General Grant's March on Vicksburg

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

[JUNE 6, 1863.

362

MAP OF GENERAL GRANT'S OPERATIONS AGAINST VICKSBURG, IN MISSISSIPPI.

GRANT'S MARCH.

ABOVE we give a Map showing the course of General Grant's victorious march from Bruinsburg, near Grand Gulf, to Jackson and Vicksburg. The following official dispatch tersely describes what they did on the way:

REAR OP VICKSBURG, Wednesday, May 20, 1863.

The Army of the Tennessee landed at Bruinsburg on the 30th of April.

On the 1st of May we fought the battle of Port Gibson, and defeated the rebels under General Bowen, whose loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners was at least 1500, and loss in artillery five pieces.

On the 12th of May, at the battle of Raymond, the rebels were defeated with a loss of 800.

On the 14th of May we defeated General Joseph E. Johnston, and captured Jackson, with a loss to the enemy of 400, besides immense stores and manufactures, and seventeen pieces of artillery.

On the 16th of May we fought the bloody and decisive battle of Baker's Creek, in which the entire force of Vicksburg, under General Pemberton, was defeated, with the loss of twenty-nine pieces of artillery and 4000 men.

On the 17th of May we defeated the same force at the Big Black River Bridge, with the loss of 2600 men and seventeen pieces of artillery.

On the 18th of May we invested Vicksburg closely.

To-day General Steele carried the rifle-pits on the north of the city.

The right of the army rests on the Mississippi above

Vicksburg.   JOHN A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

On pages 360 and 361 we give a picture which will enable our readers to form an idea of what is meant by "carrying a line of rifle-pits," "storming heights," "taking a position with the bayonet," terms of very frequent use at present, and which convey but a vague meaning to those who have not witnessed the stern realities of war. The reader can fancy, if he pleases, as he looks at the picture that he is gazing at the gallant onslaught of Grant's army upon the rebel rifle-pits and breast-works at Vicksburg. We have appended to the picture the memorable words of warning which were uttered in Congress, while the Southern men were still there, by Representative, now General, Logan. Alluding to the Southern pretension that they would hold the mouth of the Mississippi, he said that "the men of the Northwest would hew their way to the Gulf of Mexico with their swords." Similar words were uttered at the same time by Representative McClernand, who, like Logan, had up to that time acted with the South in politics, and who, like him, is now a General in Grant's army.

THE PRISON AT JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI.

WE illustrate on page 364 THE PRISON AT JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, where many good Union men have been confined since the war broke out, and which was lately destroyed by General Grant. The gentleman who sends us the sketch adds the following account:

"On the 29th December last, at the gallant charge of Blair's brigade upon the works of the rebels at Chickasaw Bluffs near Vicksburg, Colonel Thomas C. Fletcher, of the Missouri Wide Awake Zouaves, who was wounded and captured by the rebels, was with twenty other officers put in the jail at Vicksburg, where they were kept in the most loathsome cells and fed upon the worst fare ever meted out to the vilest criminals for one month. They were then removed to Jackson, Mississippi, and thrust into the old rickety ruin of the bridge which was yet standing above water, the remaining part having fallen down. Here they were kept for another month in the coldest season of the year, without beds or bedding; no fire or lights were allowed them. Three hundred and eighty privates, also prisoners, were put into the bridge with them. Almost every day two or three were carried out dead, and sometimes the dead lay at the entrance of the bridge unburied

for four days. The above is a sketch of the bridge made by Colonel Fletcher himself, and we have from him assurance of the correctness of this statement of a cruelty and barbarity of treatment shown to him while wounded, and to his fellow-prisoners and brother officers, unequaled even by the rebels in their cruelty to our soldiers heretofore while in their hands."

Colonel Fletcher appends the following certificate:

"The within statement is in all respects correct, but does not fully represent the barbarity of our treatment by the rebels.

THOMAS C. FLETCHER,

"Colonel 31st Missouri Volunteers.

"ANNAPOLIS, MD., May 7, 1863."

THE ENGLISH PIRATE
"ALEXANDRA."

WE publish on page 364 an illustration of the new Anglo-Rebel pirate "ALEXANDRA," which has just been built at Liverpool. She was built by Miller & Co. of Liverpool for a firm by the name of Fawcett, Prescott & Co. of the same town, both firms connected with the rebel piratical business. Just as she was approaching completion the remonstrances of our Government in relation to the piracies of the Alabama and Florida, together with some expressions of indignation by leading British orators, compelled the Government to show some semblance of a desire to enforce the laws, and the Alexandra was seized and is now held by the authorities. It is not believed, however, that the seizure will involve any thing worse than a temporary detention. The ship-owners and commercial interest of England are decidedly in favor of the destruction of our merchant navy by pirates, and after a farce of a trial the Alexandra will be set at large to prey upon our ships after the manner of the Alabama and Florida. She is a three-masted schooner with engines of 300 horse-power.

CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.

WE give on page 365 a portrait, from a photograph by Brady, of the notorious CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, ex-Member of Congress from Ohio.

The first that we can remember of this man is his appearance at Harper's Ferry on the occasion of John Brown's raid. When poor John Brown, mortally wounded, and laid by the body of his dead son, was confronted by the infuriated slave-holding leaders of Virginia, and bullied, as only slave-owners can bully, the most insolent, outrageous, and brutal of the old man's tormentors was Clement L. Vallandigham. In his constituency, which is Dayton, Ohio, it does not seem, however, that the disgust which his conduct created every where else injured him in the least. He was again returned to Congress, and took his seat as usual. Throughout the three sessions of the Thirty-seventh Congress he was conspicuous as an opponent of the United States and a sympathizer with the rebels. He voted against every measure which was intended to enable the Government to prosecute the war, and did every thing which ingenuity and malice could devise to hamper the Administration, weaken the country, comfort the enemy, and provoke foreign interference. At the election of November last he was dropped, and General Schenck elected from his district. Since then he has been perambulating the country, delivering seditious speeches, urging the people to resist the draft, misrepresenting the purposes and policy of the Government, and endeavoring to provoke an outbreak at the West. For one of these speeches he was arrested a fortnight since by order of General Burnside, tried by court-martial, and sentenced to imprisonment in a Federal

fortress pending the war. General Burnside accordingly ordered him to he taken to Fort Warren. The President has since altered this sentence to expulsion beyond the Union lines. He was accordingly taken to General Rosecrans's army at Murfreesboro, and by him dispatched to the rebels under a strong escort of cavalry. The rebel officer refused to receive him, but allowed him to remain under guard until the pleasure of Jeff Davis should be ascertained. Vallandigham insisted on being considered a prisoner of war.

GOVERNOR ANDREW G. CURTIN.

WE present our readers on page 365 with an admirable likeness of the present distinguished Governor of Pennsylvania, ANDREW GREGG CURTIN. Of all the public men now prominent in the country there is no one who has created a deeper interest in, and none deserves better for the untiring energy and faithful devotion in aiding to maintain the integrity of, our Government.

Governor Curtin is about forty-five years of age, and was born in Centre County, Pennsylvania. His education was liberal, and having graduated at the law school connected with Dickinson College, Carlisle, he commenced the practice of law at Bellefonte, the seat of justice of his native county. For some years he devoted himself exclusively to his profession, and earned an enviable reputation as a counselor and as an advocate. His prominence in the politics of the State was in the Presidential canvass of 1844. He entered upon this with zeal, and became recognized as one of the most efficient stump speakers of the day. From that time he actively participated in all the political contests in the State. Upon the election of Governor Pollock he was proffered the position of Secretary of State and Superintendent of Common Schools. Although the youngest man who had ever filled these offices, his administration of them was marked by an untiring fidelity to the public interests; and his labors in this department, while they exhibited signal ability, contributed largely to the success of Governor Pollock's administration.

In the early part of the year 1860 a State convention was held at Harrisburg for the selection of a Gubernatorial candidate. This being the year of the Presidential election, the action of the convention was looked forward to with greater anxiety than had, perhaps, ever been known in Pennsylvania. General Hone of Pittsburg, Judge Haines of Chester, Taggart of Northumberland, and Covode of Westmoreland, were among the candidates. Each of them had warm and devoted friends, who had not failed to exert themselves for the success of their respective candidates. It, however, soon became manifest that the advantages were on the side of Curtin, and upon the third ballot he was nominated by an overwhelming majority. He immediately went into the canvass with a spirit and activity that his warmest admirers could scarcely expect him to maintain to the end; but in this he showed that he had not himself overmeasured his strength. His Democratic competitor, the Hon. Henry D. Foster, was warmly esteemed by his party friends; and, doubtless, feeling the contest to be one of overwhelming importance, he also manifested a determination to exert his utmost powers as the standard-bearer of his party. The rival candidates both went upon the stump; and without any disposition to detract from the merits of General Foster, it is impossible to deny that the great success of Governor Curtin as a public speaker contributed largely to the result of his election by a triumphant majority. The National Convention at Chicago for the nomination of a Presidential candidate occurred during the summer. Governor Curtin was alive to the

fact that there would be some candidates presented to that body whose nomination would, to say the least, act as a dead weight in the preliminary contest in Pennsylvania at the October elections. His personal interests were involved in this; but above all, and as was shown by his course, of infinitely larger consideration to his mind would be the public calamity that might follow an injudicious nomination. With characteristic boldness and candor he prepared to do what he could toward preventing any unwise nomination by going to Chicago in person, there openly to disclose his views and convictions, rather than to pursue the secret and tortuous paths of chicanery and intrigue, by which, it is true, he might have averted much of personal enmity and bitterness that would possibly flow from chafed and disappointed aspirants for political elevation. He then and there claimed to know the people of Pennsylvania, their prevailing sentiments, and the temper which the nomination of this or that candidate would be accepted. The stake which he held, and the right afforded by his position for him to speak with somewhat of authority, were accepted as of influential value. It is but just to say that the result showed him to have been right, and that on this occasion, as in the many emergencies that have arisen since he came into authority as Governor, he has never failed in his estimate of public sentiment throughout the Keystone State.

With clear and decided convictions upon every question that has arisen during his eventful administration, he has yet never permitted himself to be carried away from his contemplation and study of the mind of the people. Of this great essential of practical statesmanship he has time and again shown himself the possessor, as he has also illustrated its inevitable importance. While watching the current of popular events he has neither permitted himself to lose sight of the breakers and shoals that must needs be avoided, nor has he fallen into the contrary error of seeking to traverse the ocean of great events upon which the nation is embarked by a system of back-water navigation.

SCENES AT NEW ORLEANS.

THE two pictures on page 357, from sketches by our special artist Mr. Hamilton, will be found described at length in the following extract from the Times correspondent :

MAY-DAY.

I was present, on the first of May, at one of the most beautiful and interesting celebrations that ever occurred here—the festival of the Madison Girls' School. Pleasing as it was, it might not have been considered of sufficient public importance for mention here, if—in the present. condition of New Orleans—such gatherings did not bear a political significance, and a very deep one.

May-Day has been always a time of festive gatherings for the schools here, but their celebrations were, hitherto, held indoors. On this occasion the scene selected was the old City Park, some distance out of New Orleans, the grandest collection of old wide-spreading oaks that ever charmed the eye of painter.

Here the young ladies met, under the care of Miss Whitley, their accomplished Principal, crowned the "May Queen" with all due ceremony, and spent the whole day in dancing, music, swinging, and every species of innocent sport, in which they were joined by very many "children of a larger growth" from the city. Captain Walters, Commander of the gun-boat Kineo, had kindly sent there a large quantity of canvas to lay on the grass for dancing, with abundance of ropes for swings, and detailed two or three of his sailors to come and arrange matters for his young friends.

In spite of the beauty and gayety of the scene, as these graceful young creatures flitted over the green sward, in their light dresses, like a swarm of butterflies, I could not lose sight of the fact that this was a Union demonstration among the citizens of New Orleans, and that at least two-thirds of the children present were the offspring of enemies of the United States, either open or concealed. If such a scene appeared extraordinary to a stranger, how much more must it have done so to those old residents present, who could contrast it with the state of things existing as short a time ago!

The fact is that the school authorities here are making strenuous efforts to administer an antidote to the venomous poison of secession, too long corrupting the tender minds of the rising generation, and their efforts are being attended with the greatest success. In every public school it is now a specified regime, that the exercises shall daily commence and close with patriotic hymns, and that the selection of themes for recitations, etc., shall all have the same tendency. Union flags have been raised over every school-house in the first district—the Madison school having the honor of inaugurating the movement—and soon there will not be a single place of education in the city without its emblem of loyalty. By such efforts as these, and by getting these innocent young creatures to mingle frequently wills friends, whom they have been cruelly taught to look upon as mortal enemies, their minds become stamped with ideas of truth and genuine love of their country, which no amount of false teaching can hereafter erase.

It was really interesting to watch some little dark-haired Southern beauty innocently romping with her blue-eyed playmate—the daughter of some officer from Maine or Massachusetts—and then to be reminded that the father of the former was a "registered enemy." "Do you see that exquisite girl laughing with that young officer?" said a gentleman to me; "she has a brother in the rebel army." I looked again, soon afterward, and the charming young couple had walked off, in earnest conversation. Who thinks that any "North" or "South" was poisoning the current of their sweet thoughts? Keep on your May-Day festivals, my friends. I saw more, in the innocent pastimes of that one day, to undermine and overthrow the satanic rule of Jeff Davis than if I had seen a whole brigade of his followers annihilated on the battle-field.

"REGISTERED ENEMIES."

In my last I sent you two very important orders just issued by General Banks—one of them requiring "registered enemies" to leave this Department on or before the 15th May. General Bowen has since then published the following:

"OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL GENERAL OF LOUISIANA,

NEW ORLEANS, May 1, 1863.

"Notice is hereby given to the registered enemies of the United States within the Department of the Gulf, that, in accordance with the order of the Commanding General, they will be required to leave the said Department and go within the lines of the enemy, on or before the 15th day of May instant. Such persons now registered as enemies but desirous to return to their allegiance and willing to take the prescribed oath of fidelity and obedience to the United States, a copy of which oath is herewith published, will make application for that purpose to this office before the 10th day of May.

"JAMES BOWEN, Brigadier-General, P. M. G."

"OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL, GENERAL,

DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, No. 208 CARONDELET STREET, NEW ORLEANS, —, 1863.

"I do hereby solemnly and sincerely swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States against all enemies, whether domestic or foreign, (Next Page)