"Samuel Day the the 22nd Iowa"
by

Chapter 3

On to Vicksburg!

The newly formed Second Brigade, 14^th Division, 13^th Corps, received orders to proceed to Richmond, Louisiana, on April 12, 1863. There, they met a small body of Confederate cavalry and drove them from the area. On 16 April, the brigade moved to Carthage, marching along the levee with the river on one side and swamps on the other. The brigade remained at Carthage until 22 April when they resumed their march, this time to Round About Bayou, where they boarded the Silver Wave for a trip to James Plantation. At James Plantation, the men disembarked and proceeded by foot around Vicksburg while the boats and transports had to run the Vicksburg batteries. Though some boats were protected by iron rails, most used hay or cotton bales for armor. Only one transport was destroyed by Confederate guns.

On 27 April, the men were marched to the river and boarded the Cheeseman for a boat trip down the Mississippi to Hard Times Landing, opposite the mouth of the Big Black River, near Grand Gulf. Confederate fortifications and heavy shore batteries on the bluffs near Hard Times Landing protected the mouth of the river. On the 29th, Union forces engaged these batteries with several gunboats, including the Benton, described as the mightiest ironclad on the river. Grant planned both land and naval attacks on the shore batteries, but the Confederate fortifications proved to be impregnable. Despite damaging several Confederate guns, the plan was abandoned. After Porter’s gunboats found the batteries too strong, Grant moved his operation downstream a few miles.

General Grant’s revised plan to assault Vicksburg was a realization that he could not attack from the north or from the river. Two previous failed attempts had proved this. His new plan simply stated, was

 

. . . to pick its way through the swamps on the western side of the Mississippi to a point some miles below Vicksburg. Admiral Porter was to take a squadron, which was to include three ordinary river steamers carrying army supplies and towing barges of coal to keep the navy in fuel, directly past the city’s [Vicksburg] batteries in the night. Once the army and navy were reunited down the river, the army was to be ferried across for a campaign, on dry terrain around Vicksburg’s rear(31).

 

Since the massive troop movements from Milliken’s Bend to a point below Vicksburg would surely draw Confederate attention, Grant planned two diversions. He sent Sherman on a feint to Haines (or Hayne’s) Bluff, just north of Vicksburg. He also sent Colonel R.H. Grierson with a cavalry force of 1,000 men on a diversionary raid from southeast Tennessee through Mississippi, ending at Port Hudson, Louisiana.

After successfully running Vicksburg’s batteries, the transports rendezvoused with the 13^th Corps three miles below Grand Gulf. On the morning of April 30, the transports loaded the infantry and sailed to a spot sixteen miles below Grand Gulf, landing at the village of Bruinsburg at 3 o’clock that afternoon. A regimental band aboard the ironclad Benton serenaded the troops as they disembarked on the Mississippi shore(32).

Grant’s bold new strategy purposely did not include a supply line¾ his army would live off what the could carry and forage from the land. This made Grant’s army less vulnerable to Confederate attack and gave it greater mobility. He apparently learned a valuable lesson at Chickasaw Bluffs when his supply line was destroyed. As the troops assembled at Bruinsburg, they were issued five days of rations. S.C. Jones, of Company A, 22^nd Iowa Infantry recalled,

 

This was more than could be stored away in the haversack. What should we do? A detail was made of two men who placed their guns so a box of crackers could be placed across them, and they marched along the side of the company, and were frequently relieved by a new detail. What should they do with the extra meat? The bayonets were placed on their guns and run through the meat, so each man had his extra ration of meat fixed on his bayonet. Then at right shoulder shift, we proceeded on our march. When others saw how we had arranged to carry our extra rations, they adopted the same plan, so that the whole army could be seen for miles, worming its way over that flat country with the bayonets gleaming in the sunshine, and the ration of meat in its place. It was picturesque and beautiful to behold(33).

 

By May 7, Grant’s entire army, now over 40,000 strong, consisting of General M^cClernand’s 13^th, Sherman’s 15^th, and M^cPherson’s 17^th Army Corps lay on the east side of the Mississippi, several miles below Vicksburg. Grant left a small detachment to guard the crossings at Bruinsburg, and at 4 o’clock in the afternoon of 30 April, the Union army began its march due east. The 21^st Iowa led the advance of the 13^th Army Corps, followed closely by the 22^nd Iowa. The line marched until supper, stopped for a brief rest, then continued eastward. The 22^nd Iowa of the 14^th Division, 13^th Corps, Army of the Tennessee, headed for the town of Port Gibson and their first encounter with the Confederate troops of General Pemberton.

 

31. Wheeler, Siege of Vicksburg, p. 98.

32. Goodman, Al W. "Grant’s Mississippi Gamble." America’s Civil War Magazine. July 1994, p. 52.

33. Jones, 22^nd Iowa, pgs. 29-30.

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