February 5, 1863, The New York Herald
Our Memphis Correspondence.
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Jan. 27, 1863.
A portion of Gen. Grant’s army has already moved off in transports for Milliken’s Bend, and the remainder is on the way to this city to be transported to the same destination. In a week or two – judging by the progress lately made – Gen. Grant may find his army concentrated at Milliken’s Bend, preparatory to the grand attack upon Vicksburg. That this one may be successful every loyal heart most devoutly prays; and yet there are many reasons to induce the sagacious observer to fear for the result.
REBEL PREPARATIONS AND PURPOSES.
Some two months ago General Joseph E. Johnston was sent to the West by Jeff. Davis, in order to revive and retrieve the waning fortunes of the confederacy in that quarter. He has most diligently labored for that end, and with what success let the lamentable affairs at Holly Springs and at Vicksburg testify. It is understood to be Johnston’s policy to hold the Mississippi at all hazards, and thus keep up the rebel communication between Richmond and Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. For this purpose he has massed an immense army at and near Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Neither of these places, in Johnston’s opinion, can be stormed. If taken at all, it must be by siege. It is conceded that Port Hudson may be taken; but Vicksburg they think absolutely impregnable.
STRENGTH OF THE REBEL ARMY.
At last accounts Johnston had an army of fully 100,000 men at Vicksburg, or within easy supporting distance. To take this stronghold, then, with its high hills, extensive fortifications and closed approaches, defended by such an army, will require, it is estimated, not less than 200,000 men, and even then the work must be slowly performed, if performed at all. It is well to let the people understand the whole truth. It is best to let them know that, no matter what the force which shall be sent for the reduction of the place, the enemy considers it impregnable to the number of men who can operate and approach its batteries, pits, forts and bristling bayonets.
FORT HUDSON
is also said to have a large force placed for its defence – sufficient, the enemy supposes, for holding the place against Banks and Farragut combined. The prospect that Grant will receive aid from below, in his contemplated attack on Vicksburg, is extremely doubtful. It is better to know this in advance than to have to realize it as a fact at the moment the deficiency cannot be supplied. The rebels are not only determined to put forth their greatest efforts at Vicksburg, but they are impressed with the belief that the greatest success will crown their efforts. Already have their drooping spirits been cheered by Van Dorn’s raid upon Holly Springs, compelling Grant to fall back to the river; and it is intimated that this policy of cutting our communications will be their main reliance, while their forces are concentrated at their strongest points. Hence we find them operating on the Cumberland, where they have captured and sunk three steamers and a gunboat. But for this the Union army might long since have been to Chattanooga and en route for Georgia. We may expect that game, which has already been so successfully practiced, to be continued, while they will hazard as few pitched battles as possible. It is easy to see, then, that our long delay has given the enemy a decided advantage, and that it will take more men and time than we seem to have supposed to make headway against the rebel strongholds. That Grant and Sherman will do all that men can do we are willing to believe; but if, after all, they should fail, not because of incapacity or inability, but because they could not accomplish impossibilities, let the blame rest where it belongs.
THE FORCES THAT CAPTURED ARKANSAS POST.
Those who supposed that the Union army which captured the Post of Arkansas would march on and possess Little Rock were doomed to disappointment; for after remaining there four or five days, during which the fort was destroyed, every house burned and the rifle pits closed, our forces set sail for Napoleon, and long ere this are moored at some safe point, where they will cooperate with the grand movement against Vicksburg. The defeat at the Post seems to have caused a decided change in the rebel programme. Immediately all the forces at St. Charles, Duvall’s Bluff, Des Arc and other places were withdrawn, and the places not only evacuated, but entirely deserted, except with here and there a widow or poor man whose necessities compelled them to remain. The consequence was that General Gorman’s expedition up White River was an unavoidable failure. He got to each place just after the enemy had left. Two guns captured at Duvall’s Bluff, because the railroad cars could not get them on in time, constituted the spoils of an expedition costing thousands of dollars per day.
GUERILLA OPERATION.
The rebel guerillas have been quite active around us during the past week. A few of Richardson’s cavalry came within our corporate limits, took possession of everything in a grocery store that they wanted, lingered around for several hours, and then departed, taking with them a United States cavalry horse, with accompanying equipments. A similar daring act was performed yesterday by the guerillas on the Arkansas side. They hauled up two bales of cotton to the river bank, just above the city, and as the steamboat Millboy was coming down they hailed her, apparently to take on the cotton, but really to steal the boat. The Captain of the Millboy had a vivid recollection of the fate of the steamboats Jacob Musselman and Grampus No. 2, and, instead of obeying the summons to land, hurried to the gunboat in the harbor, which immediately repaired to the place and shelled the country all around.
THE REBELS WORKING ON THE RAILROADS.
The rebels are busily engaged repairing the railroad destroyed by General Grant’s army on its retiring from North Mississippi. At last accounts the road had not been finished to Oxford, though the enemy’s cavalry have been seen lately six miles this side of Holly Springs. Blythe’s cavalry are near the Charleston road, watching for an opportunity to interrupt its communication. Thus far the swollen streams have operated to prevent any such depredations, even if it had been otherwise possible. The railroad communication between Columbus and Jackson, Tenn. has been practically given up, and hence forth communication with Corinth and Jackson must be via Memphis.
HOSPITALS IN MEMPHIS.
There has been no little excitement here, during the past few days, in consequence of the announcement that the government intends to take possession of all the large houses in town in order to provide hospital accommodations for six thousand men. The duty of arranging these hospitals has been assigned to Surgeon H. R. Wirtz, lately medical director of Gen. Grant’s army. There has been great complaint of the government hospitals here, and now that their management has been entrusted to able hands we may reasonably hope for a better state of things.
COTTON TRADE REGULATIONS.
By General Order No. 5, passed from General Grant’s headquarters, the sum of one hundred dollars is to be collected for each permit to buy or ship cotton, or to trade at any military post where trade is not regulated by civil authorities, the money thus collected to be used as a secret service and hospital fund. The order created quite a squirming among the cotton dealers; but I do not learn that it has deterred any one from pursuing the exciting traffic.
THE CIVIL RULE.
For the present, and until further orders, no steamboats are allowed to go down the river to buy cotton or to trade family supplies for it. The consequence is there is but little cotton coming into market, and the price is on the ascending scale. It is intimated that the restriction on the river cotton trade will not be removed until the Mississippi is regularly opened for navigation; and if this be so the present cotton in market will reach fabulous prices before the amount is considerably enhanced.
The true policy for the government in reference to this cotton question is to appoint an agent to buy it all up as our army advances, and let that agent bring it to market and sell it on government account. This would prevent officers in the army from being corrupted by the trade, and it would realize several millions per month with which to meet the heavy expenses of the war. If there were any prospect of inducing the politicians at Washington to consider any question of practical utility, there might be some use in urging some such scheme upon their attention.
The city, under the present military management, was never quieter. Disorder, drunkenness, thefts, robberies, fires, &c., which lately abounded, are comparatively unknown. Our police court is a dull place, and the local columns of our journals are poorly supplied with sensation reports.
The most startling reports daily reach us of outrages by our soldiers all along the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. The Seventh Kansas regiment of cavalry are particularly mentioned as the perpetrators of outrages for which their officers ought to be dismissed the service. Fences are pulled down and burned, hogs, cattle and fowl killed, horses and mules stolen, houses burned, and pillage and rapine are their common, every day pursuits. Even ladies have had their clothes on their persons thrown over their heads, on the pretext that they had money on their persons which they would not give up. Such desolation as has followed in their tracks in West Tennessee can never be adequately shadowed forth in words. It has to be seen to be appreciated. Officers who fail to command their men are guilty, and should be made to suffer.