaction or any other cause interferes with or delays his operations. He has the full confidence of the government, is expected to enforce his authority, and will be firmly and heartily supported, but he will be responsible for any failure to exert his powers. You may communicate this to him.” However, because Grant was moving, this note would not reach Dana until 10 May.

While in camp at Rocky Springs, Dana watched the forage parties dispatched each morning, returning with a bounty of pork, chicken and beef every night. The expedition had briefly assumed the air of a hunting trip, and Dana waxed romantic about the soldier's life. “Away yonder, in the edge of the woods, I hear the drumbeat that calls the soldiers to supper...Pretty soon after dark they are all asleep, lying in their blankets under the trees...Their guns are all ready by their sides, so that if they are suddenly called at night they can start in a moment. It is strange in the mornings before daylight to hear the bugle and drums sound the reveille, which calls the army to wake up."  It was clear that the Army was on the move.

                                   - 30 -