Vicksburg Campaign  "As If Hell Itself Were Loose"  January - July, 1863

At 11:10pm on the moonless night of April 16, 1863, Confederate pickets patrolling the Mississippi River in small boats spotted a long line of Union ships attempting to sneak past the powerful Rebel batteries at Vicksburg, Miss. The pickets sounded the alarm and bonfires were quickly lit on both sides of the river as the the great guns in the batteries began to pound the Union fleet. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, with his wife and 12-year-old son, Fred, sat on the deck of a ship out of range of the Rebel guns and watched the grand spectacle unfold. "The river", recalled Fred, "was lighted up as if by sunlight."

Each of the 11 Union ships was under fire for about 30 minutes as it made its way downstream. A Union officer on one of the transports later reconstructed the ordeal. "Down on the river it is a sheet of flame," he said. "One of the steamers and a few of the barges have caught fire and are burning up, the men escaping in lifeboats and by swimming to the western shore... It was as if hell itself were loose that night on the Mississippi River." The Rebel cannon fired more than 500 shots, and all the Union ships were hit repeatedly. Miraculously the eight warships and two of the three transports survived the two and one-half hours of the passage. All were damaged to some extent, but they were quickly made seaworthy again.

Pleased at the success, Grant decided to send six more transports downriver past the Vicksburg batteries. The ships, loaded with supplies, attempted the run on the night of April 22. Once again they were greeted with powerful barrages from Rebel cannon, and once again all but one made the passage. Half of the steamers' engines were damaged beyond repair, but they could still hold many soldiers while being pushed or towed, and thus were able to perform their mission of transporting Grant's army across the milewide river. Remarkably, not a single Union sailor or soldier was killed during the two runs past Vicksburg, and fewer than two dozen were wounded.

Fascinating Fact:  Gen. William T. Sherman, who detested reporters, learned that three of them were on one of the transports that had been sunk. Thinking they had been killed, he rejoiced, joking "We'll have dispatches now from hell before breakfast."


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