baggage than allowed by the order, in which I thought "there must be some mistake, since the trip was to be made 66 by steamer, and our baggage could have as well been taken as left behind. I was at Gen. Butler's office when he "entered it in the morning, sent in my name immediately, "requesting that I might see him a moment, but was forced "to return to camp at night without having obtained an in"terview. When I arrived at camp I found the 'Iberville' "had been sent up during the day with an order to embark "the troops immediately; everything was nearly ready and hastily preparing myself I went on board without any order written or oral where I was to go, or what I was to do. * * * * * "We proceeded up the river, and in the "afternoon of the next day the 'Iberville' stopped at Baton Rouge. Knowing that Gen. Williams was in command of “our forces I went to his quarters, and informed him that although I had received no orders to report to him, the regiment was there, and I should be happy to receive orders from him. He said he had been informed that we were coming, and directed me to disembark the troops." 66 66 66 66 66 About this time I was ordered to join the regiment at Baton Rouge, and accordingly left Fort Pike taking with me Company B, Capt. Cronan, leaving C and a portion of D company to garrison that post under the command of Capt. Porter. CHAPTER II. VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN.-GRAND GULF.-EXPERIENCE OF COL. ROBERTS AND LIEUT. CLARK IN ASCENDING THE RIVER. -"BUTLER'S DITCH.' -EXPOSURE AND SICKNESS OF THE REGIMENT.-DEATH OF CAPT. BROOKS. RETURN TO BATON ROUGE. 1862. N the 19th of June the regiment was ordered to embark on transports, to take part in an expedition against Vicksburg under Gen. Williams. A few weeks before, Gen. Williams, with about 1,500 men, acting in conjunction with the naval forces under Admiral Farragut, had ascended the river as far as Vicksburg on a reconnoissance, and on his return had reported that he saw no chance of taking the place with the troops at his disposal, even with the aid of the navy, as it was heavily fortified and manned, and the enemy, in addition to the regular garrison, had at least 30,000 men within an hour's call. Notwithstanding this adverse report we were expected, with a land force of not exceeding 3,500 men, to take Vicks REPORTS CONCERNING AND DEPARTURE FOR VICKSBURG. 17 burg, an undertaking, as was subsequently demonstrated, wholly beyond our power, for the place was substantially as strong then, as it afterwards proved to be when attacked by Gen. Sherman with a very much larger command, and later when besieged by Gen. Grant with his formidable army. The utter absurdity and futility of this enterprise is also illustrated by the observations of Admiral Farragut, who, in speaking of Vicksburg at this time, in a letter dated June 29th, after our arrival there, among other things says: * * * * "It seems to me that any man of common sense would know that this place cannot be taken with our present force, when the army in its rear consists of ten or "fifteen thousand men." And in a report dated July 2d, he "Gen. Williams has with him * * The army officers gen"erally have shown a great anxiety to do everything in their power to help us, but their force is too small to attack the "town, or for any other purpose than a momentary assault "to spike guns, should such an opportunity offer. * * * * further says: * * * * I am satisfied it is not possible to take Vicksburg without an army of twelve or fifteen thousand men." (See Life and Letters of Farragut by his son, pp. 279 to 283.) Gen. Williams' command consisted of the following troops, viz.: the Ninth Connecticut, Thirtieth Massachusetts, Fourth Wisconsin, eight companies Seventh Vermont, and Nim's Light Battery (Mass). Our regiment left Baton Rouge without any camp equipage save a few cooking utensils, and with only ten days' rations, and about a week's supply of medical stores. Our eight companies, including the field, staff and other commissioned officers, numbered not far from 800 men. We were assigned to the transports "Ceres" and "Morning Light," two Mississippi steamers of the pattern to which I have already alluded. The expedition was convoyed by Farragut's entire fleet. As we approached Grand Gulf, where the previous expedition had been fired into, we made a landing, and several companies of our regiment, under Lieut.-Col. Fullam were sent to make a detour for the purpose of capturing any hostile force that might still be lingering in the place. Lieut.Col. Fullam thus speaks of the movement: * * * * "The march was commenced about mid-day, and the heat "was intense, producing great suffering among both officers "and men, many of them falling insensible in the road, or "fainting by the wayside from exhaustion. * In "spite, however, of these difficulties, and the want of water 66 * * * " which was severely felt on the way, all the men came in together at Grand Gulf, where we again went on board the "transports." No signs of any considerable number of the enemy, however, were discovered, although a few stray shots were fired at our troops from some of the houses in the suburbs. By way of retribution for the attack made from this place upon the previous expedition, and as a warning to other towns along the river of the punishment that would be administered if, from under their cover, our forces were again assailed, orders were issued to burn the entire village. Accordingly the torch was applied to it, and in a short time every house was in flames, and by the light of the conflagra COL. ROBERTS AND LIEUT. CLARK'S EXPERIENCE. 19 tion, which wholly destroyed the place, we proceeded on our course. Although Col. Roberts and some of our men were subsequently fired into at this point, the effect of the severe example thus made was that but few, if any more attacks were made upon our forces from inhabited towns. But instead masked batteries were planted by the enemy in the heavy forests which lined the shores of the river at numerous points, and frequently, when we least expected it, we were pelted with shot and shell from these batteries concealed in the woods. On these occasions, unless one of our gunboats was near at hand, we were completely at the mercy of the enemy, for on the transports there was no artillery, and the calibre of our muskets was too light to successfully cope with rifled cannon; nevertheless we invariably returned the fire with our small arms, without, however, inflicting anything like the injury and loss we sustained. The character of these attacks is well illustrated in an account furnished me by Capt., (then Lieut.,) Charles Clark, descriptive of his trip up the river in company with Col. Roberts and others. who joined the regiment after its arrival at Vicksburg, and is as follows: "Col. Roberts and I were in the hospital at "Carrolton too ill to leave with the regiment when it was "ordered up the river. It was some little time before we were able to follow. We first proceeded to Baton Rouge, "where we waited several days for transportation. At last a steamer came along with a bark alongside with naval "stores for the fleet. There were a few officers and men on "board the steamer, also proceeding to join their regiments, 46 46 |