to Vicksburg via Jackson
As usual Seven Score and Ten and Civil War Daily Gazette have been doing an excellent job keeping us up to date on General Grant’s attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi for the Union cause. 150 years ago yesterday the Federal army failed to take Vicksburg by a direct attack on the rebel fortifications. You can read all about it at the two sites mentioned and also at The Civil War 150th Blog. News from Mississippi was making its way back to small towns in the North. Here are a couple clippings from a Seneca County, New York newspaper in May 1863:
Vicksburg.
For the past two weeks Gen. GRANT and his brave army have been doing some very severe fighting in the vicinity of Vicksburg. The advantage has seemingly been with our side, until the enemy under Pemberton fell back into the entrenchments at Vicksburg. The latest news from this point is not as favorable as we could wish. Gen. GRANT has made several attempts to storm the strong works of the enemy, but has been repulsed each time with great loss of life. The enemy claim that they can hold the place against all the forces Grant can bring against them. They also report that Gen. Johnson [sic] is in Grant’s rear with a large force, and that he will soon raise the siege of Vicksburg. This remains to be demonstrated, however. In the meantime Vicksburg is not yet ours.
his troops and fortifications keeping Sherman out
The Defeat at Vicksburg.
Our army has met with a serious defeat in the attempt to dislodge the enemy at Vicksburg at Vicksburg. The Confederate Commander, PEMBERTON, telegraphs to Richmond under date of Friday that SHERMAN had “re-embarked and apparrently [sic] has relinquished his designs upon Vicksburg.” The Cairo despatches also indicate the repulse of our army with a loss of 4,000 to 5,000 men. – The Federal army is represented to be 50,000 strong. The enemy are strongly entrenched at Vicksburg, and there is no doubt but that the struggle was a desperate one, and the loss was very great on our side, we being the attacking party. the whole affair seems to have been badly managed.
Some of the details might have been wrong, but the main idea seems pretty clear – storming the strong fortifications wasn’t working.
The Union president got some news off the wire that gave him a bit of hope – if only for a day.
telegraphing Lincoln
From The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Six:
TELEGRAM TO ANSON STAGER.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 24, 1863.10.40
ANSON STAGER, Cleveland, O.:
Late last night Fuller telegraphed you, as you say, that “the Stars and Stripes float over Vicksburg and the victory is complete.” Did he know what he said, or did he say it without knowing it? Your despatch of this afternoon throws doubt upon it.
A. LINCOLN.
Anson Stager was born in Ontario County, New York, the major recruiting ground for the 33rd New York Infantry but at a young age began working with the telegraph in Pennsylvania. After the war began he devised a cipher for secure communication and in October 1861 he was appointed head of the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps.
