June 22, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
A correspondent of the Columbus Times, writing from one of our camps on the Yazoo River, June 8th, gives an interesting statement of the condition and prospects of the Mississippi Campaign. He says: ‘Important movements are going on here now, which it would be imprudent to state. It is enough to know that they are in progress. That General JOHNSTON is embarrassed with a small force is most true – smaller than the reader has been led to conclude from the information derived from the press. But small or large, he will dispose of it to the best advantage and to the best purpose. At present Mississippi is upon the brink of being run over by the Hessians. That they have received a check at Vicksburg is most gratifying, and we hope that the stubborn little city may never yield. The force of the enemy is estimated at eighty thousand men. Gen. GRANT is in command, and has under him three corps d. Maj. Gen. SHERMAN commands the right; Maj. Gen. JOHN A. McPHERSON the left. SHERMAN is an old army officer, and the superior to all the Yankee Generals in their army, in the estimation of Gen. JOHNSTON. Major General McCLERNAND is a politician from Illinois. Formerly a member of Congress – a leading supporter of DOUGLAS, and, like MAYNARD, a traitor from Tennessee, voted for by the South for Speaker in the last Congress of the old Union. McPHERSON is from Ohio – ranked first in his class at West Point, where he graduated in 1853. These are the three Yankee corps commanders under GRANT, who, it cannot be disguised, lead braver men than HOOKER, being rough Hoosiers and Suckers from the hardy West.
‘The plan of GRANT seems to be to avoid an engagement with JOHNSTON, whose small force he affects to despise, on an open field, but to press Vicksburg so hard as to cause JOHNSTON to attack him behind his strong line of countervallation, just outside of PEMBERTON’S. GRANT doubtless believes he can whip JOHNSTON, having a force so superior, but is unwilling to withdraw his forces from the siege of Vicksburg, where he is so strongly fortified himself, and can get supplies from Yazoo and Grand Gulf, and when Vicksburg is being gradually starved out. Gen. PEMBERTON has provisions enough to last him until the 1st of October. He has defeated the enemy in several assaults, and there is no danger of his being whipped. The Federals have long since felt this, and are now entrenching against JOHNSTON.
‘The advance of JOHNSTON is now beyond Yazoo City, Major General W.H.T. WALKER, of Georgia, in command. Major Generals LORING and BRECKINRIDGE will soon move forward with their divisions. With JOHNSTON at the head and these efficient officers under him, all will be done that can be. General JOHNSTON has said that GRANT would not be so kind as to come out of his entrenchments to fight him.
‘Mississippi is a pretty country, but there are no streams running through it. The people have cistern water entirely, which is too scarce to give a soldier a canteen full. Hence the frequent suffering of the latter. No rain has fallen for weeks, and the dust is suffocating on a march.’