mander now transferred his base of supplies to the Yazoo
River, which runs into the Mississippi a few miles above Vicksburg.
After an unsuccessful assault upon the city's strong intrenchments, he
sat down to a deliberate siege. Twelve miles of trenches were
constructed. Eighty-nine batteries, with more than 200 guns, day after
day rained shot and shell against the Vicksburg fortifications. The
lines of investment crept nearer and nearer the fated city. The pickets
chaffed with each other, and exchanged tobacco and newspapers. June
25th, a mine was exploded under one of the Vicksburg parapets, but it
made no effectual breach. A second explosion, July 1st, was equally
unavailing. Johnston kept menacing the rear, but feared to attack, as
Grant had been re-enforced to 60,000.

Famine began to threaten the city, Porter's fleet blockading the water
front. Flour sold for $1,000 a barrel in Confederate money. Mule flesh
became the chief meat. Rats were hung up for sale in the market. The
inhabitants sought protection from the shells in cellars and caves.
Cave-digging became a regular business. The Vicksburg daily news sheet
was now printed on wall paper. July 3d. white flags appeared upon the
city's works. An armistice followed, and the next day Pemberton
surrendered. The prisoners, some 30,000 in number, were mostly released
on parole. With the fall of Vicksburg the western campaigns virtually
closed. The capture of Port Hudson, below, was assured from that moment,
and followed on July 8th. The "Father of Waters" once more rolled
"unvexed to the sea," and the Confederacy was cut in twain.

CHAPTER VI.

THE WAR IN THE CENTRE

[1863]

We have seen that the fall of Donelson had driven the Confederates out
of Kentucky. In the following September, 1862, Bragg invaded the State
from Tennessee with 40,000 men. Buell hurried north from Nashville, and
after an exciting race headed him off from Louisville. Bragg slowly fell
back, first east, then south. Kentucky was rich in food and clothing,
and his army plundered freely, coming out, it was boasted, with a
wagon-train forty miles long. At Perryville Bragg turned upon Buell
fiercely. An indecisive battle was fought, October 8, 1862, which gave
the richly loaded wagon-train time to escape into Tennessee, whither
Bragg followed.

The Christmas holidays of 1862 found the Confederate host at
Murfreesboro, Tenn., thirty miles southeast of Nashville, where the
Union army lay. Ro