VICKSBURG Chapter Thirty

 

Sunrise on Sunday, 3 May 1863 found a new and odd looking crossing of the 5 food deep south fork of Bayou Pierre - a 166 foot long by 12 foot wide floating raft bridge. It had been constructed - 20 yards upstream from the old suspension bridge at Askamalla ford - from the fences, pig sties, stable enclosures and the sidewalks of Port Gibson, Mississippi. 

It was an amazing and sad structure requiring constant repair, but over the next week it would endure the passage of nearly 45,000 Federal soldiers, their cannon, wagons and cavalry. Such herculean effort was deserving of a Julius Caesar to praise its construction. Instead it received a mere footnote in the history of Captain Patterson's Kentucky Company of Mechanics and Engineers - a regiment despite its name - ably assisted in this effort by work teams from the 78th Ohio Volunteer Regiment.

The 78th (above, in Zanesville, Ohio) was an example of how the war was evolving into something larger than was originally intended. The regiment had been formed in October of 1861 at Camp Gilbert on the outskirts of Zanesville, Ohio. Unlike the 90 day provincial and insular regiments formed in the heady rush before the First Battle of Bull Run, these men were drawn from all over the state, and had enlisted for 3 years. But their Colonel, 42 year old Mortimer Dormer Leggett, was an amateur soldier - being a lawyer and superintendent of the Zanesville public schools before the war.

The self described "Jayhawkers" had fought at Fort Donaldson and had lost a man killed and 8 wounded on the second day of Shiloh. They had participated in the siege of Corinth, Mississippi, and the assault on Chickasaw Bayou. They stormed the trenches at Fort Hindman, and helped dig the failed Lake Providence Canal. They had come to Mississippi as part of the 2nd Brigade, under General John A. Logan's 3rd Division, XVII Corps. And they were practical enough to know that building a floating bridge was just part of their job as soldiers.

Bursting the cork at Port Gibson with the help of the 78th., Grant now had two roads to choose from. To Grant's left the road ran west for three miles before crossing the mainstream of Bayou Pierre on a second suspension bridge. The road then forked. A turn south would lead to the fortress of Grand Gulf. But follow the road north across the Big Black River and a traveler would reach Warrenton and Vicksburg beyond. This crossing was protected by Confederate Colonel Cockerel with just 3 now battle weary Mississippi regiments and 6 cannon.

Or Grant might choose to advance for 8 miles northwest up the road to his right, which crossed the north fork of Bayou Pierre on a third suspension bridge. Continuing north this road led to Willow Springs and yet another fork, guarded by the remnants of Colonel Garott's Alabama brigade. The left turning here lead northwest to cross the Big Black river at Harkinson's Ferry, before reaching the village of Mount Vernon and then Warrenton.  Take the right fork and you would trend northeast through Cayuga and Auburn before crossing 14 mile Mile Creek and reaching Raymond - and beyond, the state capital of Jackson, Mississippi.

Lieutenant General Pemberton (above), now in Vicksburg,  might have sent troops from the city to bolster the defenses along Bayou Pierre.  But the Pennsylvanian in gray was painfully aware that Grant's XVth Corps, under General William Tecumseh Sherman, with most of the Federal gunboats for artillery support, was still poised at Miliken's bend, less than a day's sailing time  north of Vicksburg. Pemberton dare not strip the cities' defenses else the aggressive Sherman launch a coup de main. Besides, it was not in Pemberton's nature to rush to the battlefield.

Instead,  he remained in the city, strengthening trench lines around Vicksburg while allowing General Loring (above) to assemble all troops recalled from northern and central Mississippi along the Big Black River. What Pemberton and Loring both needed now was time.

And it seemed he might get it. At Millikin's bend General Sherman was suddenly cautious. Separated from his friend Grant, the ginger headed Ohioian (above) was looking at the 70 mile long tattered cordoryed road to Hard Times Landing. It had almost been destroyed by the 30,000 men who had already marched down it. And should his own corps make that passage "Cump" must leap his 15,000 men across the Old Man River and into the yawning abyss of central Mississippi, where the entire Federal army might be cutoff and devoured. No wonder then that Sherman was worried. On 29 April, just before Grant crossed the Mississippi, he wrote his wife that "...when they take Grand Gulf they (will) have the elephant by the tail."  But Grant had no intention of stopping or even waiting.

Grant's ordered Sherman, ""I wish you to collect a train of 120 wagons . . . and send them to Grand Gulf; and there load them with rations, as follows: One hundred thousand pounds of bacon, the balance coffee, sugar, salt and hard bread . . . The enemy is badly beaten, greatly demoralized, and exhausted of ammunition. The road to Vicksburg is open. All we want now are men, ammunition, and hard bread. We can subsist our horses on the country, and obtain considerable supplies for our troops."  Sherman set to work fulfilling his orders, but he was convinced Grant's plan was leading the army into disaster.

The first division of the McClernand's XIII Corps to cross the floating bridge over the south fork of Bayou Pierre that Saturday morning, 3 May 1863, was the 12th, commanded by the humorless patrician, 42 year old Hoosier, Brigadier General Alvin Peterson Hovey. 

Hovey had an undeserved reputation as a populist, and a history as a pro-union Democrat. Both of these traits convinced Republicans to make him a Colonel. Hovey was then transformed into a radical Republican once he was confronted with the ugly reality of slavery, and the realization that his political future depended on his support for the war.  He assured a superior, "I want all the cotton burned north and south....I want all the women and children, especially of rebels, reduced to starvation and want."  A modicum of military skill and conspicuous bravery at Shiloh convinced Grant to promote Hovey and give him a division. Once across the bridge, the 12th division turned left, toward Grand Gulf.

The second division across the bridge was the 10th, commanded by the short - both physically and in patience - and cranky 48 year old career cavalryman, Brigadier General Andrew Jackson Smith (above). The irascible Smith had never commanded infantry before the civil war, but he was immensely popular with both his superiors and his troops, because he rarely complained, had little time for pomp or speeches, and because he shared his soldier's hardships. He was also dependably and reliably professional, later becoming Grant's "go-to" officer whenever a crises arose. And in an ocean of political generals, as far as anyone knew, General Andrew Jackson Smith had no strong personal political opinions, at all.

Cyrus Hussey (above), on the other hand, was a man with plenty of opinions. A rigid and judgmental 24 year old Quaker school teacher, Cyrus opposed slavery on religious grounds. He enlisted in the 48th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1861, as a sergeant, but by spring of 1863, Cyrus was the Colonel. He was a respected officer even by the many who did not like him. For relaxation, he did algebra and diagrammed sentences, or just complained in letters to his wife about the moral failings of his superiors.  Once Cyrus had chosen a side, he never wavered in his beliefs. Falling in love with an Episcopalian, Rebecca Hodson, Cyrus married her in December of 1859, even though he was immediately disowned by his own congregation.  But it was about the only rebellious thing he ever did,

The 48th Ohio crossed the south fork about 9:30 that Saturday morning. As they marched through the now open, rolling Mississippi countryside, Cyrus heard what he thought was cannon firing off toward Grand Gulf. In fact it was General Bowen setting off the ammunition he could not escape with, as he evacuated the forts overlooking the river.  Grant heard the same sound in Port Gibson and knew immediately what it meant. The Rebels had no intention of fighting to hold onto the Bayou Pierre line, and were retreating all the way back to the Big Black River. The deep thunder of the exploding Confederate munitions meant he would soon have that elephant by the tail,  and Sherman's Corps could now cut short their voyage down the river, and disembark at Grand Gulf. 

Shortly after noon General Smith's division arrived to find the third suspension bridge over the north fork of Bayou Pierre burning, like the other two. But upon inspection 25 year old engineer Lieutenant Colonel James Harrison Wilson was able to report that although the rebels had set fire to the wooden roadbed, even it had not burned completely. The iron cables - actually iron chains held together by rope - and the iron towers they draped from,  had suffered no significant damage. By early evening the Kentucky Engineers and Mechanics were at work repairing the bridge. And at the first light of dawn, Sunday 4 May, 1863, the 10th Division would be able to cross the Bayou, and advance on Willow Springs.

The cork was now, truly, out of the bottle.  And so was Grant!

- 30 - 

VICKSBURG Chapter Twenty - Nine

The dawn of Saturday, 2 May, 1863, illuminated the golden haired "frat boy" of the Army of the Potomac, 49 year old Major General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker (above), standing atop the pinnacle of success.  He looked the part - handsome, athletic and audacious, a candle burning brilliantly at both ends. His diligent attention to the welfare of his soldiers had rebuilt the army after the twin disasters at Fredricksburg and the Mud March. 

At the same time his alcohol soaked headquarters became so infamous for its female contingent that forever after prostitutes bore his name. But in the previous 24 hours, "the inevitable" Major General Hooker had achieved what every other Federal general had failed to. He had stolen a march on Robert E. Lee.

The man who had boasted, "May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none" had planted 70,000 men and 108 cannon facing south and east at Chancellorsville clearing, 11 miles in the rear of the 50,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia. His enemy was now trapped between his great host and the 40,000 Yankees of the VI Corps facing west on the Rappahannock River. One simple command, and the massive vice would snap shut, crushing the rebellion. And yet, for hour after hour that Saturday, the anxious Federal soldiers heard only silence from their Caesar. 

And the astounding rumor began to trickle through the ranks that their boastful, vain and beautiful Napoleon was cowering in Mister Chanellor's brick mansion "...in a crumpled trance, helpless, lethargic, entirely demoralized." His senior corps commander, 41 year old Major General Darious Nash Couch said later, "I retired from his presence with the belief that my commanding general was a whipped man.” This before a shot had been fired. This, with victory staring him in the face.

General Robert Edward Lee (above) was not going to wait for Hooker to recover his arrogance. First the Virginia aristocrat left 10,000 men to watch Major General John Sedwick's VI corps, and marched west to meet Hooker with the remaining 40,000. Forty thousand men against 70,000 -  it was a direct violation of Napoleonic generalship - never divide an inferior force in the face of a superior enemy. But having done it once, Lee now did it again. 

He fixated Hooker by dangling 13,000 men to his west, while sending 23,000 on a 12 mile, 10 hour eastward flanking march under the puritanical, lemon sucking 39 year old Major General Thomas Johnathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Lee's only hope for success was if Hooker stayed right where he was, with that handsome chin of his, daring the entire universe to strike it.

A thousand miles to the west, as eastern Louisiana turned to face that same morning, the sun revealed some 950 federal troopers of the 6th and 7th Illinois volunteer cavalry, swimming their mounts across a the rain swollen Comite River. Rising from the warm waters, their commander, 36 year old Colonel Benjiman Harrison Grierson (above), drove his men on another two hours southwestward before he allowed his weary troopers to dismount and collapse in sleep. However the one time civilian music teacher felt the need himself to stay awake and watch over his men. He discovered a piano in a nearby house, and startled his unwilling hosts by playing on it for some time. About noon a sentry alerted him to approaching cavalry. And for the first time in 16 days, he was not worried.

That same Saturday morning, Major General John McClernand's troops edged up the Rodney Road and about 9:00am marched into the "Pretty little village" of Port Gibson (above). They found it filled with rebel wounded from Friday's battle. There was some gunfire from rebel pickets across the South Fork of Bayou Pierre, but a few cannon rounds drove them back out of range. The men then stacked their muskets on the sidewalk and under "fine weather" started dismantling buildings to construct a pontoon bridge across the river. 

Two divisions from General McPherson's corps also came up the road to filter through the town and move to a river ford east of Port Gibson. It was Grant's intent to give Loring's men no chance to recover from their exertions of Friday. 

 As soon as it was dark he would push both corps across the river, to advance the 8 miles to Grindstone Ford over the North Fork of Bayou Pierre toward the Big Black River. Only then would he allow his men to rest.

In Virginia, shortly after noon, scouts of the 25th Ohio regiment of the 2nd Brigade, First Division of the XI corps, stationed on the far right flank of the Army of the Potomac, spotted rebel infantry and artillery moving toward their front. 

They dutifully reported this to their commander, 38 year old Colonel William Pitt Richardson (above). That officer went to look at the situation himself, and raced back to deliver the alarming information to his division commander, 43 year old Worcester, Massachusetts lawyer and now Brigadier General Charles Devins Jr., 

Devins (above), who had little respect for his mostly German Catholic immigrant soldiers, dismissed the information. He bluntly told Richardson, "I know that Robert E. Lee is retreating." He then turned to his aides and announced, "I guess Colonel Richardson is somewhat scared. You had better order him to (return to) his regiment."

High above the Mississippi River at Grand Gulf, General Bowen (above) returned to the gunners who were still denying Federal transports access to Bayou Pierre. He added the weight of his star to the commandeering of horses and wagons from the merchants of the town and surrounding plantations. The river road ran from these bluffs 30 miles north to lower bluffs at Warrenton. Bowen knew the minute Grant crossed the North Fork of Bayou Pierre, this fortress which had defied the Yankees 48 hours earlier, must fall to an attack from the rear. So he also supervised preparations to destroy the heavy guns and the magazines filled with powder and shells, to prevent them falling into the hands of Admiral Porter's Yankee sailors.

Colonel Benjiman Grierson rode just a half mile south of his sleeping men before meeting dust covered riders coming up the road from Baton Rouge. Grierson greeted them by waving a mud spattered white handkerchief. The approaching horsemen were 2 companies of the First Louisiana Cavalry - Federal. The single most important cavalry raid of the American Civil war was over. During a 600 mile ride through Confederate territory, Grierson's raiders had destroyed or damaged 60 miles of unreplaceable railroad tracks and telegraph lines, destroyed or damaged 3 steam locomotives and burned a dozen boxcars and their contents.

Back in Virginia, and almost three hours later, Major Owen Rice of the 153rd Pennsylvania regiment sent an even more alarming message back from his picket line on the Orange Turnpike to the commander of the 1st Brigade of the First Division, Colonel Leopold Von Gilsa. It read, "A large body of the enemy is massing in my front. For God’s sake, make dispositions to receive him!" 

Colonel von Gilsa personally delivered this message to General Devens (above). He again dismissed the information as merely more proof the rebels were retreating.  But von Gilsa persisted. 

He now delivered the warning to the commander of the XI Corps, 34 year old one armed Major General Oliver Otis Howard (above). This pious Protestant "Christian General" held his Germanic Catholic soldiers in no less contempt than Devens, and he dismissed von Gilsa with an insult.

In Louisiana, Colonel Grierson's raiders were allowed to parade through Baton Rouge. (above) The cost of the 16 day raid was 3 men killed, 7 wounded, 9 missing and 5 men left behind because of illness. The profit for the Illinois troopers was 100 rebel soldiers and militiamen killed or wounded and 500 captured and paroled as prisoners. When Grierson's raiders rode into Baton Rouge they were still leading 100 POW's. During their 16 day 600 mile ride the Yankees also destroyed 3,000 muskets, pistols and cannon, and had stolen 1,000 fresh horses and mules. The troopers also led into the Federal lines 500 self-emancipated slaves armed with shotguns and hunting rifles, all on horseback and each leading 2 or 3 more horses. By the end of the year, most of these "contrabands" would be wearing Union Blue and fighting for their own freedom in Mister Lincoln's armies.

In Virginia, Colonel William Richardson had grown so certain that he and the 2nd Brigade were about to be outflanked, that he and his officers rode over to consult with von Gilsa and the staff of the 1st Brigade. When they realized Devens arrogance would permit no adjustments in their south facing lines, they returned to their regiments. 

One of them, Colonel Robert Reily (above) of the 75th Ohio regiment, 2nd Brigade, gathered his men together and delivered an amazing speech. He told his men, "Some of us will not see another sun rise. If there is a man in the ranks who is not ready to die for his country, let him come to me and I will give him a pass to the rear, for I want no half-hearted, unwilling soldiers or cowards in the ranks tonight. We need every man to fight the enemy." Reily then told his men to lie down but to keep their guns close by.  Many of the other regiments began to prepare a last meal.

The most important act committed by the Grierson raiders in Mississippi was their approach to Union Church. Confederate Lieutenant General John Pemberton became so frantic to stop the Yankees he ordered the cavalry out of Grand Gulf to catch him. Grierson had preferred to avoid the fight and turned south, but the rebel troopers went galloping after his raiders across southern Mississippi, just at the moment Grant's men were crossing the river and attacking Port Gibson and Grand Gulf. It had all worked so smoothly it might have been an intricate plan. But the truth was that after 2 years of warfare the Yankee professionals were at least as good as their Confederate enemies. Maybe better. And it was that quality of the Yankee soldier which helped make Grant a better general.

But the greatest prize Colonel Grierson brought out of central and southern Mississippi was a lesson which he shared with an admiring Yankee chaplin. He told the man, "The Confederacy is a hollow shell." In modern military vernacular, the South was over mobilized. Every available man had been swept forward to meet the invading Federal armies. But that left too few troops in the rear to maintain the supply line of food, ammunition and new recruits. And once the outer shell had been punctured, as Grierson had done, and as Grant was doing now, the South had little left to defend itself.

Just before 5:30pm that Saturday evening, 2 May, 1863 the woods west of Chancellorsville, Virginia, spewed forth 28,000 rebels of the II Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, 4 divisions under Lieutenant General "Stonewall" Jackson. "‘Like a crash of thunder from the clear sky", they slammed into the 153rd Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley Germans fired off a single volley before the rebels washed over both their flanks. To their east, Colonel Reily just had time to order the 75th Ohio to deploy in line and charge into the attack. They managed to stem the Confederate tidal wave for a moment, but it cost them 150 causalities, including Colonel Reily, shot in the leg and left behind to die.  Every regiment in Deven's ill-prepared division collapsed and retreated. The shock and confusion spread until Howard's entire XI Corps was being driven back to Chancellors mansion.

Jackson's sledgehammer captured 4,000 prisoners and dove the Union troops back two miles before darkness finally brought the fight to a close. It was an overwhelming Confederate victory, confirmed even to the confused General Hooker after two more days of indecisive fighting. But the triumph was marred by Confederate tragedy. As the 18th North Carolina regiment reformed to continue the advance they spotted what might have been Federal Cavalry to their front and challenge them. The reply was unclear and the regiment fired a volley.  But it is not Union cavalry to their front but General Jackson and his staff. Many of the officers are killed, and Jackson was wounded three times. He was carried from the field on a stretcher. Still, once again, Lee had pulled unbelievable victory from certain defeat.

                                      - 30 - 

VICKSBURG Chapter Twenty - Eight

 

Brigadier General John Stevens Bowen  (above) knew what was coming next,  even as the tattered remnants of the 23rd Alabama fell back to the Foster Farm. They had bought with their lives and souls nothing more than a few precious minutes. And now it was up to the 32 year old Georgian to give their sacrifice meaning. He grabbed a fresh horse and raced back down the Rodney Road, looking for more men.

John Bowen knew what was coming up that road because he knew 41 year old Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant, personally. They had graduated West Point a decade apart, (Lt. Grant, above) but had briefly bonded in 1858 when Lieutenant Bowen and his new wife, Mary Kennerly, had been assigned to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. 

Grant (above) was then working for his Missouri in-laws, having just resigned from the army because it separated him from Julia. The couples' time together was brief, but long enough for John to witness Grant's stubbornness,  which contributed to his failure in business. 

Later, when transferred to Texas, John Bowen also resigned from the Army because he missed his wife. Afterward, he returned to St. Louis, as Grant had done. And in 1861 Bowen had been part of the failed effort to carry Missouri firmly into the Confederacy.  But at Shiloh in April of 1862, the Confederate General Bowen had seen how that same streak of stubbornness now contributed to General Grant's  (above) growing success.

Bowen had no doubt that the Illinois native would throw every soldier and gun he could lay his hands on at the Confederate line blocking his way to Port Gibson and across the south fork of Bayou Pierre. Port Gibson was the cork in the bottle. If the rebels could hold that cork in place, the Yankees would be trapped against the Mississippi flood plain. But to do that, Bowen needed more men, and he needed them right now.

Almost the instant Bowen galloped off in search of reinforcements,  at about 10:00am, Friday morning, 1 May, 1863, 10,000 men of the 10th Division under 48 year old Brigadier General of Volunteers Andrew Jackson Smith, and the 12th Division, Hovey's Babies, under 41 year old Indiana pro-union democratic lawyer Brigadier General Alvin Peterson Hovey. slammed into General Green's exhausted brigade. The Federal assault (above), with about 7 men per yard, simply swamped the rebel defenders of one man every 2 yards, sending them running for the rear. They Yankees captured 200 prisoners, 2 cannon, 3 caissons and 3 ammunition wagons. It took them less than 30 minutes.

Political glory hound, 50 year old Union Major General John Alexander McClernand (above) called a halt after sweeping the rebels from the Foster House ridge, ostensibly to reorganize. But like a bad actor genuflecting for his audience's approval - and with an impressionable visitor in 48 year old Illinois Governor Richard Yates standing next to him - McClernand could nor resist launching an extended bandiloquent blovoiation.  Luckily for the Federal cause Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant, also a Yates favorite, was keeping a close eye and ear on McClernand. After listening to the smug supercilious sycophancy spewing from his subaltern, Grant pointedly suggested the rebels were not beaten but merely retreating to stronger lines. He then pointedly ordered McClernand to push his men forward, toward Port Gibson and the vital bridge over the south fork of Bayou Pierre.

But after advancing less then 2 miles, at about noon, the Yankees ran into the 1,000 man brigade of 35 year old Columbus Mississippi bookstore owner, Brigadier General William Edwin Baldwin. 

Having learned from the demoralizing Federal cannon fire the  mistake of fighting on the ridge tops, Bowen sheltered Baldwin's men in the maze of the 8 foot tall canebrake (above) along the bottoms of Willow Creek.  On their right were the 1,500 men of Colonel Francis Marion Cockrell's Missouri brigade, having forced marched from Grand Gulf.  Bowen was stronger at this moment than he had been at any time before - with more than 6,500 men and 16 cannon in line of battle. But they were still facing more than 24,000 Federal troops, with more still arriving every hour.

The Yankee's advance would be slowed by the canebrake, but General Bowen had no doubt Grant would keep pushing. He sent a telegraph to General Pemberton, expected to arrive shortly in Vicksburg. It read in part, "We have been engaged in a furious battle ever since daylight; losses very heavy...the odds are overpowering." 

And as if to confirm this, at about 2:00pm, on the Brunisburg road, 3 divisions of Grant's XVII corps under the popular 34 year old Union Major General James Birdseye McPherson begin pounding the Alabama brigade, now commanded after Colonel Edward Tracy's death, by 46 year old Colonel Isham Warren Garott, The new commander asked General Martin Edwin Green for instructions, but received a confusing mish-mash of language in return. Garott had no choice but to begin a grudging slow retreat, forcing Green's entire command to follow his lead. The Rebel left collapsed.

At the same time McClernand was extending his line eastward. Just 1,200 yards through the woods was the rough road of the old Natchez Trace, leading around the rebel left. Colonel Cockrell threw the 3rd and 5th Missouri regiments at the Yankees, trying to force them to consolidate.  But there were too many Yankees, and about 5:30pm General Bowen was forced to send a final message from the Port Gibson telegraph office. "I am falling back across Bayou Pierre.  I will endeavor to hold that position until reinforcements arrive.…"  He then sent the bitter message to the gunners still defending Grand Gulf to prepare to spike their guns and destroy the ammunition magazines before withdrawing to Warrenton.

It was at just this moment that General Bowen was superseded by the arrival of the disruptive and profane one armed Floridian, the 5 foot 9 inch tall Brigadier General William Wing "Old Blizzards" Loring (above).   Dispatched from Edward's Station, the one armed argumentative general arrived as the troops were retreating back across the Bayou, and quickly came to the conclusion that this time he was too late. 

Port Gibson could not be defended. Loss of Port Gibson meant the line of the south fork of Bayou Pierre could not be held.  Loring knew from personal observation, that the north fork of the stream would be easily breached. After that Grand Gulf would be taken in the rear. The only militarily rational choice was to abandon Grand Gulf and Port Gibson and the entire Bayou Pierre line, and pull back through Willow Springs 30 miles to Harkinson's Ferry over the Big Black River.  And that is what Loring ordered the bloodied troops under General Bowen to do, burning the bridge over the south fork of Bayou Pierre behind them. There they would meet his own over strength division, marching south. 

The Yankee's delaying action at Port Gibson had cost Bowen's little army about 70 killed, more than 350 wounded and 384 captured - or almost 17% of his original force engaged.  Yankee losses were about the same, but suffered by a much larger force.  Grant did not press the rebels too hard, now that he had forced the cork out of the bottle  He was just pleased to have escaped the malaria and mud of the Mississippi floodplain. As McClernand's  men worked overnight, dismantling buildings in Port Gibson, to rebuild the burned bridge, McPherson prepared his men to ford the \south fork of Bayou Pierre upstream of the town.

Come the dawn, Saturday 2 May, 1863, two thirds of Grant's army would be across the south fork of Bayou Pierre, and when Sherman's Corps - the remaining third of Grant's army - arrived, they would be able to transfer directly across the Mississippi to Port Gibson, saving them a 2 day march.   

The only positive for the Confederacy on that Friday evening, 1 May, 1863, was that the Commander of the Army of Mississippi,  Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton (above), had finally transferred his headquarters to Vicksburg (below).  But that change of perspective, which once might have salvaged the campaign for the rebels, had been converted by time and events into a recipe for disaster.

The nature of that disaster threw its first shadow across the strong point of Port Hudson, 200 river miles south of Vicksburg. This narrow choke point in the Mississippi, had been bypassed by Grant's capture of Grand Gulf and Port Gibson.. So General Pemberton wired the commander of Port Hudson, 41 year old New Yorker,  Major General Franklin Kitchell Gardner, to bring his 2,000 man garrison  to Vicksburg, as quickly as possible.  It was the militarily sensible choice. With Vicksburg directly threatened, every man and gun would be needed to defend that vital point.

But a thousand miles away in Richmond, Virginia, 64 year old Confederate President, Jefferson Finis Davis (above), countermanded that order. He reminded  Pemberton, "To hold both Vicksburg and Port Hudson is necessary to a connection with the Trans-Mississippi."  Gardner and his 2,000 men would remain right where they were. Davis was right, of course. The South needed both points to stitch the Confederacy together. 

But it was also insanity.  The 2,000 man garrison was not strong enough to hold Port Hudson by themselves. But 2,000 more men might have made the difference at the upcoming battle of Champion's Hill (above).  Over the next 2 weeks President Davis would frantically jam another 5,000 men into the trenches around Port Hudson.  If those 7,000 men had gone to Vicksburg, they might have held the place, freeing the rest of Pemberton's army to remain mobile, and block a siege. The conundrum has given birth to an endless game of what if's, which would keep armchair generals busy for the next 200 years.

But the core of the issue is that Port Hudson (above) could not stand on its own.  If Port Hudson fell, a fortified Vicksburg, with a mobile field army to ward off a siege, might remain standing, even if isolated.  But if Vicksburg fell, Port Hudson was doomed. Pemberton knew that. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, now supposedly Pemberton's immediate superior, knew it. But by the time anyone had time to do anything about Port Hudson in May of 1863, it was too damn late. 

- 30 -