May 17, 1863, The New York Herald
Now that all is quiet again on the Rappahannock, and on the Richmond peninsula, and on the Blackwater, and in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and in Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri, the advance of General Grant’s army through the interior of Mississippi, for the rear of Vicksburg, becomes the paramount and absorbing topic of the day.
Our latest authentic information from General Grant’s army direct is his own despatch of the 8th inst., to the effect that, since the battle of Port Gibson, he had had no engagement with the enemy; that he was satisfied with the appearance of things in his vicinity, and that the rebels had undoubtedly evacuated Port Hudson, excepting a small garrison and their heavy artillery. A despatch from Cairo, dated May 14, says, further, that General Grant will endeavor to cut the railroad between Vicksburg and Jackson, and that a battle was expected in the vicinity of Black river bridge – a point nearly midway between the two cities. It further appears that our troops, all the way from Memphis down to Young’s Point, near Vicksburg; were moving to reinforce General Grant.
From rebel sources we have information from Jackson down to May 11, from which it appears that a thousand of Gen. Grant cavalry had entered and burned Crystal Springs, on the New Orleans Railroad; that he was fortifying at Rocky Spring and Western Spring; that he was receiving reinforcements; that Gen. Osterhaus, with a strong detachment of infantry and cavalry, was at Cayuga; that Gen. Grant will probably advance eastward, and not direct to Vicksburg) […..]
From all these facts we conclude that, strongly posting the main body of his army, Gen. Grant had paused in his advance, and while awaiting his reinforcements was scouring the country around him; that the most of the rebel forces of Port Hudson had moved, or were moving, around by railroad to reinforce Gen. Pemberton, and that the Union cavalry raid upon the New Orleans road was a movement to cut them off, and all other reinforcements and supplies from that direction; that Gen. Grant was probably aiming for Jackson, which is the base of supplies of Vicksburg and the capital of Mississippi; and that, from the concentration of Admiral Porter’s fleet, meantime, above Vicksburg, it was not intended that Pemberton should have the privilege of leaving that place without troops while attending to our army in the interior. A trick of this sort, with Porter’s fleet in his front, will hardly be attempted, and thus a powerful co-operative movement on the water in front is secured in connection with our land operations in the rear of Vicksburg.
Thus at length the combinations of Grant and Porter against that rebel stronghold are assuming a very encouraging shape. We were somewhat apprehensive that, without a sufficiently careful consideration of the probable strength of the enemy at Vicksburg and Jackson, General Grant would push forward and bring them out, only to find that, hurrying up their armies from Port Hudson and Mobile, the rebels could confront him with a force largely superior in numbers to his own. These rebel telegraphic despatches to Richmond, however, satisfy us that General Grant, while gathering up his reserves, is carefully feeling his way, and seriously crippling the enemy withal, in breaking their communications. This plan of operations looks well. The rebel army at Vicksburg, having been completely cut off from its main sources of supplies west of the Mississippi, cannot possibly remain behind its intrenchments with its eastern railway communications destroyed. Colonel Grierson’s cavalry raid had already broken up very seriously those communications with Northern Mississippi; and now, as it appears, General Grant has been actively attending to the great New Orleans road, which runs to the southern extremity of the State from Jackson. While doing this he is also strengthening his position against a possible sortie of the enemy, and is strengthening his army for an advance by reinforcements. He is thus evidently the master of the situation.
We presume that if the rebel forces, except the artillerists of Port Hudson, have left that place, it will be taken care of, without loss of time, by the forces of General Banks at Baton Rouge, some thirty or forty miles below. Five hundred artillerists may be sufficient to work the batteries against our gunboats; but five thousand infantry, in a movement from the rear, would soon dispose of forts, batteries, artillerists and artillery.
We hope that our next news from the Southwest will announce the occupation of Port Hudson by our forces and the capture of a valuable lot of heavy cannon. Thus the work of reducing Vicksburg will be considerably simplified, in bringing, by way of the river, the forces of General Banks and Admiral Farragut from below Port Hudson into direct communication with those of General Grant and Admiral Porter. As it stands, the Vicksburg campaign is progressing encouragingly, and with every promise of an early and complete success.