March 23, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
VICKSBURG, March 16.
It must be a very provoking dilemma for the Yankee General Grant to be placed in a position where he cannot advance, and dare not turn back. In order to accomplish the former, he has been engaged for two months in digging and cleaning up the stumps and logs from the canal, but still he is unable to move his transports below by means of this ditch. His iron-clads may run by batteries, but that will only insure their capture, and the transports and troops have to remain above or make an attempt against the formidable batteries.
The following conundrum, got up by an improvised minstrel band, is a good one: ‘Why is Vicksburg like a hundred dollar Confederate bill? Because the Yankees can pass it, but can’t take it.’ Their gunboats can pass by, but they can’t take the place. It matters but little whether they are above or below, as far as operations against this point are concerned. One thing is self-evident, they can never reduce this place unless they make an attempt at it, and thus far they have not ventured to expose themselves within range of our batteries.
I have learned some further particulars of the capture of the Indianola. She was a formidable iron-clad, with powerful guns – those mounted on the bow being eleven inch columbiads, and the stern guns were nine inch. On her passage by the batteries on the way down, the Yankees had taken the precaution to grease her sides with tallow to make the balls glide off easily, and the whole craft was daubed over to the thickness of a quarter of an inch. She fought well in the engagement, but none of our men were lost.
She had a coal barge on each side of her, and on her cruise she captured a pig from the plantation of Mr. Sims, and had the porker quartered on one of the coal barges, together with a lot of chickens, which had also been captured. When the Queen of the West made the attack she had to run through these coal boats first before striking the Indianola, and the jar set the pig to squealing and the chickens to give the alarm in their own language. Our boys heard them, and at once knew that fresh pork and chickens were aboard, which gave them the more zest to persevere in the fight.
Stonewall Jackson once said that he could whip any army that was well fed, and this might have applied to the Yankee marines on the Indianola. Our men were not used to the luxuries of chickens and fried pork, and when they discovered that these could be obtained aboard the Yankee boat, they exerted all their power to accomplish the feat. The steamer Webb, which has a low pressure engine, and ordinarily carries twelve pounds of steam, had on one hundred and forty pounds when she ran into the enemy’s vessel, staving in her side and causing her to sink rapidly.
The Captain of the captured boat is represented as a brave fellow, having stood on the roof, exposed to our sharpshooters, throughout the whole action, without receiving any injury. When the Yankees found their boat untenable, they fired the inside so that it would communicate with the magazine. When this was done, they got aboard the Confederate steamer Webb, hoping, no doubt, that the victors would take the Indianola as a prize, and in a few minutes to see them blown up. Our officers discovered this trick, and made the Yankees stay on their own boat until they had quenched the fire.
The general presumption is that the Indianola has been blown up by our own men, who were frightened by a scarecrow. Much controversy has been had about this matter, and I have been laughed at for contending that she was not destroyed. But I repeat again that she is safe, and will shortly be heard from. Some of her guns have been lost, but the boat is safe. All this controversy had its effect, as was designed by those in authority; whether the deception was necessary, or will prove beneficial to us, is not known at present, but the sequel will show.
The enemy is still in camp at the same old place, and the river is not so threatening in its upward tendency as a few days ago, having about come to a stand. The gunboats still keep watch in the neighborhood of the canal, and the fleet of transports above is at its old position. No movements of any sort were discovered yesterday, and it is not known what the enemy is driving at. – Doubtless the work on the canal is still in progress to get below this point.
Augusta Chronicle.