river bank below. Its progress was exceedingly slow, as most of the distance made was at the cost of great labor in the construction of bridges and corduroy roadway. It was not until the 27th of April that McClernand had assembled his corps at Hard Times Landing, about forty miles below Vicksburg, and nearly abreast of Grand Gulf on the opposite bank, the latter point being occupied by an entrenched Confederate battery of heavy guns. It was assumed that this obstruction could be overcome without much delay, and on the 29th of April Admiral Porter attacked the work with his fleet of eight ironclads; but after a hot encounter of some hours duration, he was compelled to retire with his fleet considerably damaged and a loss of 18 killed and 56 wounded. Under this protection, however, the transport passed the battery, and the next day the men of the Thirteenth and a part of the Seventeenth Corps were transfered from the west to the east bank of the Mississippi at Bruinsburg, a few miles below Grand Gulf. These troops. were at once pushed to the interior and on May 1st defeated a detachment of 8,000 Confederates at Port Gibson, Mississippi.

On the 29th of April, General Sherman with the Fifteenth Army Corps, still at Milliken's Bend, made a demonstration via the Yazoo river on Haines Bluff, which had the intended effect of holding a considerable part of Pemberton's army in the vicinity of Vicksburg, while Grant secured a foothold on the mainland fifty miles below. Sherman retired after executing his successful feint, and, following the route of the troops that had preceded him, joined Grant on the 7th of May.

The capture of Port Gibson made Grand Gulf untenable to the enemy. It was hurriedly evacuated, its guns and stores abandoned, and the position was immediately occupied as a temporary base for the Union forces.

General Grant was now on firm ground on the enemy's side of the river, and though as yet by no means near his goal, he could confidently hope to meet his antagonist under more nearly equal conditions than he had recently been compelled to confront. The advantage of position was still, however, plainly in favor of the Confederates. Pemberton had an army nearly equal to that under Grant's command, with ample supplies at his hand, and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was on his way from the east with considerable reinforcements, arriving at Jackson, Mississippi, a

few days following the fight at Port Gibson. The advantages of the enemy were, however, soon neutralized by the celerity of Grant's movements and the rapidity with which he dealt the enemy one crushing blow after another.

At Raymond on the 12th he met a force of 5,000 Confederates, sent out to obstruct and delay his movements. This he defeated and scattered. On the 14th he drove Johnston out of Jackson, beating his force of 10,000 men and capturing much of his artillery. On the 16th he met Pemberton in person with 25,000 men at Champion Hills, and, after inflicting upon him a loss of 3,000 killed and wounded and 3,000 prisoners and much of his artillery, sent him flying in confusion over the hills toward Vicksburg; and finally on the 17th, at the crossing of the Big Black river, he routed Pemberton's rear guard of 4,000 men, capturing a large part of the force with practically all its outfit. Following swiftly the line of the enemy's retreat, Grant was the next day in sight of Vicksburg, and immediately began an investment of the place.

During the period from the fight at Raymond on the 12th to the investment of Vicksburg on the 18th of May, so much depended on rapidity of movement and quickly executed maneuvers, that no time could be given to or thought expended upon efforts to maintain communication with his base, which Grant had established at Grand Gulf; nor was it desirable that his swiftly moving columns be encumbered with impedimenta that could be dispensed with. Ammunition the army must have, of course, but beyond provision for this first essential and a few ambulances to care for the wounded all wagons were cut out of the trains, communication with its base abandoned, and the army left to subsist on the country, aside from the two days' rations provided in the haversacks of the men. Thus the army found itself in the interior of the enemy's country, with its rear in the air, hostile forces on all sides of it, a battle occurring every day, and the last certain assurance of a full ration easily in sight. Though parts of the army may have suffered somewhat for lack of food, generally it was fairly supplied by what the country afforded, but in places along its line of march a crow would have starved following in its wake. It was this campaign in which it was said that General Grant's baggage consisted only of a toothbrush.

The Minnesota troops participated in these operations without suffering many casualties, though in all other respects bearing the burdens common to the army as a whole. The Fourth Regiment and First Battery were on the field at Port Gibson and Raymond, though not in action. At Champion Hills both were present, and the Fourth Regiment, as a part of the brigade commanded by Col. Sanborn, performed important duty under fire in carrying a difficult position on which a large body of prisoners were captured. At Jackson also these commands were present, but in reserve.

In the advance on Jackson the Fifth Regiment held the advance of the Fifteenth Army Corps, the entire regiment being deployed as skirmishers on the 13th and 14th of May. At Mississippi Springs, just at night of the 13th, it had a spirited encounter with the rear guard of the enemy that was retiring on Jackson. The regiment maintained its formation as skirmishers in advance of the column, until the entrenchments of the enemy were reached in front of Jackson, about 3 P. M. on the 14th. The Fifteenth Army Corps was here deployed in line of battle, and the Fifth Regiment with its proper command participated in the charge and capture of the enemy's line that followed. In the occupation of the town the Fifth Regiment was assigned to provost duty, having its bivouac on the grounds of the capitol square, and placing its regimental flag for a day on the dome of the capitol building of the capital city of Jefferson Davis' own state. During its brief occupation of Jackson the Fifteenth Corps destroyed railroads and their equipment, manufactories, and every species of property that could have value to the enemy; and on the morning of the 16th started on a hurried march towards Vicksburg, where it was assigned to the right of the line of investment.

The investment of Vicksburg had compelled the evacuation of the fortified positions of the enemy at Haines Bluff and along the Yazoo river, thus opening to Grant's army free communication with the Mississippi river above Vicksburg. This, of course, settled the question of his base and brought to the army all needed supplies.

Presuming that Pemberton's forces were considerably demoralized by their recent successive defeats, General Grant felt warranted in making an early attempt to carry Vicksburg by assault. This he did on the 19th of May, before a considerable part of his

army had come up. Here he encountered his first real failure in his recent operations. His repulse did not deter him from a second trial of like character. On the 22nd, his entire army being in position, the Fifteenth Army Corps on the right, the Seventeenth in the center, and the Thirteenth on the left, he ordered an assault all along the line. It wholly failed, the almost superhuman efforts of the army meeting a bloody repulse at all points.

The topography of the locality rendered Vicksburg naturally very strong as a defensive position, and to this advantage were added the most complete artificial works that experienced and accomplished military engineers could devise. Monster forts, connected by elaborate earthworks, crowned the heights of Walnut Hills, and impenetrable abatis of fallen timber guarded all approaches. General Sherman in his Memoirs says that he has since the war seen the fortified position at Sevastopol, and that, in his opinion, Vicksburg was much the stronger position of the two. Against such an impregnable position the devoted Army of the Tennessee was hurled with mighty force, only to find the task impossible and to recoil bleeding at every pore.

The Minnesota troops participated in this assault of May 22nd, and the Fourth Regiment especially suffered heavily in the loss of officers and men. After reaching a position near the hostile works the Fourth Regiment was ordered to move to the left, away from its proper front, to support other hard pressed troops, the latter then withdrawing, leaving the Fourth Regiment in an especially exposed position. Lieut. Colonel Tourtelotte in his official report said: "No sooner had we taken such position than General Burbridge withdrew his brigade from action under a direct fire from the fort in front and a heavy cross fire from a fort on our right. The regiment pressed forward up to and even on the enemy's works. In this position, contending for the possession of the rebel earthworks before us, the regiment remained for two hours, when it became dark and I was ordered by Col. Sanborn to withdraw the regiment." This work was done at a cost of 12 men killed and 44 wounded, many of the wounded remaining where they fell, suffering untold agony, until two days later, when the dead were buried and those yet alive were removed under a flag of truce.