One of the things America lost in the 20th 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 4th 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 2nd 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) 3rd 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.
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