65                                  HISTORY OF THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT O.V.V.I.

           On the very day I had agreed to be there I was there, and we swung our flanks around, and the present Governor of Missouri fell a prisoner to the enemy on that day. We failed. I waited anxiously for a co-operating force inland and below, but they did not come, and after I had made the assault I learned that the depot at Holly Springs had been broken up, and that General Grant had sent me word not to attempt it. But it was too late. Nevertheless, although we were unable to carry it at first, there were other things to be done. The war covered such a vast area there was plenty to do. I thought of that affair at Arkansas Post, although others claim it, and they may have it if they want it. We cleaned them out there, and General Grant then brought his army to Vicksburg, and you in St. Louis remember that long winter – how we were on the levee, with the waters rising and drowning us like muskrats; how we were seeking channels through Deer Creek and Yazoo Pass, and how we finally cut a canal across the peninsula, in front of Vicksburg. But all that time the true movement was the original movement, and everything not approximating to it nearer the truth. But we could not make any retrograde movement. Why? Because your people of the North were too noisy.

VICKSBURG – GRANT – SHERMAN.

           We could not take any step backwards, and for that reason we were compelled to run the batteries at Vicksburg, and make a lodgement on the ridges or some of the bluffs below Vicksburg. It is said I protested against it. It is folly. I never protested in my life – never. [Laughter.] On the contrary, General Grant rested on me probably more responsibility even than any other commander under him. For he wrote to me: "I want you to move upon Haine's Bluff, to enable me to pass the next fort below – Grand Gulf. I hate to ask you, because the fervor of the North will accuse yon of being rebellious again." [Laughter.] I love Grant for his kindness. I did make the feint on Haine's Bluffs, and by that means Grant ran the blockade easily to Grand Gulf, and made a lodgement down there and got his army up on the high plateau in the rear of Vicksburg, while you people here were beguiled into the belief that Sherman was again repulsed. But we did not repose confidence in everybody. Then followed the movement on Jackson, and the 4th of July placed us in posession of that great stronghold, Vicksburg, and then, as Mr. Lincoln said, "the Mississippi went unvexed to the sea."

           From that day to this the war has been virtually and properly settled. It was a certainty then. They would have said, "We give up," but Davis would not ratify it, and he had them under good discipline, and therefore it was necessary to fight again. Then came the affair of Chickamauga. The army of the Mississippi lying along its banks were called into a new field of action, and so one morning early I got orders to go to Chattanooga. I did not know where it was hardly. [Laughter.] I did not know the road to go there. But I found it and got there in time. [Laughter and cheers;] and although my men were shoeless and the cold and bitter frosts of winter were upon us, yet I must still go to Knoxville, thirteen miles further, to relieve Burnside. That march we made. [A voice; and you got there in time.] Then winter forced us to lie quiet. During that winter I took a little exercise down the river, but that is of no account.

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