Susan in NC’s Reviews > Grant > Status Update

“By July 1, Pemberton saw his last hopes vanish amid a desperate food shortage for his army. “Unless the siege of Vicksburg is raised, or supplies are thrown in,” he warned his commanders, “it will become necessary very shortly to evacuate the place.”84 With his garrison verging on mutiny…at 10 a.m. on July 3, white flags sprouted along rebel parapets and gunfire ceased.”

“Far from succumbing to terror, the novice black troops…fought off the larger rebel contingent and won honor for blacks everywhere with their bayonet charge…The defeat shocked southern sensibilities, and one stupefied Confederate lady wrote it was “hard to believe that Southern soldiers—and Texans at that—have been whipped by a mongrel crew of white and black Yankees. There must be some mistake.”

“Grant wasn’t responding to a Washington directive but undertook this on his own initiative…The land was leased to the freedmen, who paid the government for their rations, mules, and tools…By 1865 the Davis Bend community produced two thousand bales of cotton, earning a $16,000 profit and proving to skeptics that freed people could be fully productive, self-supporting members of society.”

“Just how much Grant would support the newly emancipated slaves became evident at a fertile spot called Davis Bend, located on a Mississippi River peninsula…Even before Union troops came on the scene, the onetime slaves already operated the plantation. Grant spied a prime opportunity to create a model community for blacks that would showcase their industry and self-reliance.”

“As Grant besieged Vicksburg, Confederate generals knew he was far different from the pushovers they had trounced in the eastern theater. Johnston wrote soberly to the Confederate war secretary James A. Seddon: “Grant’s army is estimated at 60,000 or 80,000 men, and his troops are worth double the number of northeastern troops…”Abraham Lincoln’s faith in Grant was being rewarded.”

“After this second assault, with wounded soldiers writhing at the foot of the Mississippi ridge and dead bodies decomposing in fierce sunlight, Grant had to make an excruciating choice… It was Pemberton on May 25 who suggested a two-and-a-half-hour cease-fire—his soldiers had begun to gag on the stench of corpses—and Grant agreed, doubtless with relief.”

“Grant wasn’t bashful about blaming McClernand….noting that McClernand’s dispatches “misled me as to the real state of facts and caused much of this loss. He is entirely unfit for the position of Corps Commander…” Grant had heeded McClernand’s call for more troops against his better judgment, and he came to rank the May 22 assault as one of two wartime decisions he most regretted…”

“…Grant’s plan was marred by a misleading report from John A. McClernand, who claimed he had captured two rebel forts and, if given more men, could stage a dramatic breakthrough…to avoid political problems, Grant diverted much of McPherson’s corps to support McClernand…The troops he dispatched to McClernand’s aid accounted for a full half of the day’s casualties.”

“Grant would not be easily discouraged and scheduled a follow-up attack for 10 a.m. on May 22…Ever since crossing the Mississippi, Grant’s men had been famished for decent victuals and basic comforts, and before this new assault he made sure they were outfitted with plenty of food, tents, and cooking utensils. Nevertheless, he worried what would happen if his men began to wilt in the Mississippi heat…”

“ Somehow the defending soldiers, drawing on new reserves of energy, dealt Grant a bloody setback, inflicting almost a thousand Union casualties while suffering fewer than two hundred of their own. Perhaps no less amazed than Grant himself, Pemberton informed Jefferson Davis, “Our men have considerably recovered their morale.””