CAMP BEFORE VICKSBURG, April
23, 1863.
Last night another batch of transports were prepared to run
Vicksburg batteries. In order to afford assistance to the unfortunate I crossed
over through the submerged swamp with eight yawls, and was in the Mississippi
about four miles below Vicksburg and three above Warrenton. The first boat to
arrive was the Tigress, a fast side-wheel boat which was riddled with
shot and repeatedly struck in the hull. She rounded to, tied to the bank and
sunk a wreck; all hands saved. The next was the Empire City, also
crippled but afloat, then the Cheeseman that was partially disabled,
then the Anglo-Saxon and Moderator, both of which were so
disabled that they drifted down stream catching the Warrenton batteries as they
passed. The Horizon was the sixth and last, passed down about daylight.
The Cheeseman took the Empire City in tow and went down just
after day, catching thunder from the Warrenton batteries. Five of the six boats
succeeded in getting by, all bound for Carthage, where they are designed to
carry troops to Grand Gulf and some other point across the Mississippi. This is
a desperate and terrible thing, floating by terrific batteries without the
power of replying. Two men were mortally wounded and many lacerated and torn,
but we could not ascertain the full extent of damage for we were trying to
hurry them past the lower or Warrenton batteries before daylight. The only way
to go to Carthage is by a bayou road from Milliken's Bend, and over that narrow
road our army is to pass below Vicksburg, and by means of these boats pass on
to the east side of the Mississippi. I look upon the whole thing as one of the
most hazardous and desperate moves of this or any war. A narrow difficult road,
liable by a shower to become a quagmire. A canal is being dug on whose success
the coal for steamers, provisions for men and forage for animals must all be
transported. McClernand's Corps has moved down. McPherson will follow, and mine
comes last. I don't object to this, for I have no faith in the whole plan.
Politicians and all sorts of influences are brought to bear
on Grant to do something. Hooker remains statu quo. Rosecrans is also at a deadlock, and we
who are now six hundred miles [ahead] of any are being pushed to a most
perilous and hazardous enterprise.
I did think our government would learn something by
experience if not by reason. An order is received to-day from Washington to
consolidate the old regiments. All regiments below 500, embracing all the old
regiments which have been depleted by death and all sorts of causes, are to be
reduced to battalions of five companies in each regiment; the colonel and major
and one assistant-sergeant to be mustered out, and all the officers, sergeants
and corporals of five companies to be discharged. This will soon take all my
colonels, Kilby Smith, Giles Smith, and hundreds of our best captains,
lieutenants and sergeants and corporals. Instead of drafting and filling up
with privates, one half of the officers are to be discharged, and the privates
squeezed into battalions. If the worst enemy of the United States were to
devise a plan to break down our army, a better one could not be attempted. Two
years have been spent in educating colonels, captains, sergeants and corporals,
and now they are to be driven out of service at the very beginning of the
campaign in order that governors may have a due proportion of officers for the
drafted men. I do regard this as one of the fatal mistakes of this war. It is
worse than a defeat. It is the absolute giving up of the chief advantage of two
years' work. I don't know if you understand it, but believe you do. The order
is positive and must be executed. It is now too late to help it, but I have
postponed its execution for a few days to see if Grant won't suspend its
operation till this move is made. All the old politician colonels have been
weeded out by the progress of the war, and now that we begin to have some
officers who do know something they must be discharged because the regiments
have dwindled below one half the legal standard. We all know the President was
empowered to do this, but took it for granted that he would fill up the ranks
by a draft and leave us the services of the men who are now ready to drill and
instruct them as soldiers. Last fall the same thing was done, that is new
regiments were received instead of filling up the old ones, and the consequence
was those new regiments have filled our hospitals and depots, and now again the
same thing is to be repeated. It may be the whole war will be turned over to
the negroes, and I begin to believe they will do as well as Lincoln and his
advisers. I cannot imagine what Halleck is about. We have Thomas and Dana both
here from Washington, no doubt impressing on Grant the necessity of achieving
something brilliant. It is the same old Bull Run mania, but why should other armies
be passive and ours pushed to destruction?
Prime is here and agrees with me; but we must drift on with
events. We are excellent friends. Indeed, I am on the best of terms with
everybody, but I avoid McClernand because I know he is envious and jealous of
everybody who stands in his way. . . . He
now has the lead. Admiral Porter is there, and he is already calling “For God's
sake, send down some one.” He calls for me — Grant has gone himself — went this
morning. I know they have got this fleet in a tight place, Vicksburg above and
Port Hudson below, and how are they to get out? One or other of the gates must
be stormed and carried, or else none. I tremble for the result. Of course, it
is possible to land at Grand Gulf and move inland, but I doubt the capacity of
any channel at our command equal to the conveyance of the supplies for this
army. This army should not all be here. The great part should be at or near Grenada
moving south by land. . . .
SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of
General Sherman, p. 253-6. A full copy of this letter can
be found in the William
T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives
(UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/03.
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