May 18, 1863, The New York Herald
Our latest news from the Southwest indicates a successful issue to General Grant’s inland movement in Mississippi for the reduction of Jackson and Vicksburg.
The advanced detachments of his army, wherever they had come into contact with an opposing column of the enemy, had, after a severe contest, invariably routed it. The last reported engagement of this character, (according to a rebel despatch to the Richmond Enquirer, was on the 12th or 13th instant, at Raymond,) some five or six miles from the Jackson and Vicksburg Railroad, from which point, after a fight of several hours, the rebels fell back to Mississippi Spring, where they had reinforcements; but the Chattanooga Rebel of the 16th says that the rebels were driven out of Jackson on the 14th, after a hard day’s fight, not being able to hold that city. Meantime the main body of Gen. Grant’s army was at Willow Spring and among the hills in that vicinity, some thirty miles below Raymond, and in close communication with his base of supplies at Grand Gulf. With his army strongly intrenched against the possible contingency of a rebel sortie in force down the country from Vicksburg, General Grant was awaiting the reinforcements that were moving to his support from various points along the Mississippi river between Memphis and Baton Rouge.
The rebels estimate the forces under General Grant command at one hundred and twenty thousand men; and yet, while they are evidently uneasy and perplexed, they profess considerable confidence in their ability to expel him. Doubtless they have scoured all the Southwest to strengthen Gen. Pemberton, and have thus, in all probability, given him an army exceeding a hundred thousand men. It was understood at Memphis that thirty thousand men from Mobile and twenty thousand from Charleston and Savannah, or fifty thousand in all from those three places, had been sent forward to the defence of Jackson and Vicksburg. This may be an exaggeration; but we do not doubt that Pemberton has been drawing reinforcements from every accessible hole and corner in the Southwest, including Charleston and Savannah. We may reasonably believe so, after the declarations of Jeff. Davis that he would defend Vicksburg to the last extremity, and after the sagacious opinion of a leading rebel journal, that Vicksburg is of greater importance to the rebel cause than Richmond, Charleston and Savannah all put together. But why so? Because with Vicksburg in our possession we secure the absolute command of the Mississippi river, and can easily hold it, from Cairo to the Gulf, with our gunboats.
Thus one-half the territory of the States and parts of States now held by the rebellion will be cut off completely from the other half. On a grander scale it will be the decisive operation of cutting an army in twain on the field of battle. The War Committee of Congress have impressed this important fact upon the government; General Halleck, we presume, fully comprehends it, and we conclude, therefore, that General Grant’s movements are being conducted so as to secure success against any possible concentration of the rebel forces for the defence of Vicksburg. We are satisfied that Colonel Grierson’s late dashing cavalry foray and other movements of the same description, cutting up the enemy’s communications, and destroying his railway trains and depots of supplies, will materially weaken Pemberton and assist General Grant; but we still believe that now is the time for another advance by the Army of the Potomac; for another attack upon Charleston or Savannah; for a land reconnoissance around Mobile; for an advance by General Burnside into East Tennessee, and for some active work on the part of General Rosecrans. While General McClellan was halting our reinforcements in front of Richmond we were giving no serious employment to the enemy elsewhere, and so from all points General Lee was strengthened until by the mere weight of superior numbers he rescued the rebel capital. So, now, if for no other purpose than to make sure work of Vicksburg, the armies of the rebellion in every other quarter should be given instant and serious employment. While fighting around a great circle this is the simplest way to prevent an overwhelming concentration of the enemy at any given point.
With Admiral Porter in occupation of Alexandria, on the Red river, we may consider the work of the subjugation of the rebellion on the west side of the Mississippi as substantially completed. With our occupation of Vicksburg the work of reducing the remnants of the rebellious States on the east side of the river will be a comparatively simple and easy operation. Meantime, a rebel journal at Atlanta, Georgia, of the 6th of May, positively affirms that Port Hudson has not been evacuated. We hope that our next intelligence from that quarter will be that the place has been visited by a Union land and naval force which has settled the question. Thus far the whole campaign in the Southwest, since General Grant’s movement below Vicksburg, has worked and is progressing prosperously. Let the War Office see to it that while Grant is strengthened the rebel armies elsewhere are given abundant employment, and we shall soon have a victory which will abundantly compensate us for the late humbugging attack upon Charleston and the inexplicable retreat of General Hooker.