THE HICKS BURG CAMPAIGN.

5 1 9

after the crossing, the city was completely invested and an assault had beenmade: five distinct battles—besides continuous skirmishing—had been foughtand won by the Union forces; the capital of the State had fallen, and itsarsenals, military manufactories, and everything useful for military purposeshad been destroyed; an average of about 180 miles had been marched by thetroops engaged ; but 5 days’ rations had been issued, and no forage; over 6000prisoners had been captured, and as many more of the enemy had beenkilled or wounded; 27 heavy cannon and 61 field-pieces had fallen into ourhands; 250 miles of the river, from Vicksburg to Port Hudson, had be-come ours. The Union force that had crossed the Mississippi River up tothis time was less than 43,000 men. One division of these—Blair’s—onlyarrived in time to take part in the battle of Champion’s Hill, but was notengaged there; and one brigade—Ransom’s—of McPherson’s corps reachedthe field after the battle. The enemy had at Vicksburg , Grand Gulf, Jackson,and on the roads between these places, over sixty thousand men. Theywere in their own country, where no rear-guards were necessary. The countryis admirable for defense, but difficult to conduct an offensive campaign in.All their troops had to be met. We were fortunate, to say the least, in meet-ing them in detail: at Port Gibson, 7000 or 8000; at Raymond, 5000; atJackson, from 8000 to 11,000; at Champion’s Hill, 25,000; at the Big Black,4000. A part of those met at Jackson were all that were left of those encoun-tered at Raymond. They were beaten in detail by a force smaller than theirown, upon their own ground. Our loss up to this time was:

Killed. Wounded. Missing.

Port Gibson. 131 .. 719 .. 25

South Fork, Bayou Pierre. 1

Skirmishes, May 3d. 1 9

Fourteen Mile Creek. 6 24

Raymond . . 66 339 37

Jackson. 12 251 .. 7

Champion’s Hill. 410 . 1844 ., 187

Big Black. 39 237 .. 3

Bridgeport. 1

Total.[In all, 4379]. 695 3425 259

Of the wounded many were but slightly so, and continued on duty. Nothalf of them were disabled for any length of time. |

After the unsuccessful assault on the 22d, the work of the regular siegebegan. Sherman occupied the right, starting from the river above Vicks-burg ; McPherson the center (McArthur’s division now with him); and Mc-Clernand the left, holding the road south to Warren ton. Lauman’s divisionarrived at this time and was placed on the extreme left of the line.

In the interval between the assaults of the 19th and 22d, roads had beencompleted from the Yazoo River and Chickasaw Bayou, around the rear of thearmy, to enable us to bring up supplies of food and ammunition; ground

1 The revised statements (unpublished “Offi- above, from May 1st to July 4th, were: killed,°ial Records,” Vol. XXTV., part I., p. 167) show 1514; wounded, 7395; captured or missing,that the aggregate Union losses, including the 453,—total, 9362.— Editors.