Decisive battles since Waterloo - the most important military events from 1815 to 1887 (1900) (14801439653)

Identifier: decisivebattless00knox (find matches)
Title: Decisive battles since Waterloo : the most important military events from 1815 to 1887
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Knox, Thomas Wallace, 1835-1896
Subjects: Monitor (Ironclad) Battles Military history Military art and science Naval battles Naval history Naval art and science Hampton Roads, Battle of, Va., 1862
Publisher: New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons New Rochelle, N.Y. : Knickerbocker Press
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: State of Indiana through the Indiana State Library



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line of the Tallahatchie and fall back to Grenada, andas soon as he had done so the Union line was advancedthrough Holly Springs to Oxford, where head-quarterswere established on the 3d December. Grant proceeded to accumulate large quantities ofstores and munitions of war at Holly Springs preparatoryto another advance. Realizing the danger of a long lineof railway through an enemys country, he decided tomake an attempt to establish a position in the rear ofVicksburg, which would enable him to cut loose from hisline of railway and advance, en Fair, until he could con-nect with the new base and thus have a secure positionfrom which to prosecute the siege of Vicksburg. Toestablish this base he ordered the corps which formed hisright wing to be embarked on transports and convoyed bythe gun-boat fleet to the mouth of the Yazoo River afew miles above Vicksburg. Ascending the river someten or twelve miles, it was to land and occupy HainesBluff, a commanding position in the rear of the city.
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266 DECISIVE BATTLES SINCE WATERLOO. The fleet of gun-boats and transports started from Mem-phis on the 20th December, and on the 26th the troopsdebarked on the south bank of the Yazoo River near themouth of Chickasaw Bayou. The whole day was con-sumed in landing, and on the 27th the Confederate lineswere attacked. That day and the next passed in skirm-ishes and small encounters of no great consequence. Buton the 29th an assault was made on the Confederateworks, in which there was heavy loss of life with no ad-vantage to the Union side. The charge up the hillsidesseamed with rifle pits, covered with abatis, and raked byartillery and small arms, was most heroic ; it was per-formed by the division of General Morgan, reinforced bythe brigades of Generals Blair and Thayer from Steelesdivision. General Thayers brigade reached the edge ofthe Confederate entrenchments side by side with that ofGeneral Blair, but the fire was so furious that it could notbe met, and the storming party was drive