Under Siege! Read Online Free Page B

his father died, and other family members added the first name “William,” feeling the child needed something more suitable. Sherman had been at West Point with Grant, and they had served in the Mexican War together. Their friendship was strong. They knew they could trust and rely on each other.
    About the time Fred joined his father on the Mississippi, Grant was explaining to Sherman and his other officers his newest plan to take Vicksburg. Though it involved a long route to reach the town, after Grant’s previous disasters it seemed the best way to actually get there.
    But it was complicated. The army was currently in Louisiana, across the river and north of Vicksburg, so the first step would be to march the men south along the Louisiana shore—a slow, arduous task through difficult, often flooded terrain—to a point below Vicksburg.

    Admiral David Porter, commander of the navy’s Mississippi River squadron, had a reputation/or acting alone, but he worked well in partnership with Grant.
    Then navy ships, currently on the river north of the city with Grant, would make a run southward to try to get past Vicksburg’s guns. If the run past the batteries was successful, the ships would then transport the Union army, which would be waiting on the Louisiana shore, across the river and into Mississippi. Rather than try to fight through the swamps that protected Vicksburg to the south, Grant would march the men east to the state capital of Jackson, and then follow the Jackson road west back to Vicksburg. As the army surrounded and attacked the city, the Union navy would bombard it from the river. Once that happened, Grant was confident he could force Vicksburg’s surrender within a day.
    Grant’s officers were skeptical. Though Sherman privately feared failure, he agreed to go along with the plan. Navy admiral David Dixon Porter, whose ironclads would take the brunt of fire if the fleet was discovered while trying to pass Vicksburg, viewed the plan with reluctance, but like Sherman, he trusted Grant. His ships would be ready.
    As for Fred, he had no doubts.
This
plan was going to work!

    I N THE WEEKS THAT FOLLOWED , the army marched southward along the Louisiana shore, sometimes struggling through muck and bogs, until the men were finally south of Vicksburg. The next step was for the navy to transport them across the river and into the state of Mississippi. It was time to try to get the entire fleet, including the ship that served as Grant’s headquarters, downriver beyond Vicksburg.
    Grant was confident they could do it. He selected April 16 as the night for this venture. With luck, clouds would cover the moon, and, as the ships floated downriver in the darkness, the Confederates would never be the wiser. Fred planned to be standing right on deck with his father when they silently glided past Vicksburg.
    During the day of April 16, as sailors busily prepared each boat for that night’s run, Julia Grant arrived with her younger three children for a visit. She had managed to get a ride down the river from Memphis, where the family was staying, and had brought Ulysses Jr., who was ten, Nellie, seven, and little Jesse, just five, to visit their older brother and their father. Grant was pleased to see them. No sooner had they arrived than Fred heard his mother offering his father suggestions on how to take Vicksburg. Julia Grant recalled that, in response to her unsolicited advice, “the General was greatly amused and inquired if I, too, had a plan of action to propose. Of course I had.”
    While she was explaining it, Grant’s eyes twinkled. Then he said, “Mrs. Grant, I will move upon Vicksburg and will take it, too. You needgive yourself no further trouble … I am glad you arrived in time to witness the running of the blockade.” He explained how that night the Union ships would “drop silently down the river as far as possible and then put on all steam and go flying past Vicksburg and its batteries to where I want