February 5, 1863, The New York Herald
We have news to the 30th ultimo from Vicksburg. At that day General Grant, chief in command, had arrived. The work of widening and deepening – the famous cutoff was progressing; but the rebels, snuffing their danger, had planted a battery on the opposite, or Mississippi, side of the river, which commands the outlet of the canal into the main stream. That battery, however, will be silenced when the time comes for action.
A rebel despatch from Vicksburg of the 30th ult. says that some federal scouting parties had appeared that morning on the river bank immediately in front of the town, but on the Louisiana side of the river, and had burned four houses under the range of the rebel batteries, the river being less than a mile in width, and the rebel batteries being on the Vicksburg bluffs, where they possess the advantages of a plunging fire. This would seem to indicate a design on the part of General Grant to plant a line of batteries in front of Vicksburg, to keep the rebels well employed in his front while our gunboat squadron are running below the town by way of the off. But, whatever may be the designs of General Grant, we have the fullest confidence in his success, not only in removing the Mississippi river, but in removing the rebels from Vicksburg, [~¦..] in upon their works.
Some five hundred miles up the river from General Grant scene of operations, and at the historic Island No. 10, a strong force of rebel guerillas, with three pieces of artillery, had endeavored to arrest the passage of the gunboat New Era, but after a fight of several hours were shelled off. From Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland, February 3, we have the report that a fight was still in progress there at four o’clock in the afternoon, although it had commenced at an early hour in the morning. From this it is evident that the fort had been assailed by a formidable rebel detachment; but as reinforcements had gone forward to the support of the garrison we conclude that the enemy has been expelled.
At the same time, from rebel reports, it appears that their irrepressible guerilla, Wheeler, has been very active of late in cutting in among and cutting up the river transports and railroad trains of General Rosecrans. All these things disclose a desperate determination on the part of the rebels to maintain a foothold in Tennessee, and to hold the points which they possess on the Mississippi river. In Tennessee and at Vicksburg there is doubtless hot work very near at hand. It is possible that within the next ten days the most important events of the war will come off in that quarter, and the most decisive against the rebellion.
From Port Hudson – the only remaining rebel obstruction after Vicksburg on the whole line of the Mississippi – we have no very late intelligence. We are informed, however, that a cutoff is feasible at that point, and that the project is under consideration. This may explain the requisition of General Banks for a large supply of intrenching tools. But let Vicksburg be taken, and the combined forces of Grant and Admiral Porter from above, and of Banks and Admiral Farragut from below, will make short work of Port Hudson. The Mississippi and its tributaries are in excellent condition for aggressive operations on our side from Tennessee to the Gulf; and we are confident that, before those waters subside, the advantages which they now offer will have been fully employed in crushing the rebellion in the Southwest.
Our greatest victories last year were achieved between the 1st of February and the 1st of June; and this year, from the same advantages of navigable rivers, we anticipate, within the same period, the same results, but on a much grander scale. The administration has the men and the means; its most favorable season for great successes has come; and surely, notwithstanding all the blunders of the past, we may expect henceforward some glorious compensating victories. If not, we make look for the peacemakers and Union breakers by the 1st of May.