HEADQUARTERS 15TH ARMY
CORPS,
WALNUT HILLS, May 25,
1863.
Whilst the men are making roads and ditches to enable me to
get close up to the enemy's parapet without crossing within full view and fatal
effect [from] their well prepared forts and trenches, I have availed myself of
the favorable opportunity to pitch a tent and get out writing materials to
write up. . . . Devastation and ruin lay behind us, and a garrison of some
fifteen or twenty thousand men are before us, cooped up in Vicksburg with about
five or six thousand people, women and children. The forts are well built and
command the roads, and the hills and valleys are so abrupt and covered with
fallen trees, standing trunks and canebrake that we are in a measure confined
to the roads. We have made two distinct assaults all along the line, but the
heads of columns are swept away as chaff thrown from the hand in a windy day.
We are now hard at work with roads and trenches, taking all possible advantage
of the shape of the ground. We must work smart, as Joe Johnston is collecting
the shattered forces, those we beat at Jackson and Champion Hill, and may get
reinforcements from Bragg and Charleston and come pouncing down on our rear.
The enemy in Vicksburg must expect aid from that quarter, else they would not
fight with such desperation. Vicksburg is not only of importance to them, but
now is a subject of pride and its loss will be fatal to their power out west.
Grant's move was the most hazardous, but thus far the most successful of the
war. He is entitled to all the credit, for I would not have advised it. We have
now perfect communication with our supplies, plenty of provisions, tools and
ammunition, and if vast reinforcements do not come from the outside Vicksburg
is ours as sure as fate.
I suppose you have all been in intense anxiety. Charley was
very conspicuous in the first assault and brought off the colors of the
battalion which are now in front of my tent, the staff ¼ cut away by a ball
that took with it a part of his finger. . . . We brought off nearly all our
dead and all the wounded, and the enemy called from their pits warning the
burial parties not to come down as they could take care of those left. Our
pickets are up so close that they can hardly show their heads without drawing
hundreds of shots. In like manner we can hardly show a hand without the whir of
a minnie ball. Our artillery is all well placed and must do havoc in the town.
We have over a hundred cannon which pour a constant fire over the parapets, the
balls going right towards their Court House and depot.
In about three days our approach will be so close that
another assault will be made, but the enemy like beavers are digging as hard as
we. . . .
SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of
General Sherman, p. 262-3. 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 2/04.
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