Civil War, Western Theater, Vicksburg campaign. On May 22, 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant ordered a second assault against the defensive works surrounding Vicksburg, Mississippi, hoping this time to take the Confederate port city. An attempt on May 19 failed.
Ron Chernow in Grant explains that Grant “believed delay would allow the other side to boost its defenses and absorb reinforcements,” and that Grant in his memoirs notes that he was concerned that there
“was no telling what the casualties might be among Northern troops working and living in trenches, drinking surface water filtered through rich vegetation, under a tropical sun.”
Then, at the appointed hour [of 10 a.m.], after Grant’s three chief commanders synchronized their watches (a novelty in wartime), all three corps raced forward with fixed bayonets, scaling ladders and ropes to surmount the sheer Vicksburg parapets. (269)
Jerry Korn in the War on the Mississippi volume of the 1980s Time-Life Books series The Civil War, describes the attack dramatically, drawing on first-person accounts. Confederate General Stephen D. Lee wrote that at 10 a.m.,
‘as if by magic…suddenly…there seemed to spring almost from the bowels of the earth dense masses of Federal troops, in numerous columns of attack, and with loud cheers and huzzahs, they rushed forward at a run with bayonets fixed, not firing a shot, headed for every salient along the Confederate lines.’ (130)
Once in closer range, the National troops received punishing fire from Confederate muskets and cannons. Colonel Lysander Webb of the 77th Illinois wrote:
“Down into the abatis of fallen timber and brush we went…our comrades falling thickly on all sides of us. Still up the hill we pressed, through the brambles and brush, over the dead and dying.”
….
Regimental Adjutant George Crooke [of the 21st Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry wrote,] “It was a tornado of iron on our left, a hurricane of shot on our right. We passed through the mouth of hell. Every third man fell, either killed or wounded.” (130)
Private Edwin A. Loosley of the 81st Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, wrote of the attack in a June 1 letter to his wife:
[W]e went up at a double quick, formed into line, and lay down in a hurry when the rebels opened onto us the most terrific fire that troops ever sustained. They threw bushels of grape and canister from both flanks while infantry in front was pouring deadly volleys at us. All the time we were ordered not to fire a shot till we got into the rebel works and there we lay shot down like dogs by scores without the power of returning a shot in a complete trap. We were there about 10 minutes during which time 2 out of every 3 in our Company was shot. . . . I was to the left of the company and in a few minutes everyone in both ranks to my right for 10 yards was hit, the last one of them, leaving me solitary and alone and company ‘C’ on my left suffered nearly as bad. I would not have given a counterfeit 5 cent piece on the Southern Confederacy for my life one minute the balls were so thick. I lay there very patiently waiting for the ball to come and do its work but it did not come though they were all around me. I could have picked up a hat full of balls without getting up. They hit the ground under me and hit my clothes over me and several spent balls hit me but did not damage. After about half the regiment was killed and wounded we were ordered to charge which we did. We got about 30 yards of the rebels when we were ordered to retreat and then there was some tall running done you may be sure. The attempt to storm was a failure all round the entire lines and our loss was fearful.
…..
Our Colonel[, James J. Dollins,] was shot through the head the top being shot off. There we lost a leader. He was the soul of bravery and honor and I felt that I lost a friend when he was gone.
In the second siege assault on Vicksburg, Grant’s army suffered 502 men killed, 2,550 wounded, and 147 missing out of a total troop strength of 45,000 men—the Confederate’s total casualties of nearly 500 men approximately equaled Grant’s fatalities count alone.
Korn on the battle’s immediate aftermath:
It had been a savage day and a grueling week, and the Federal troops were still outside the fortifications of the river port. A newspaper reporter heard Grant say quietly: “We’ll have to dig our way in.” (132)
The siege proper had begun.
Sources:
Chernow, Ron. Grant. New York: Penguin Books, 2017. Kindle.
Korn, Jerry. War on the Mississippi. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books Inc., 1985.
Simon, John Y. “An Illinois Soldier at Vicksburg.” Manuscripts, XIX, 3 (Summer 1967), 23-31. Cited in: Lisec, Aaron. “There We Lay Shot Down Like Dogs: Second Vicksburg Assault, May 22, 1863.” Raiders of the Lost Archives. (Website.) Accessed May 20, 2022, https://scrc1.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/there-we-lay-shot-down-like-dogs-second-vicksburg-assault-may-22-1863/.
Featured image: see caption below.
