rd was it to
find enough firm ground. The first important move was made when, in
Grant's own words, "the entire Army of the Tennessee was transferred
to the neighborhood of Vicksburg and landed on the opposite or
western bank of the river at Milliken's Bend."

Grant, everywhere in touch with Admiral D. D. Porter's fleet and
plentifully supplied with water transport of all kinds, thus commanded
the peninsula or tongue of low land round which the mighty river took
its course in the form of an elongated U right opposite Vicksburg.
His farthest north base was still at Cairo; and the whole line of
the Mississippi above him was effectively held by Union forces
afloat and ashore. Four hundred miles south lay Farragut and Banks,
preparing for an attack on Port Hudson and intent on making junction
with the Union forces above.

Two bad generals stood very much in Grant's way, one on either
side of him in rank--McClernand, his own second-in-command, and
Banks, his only senior in the Mississippi area. McClernand presently
found rope enough to hang himself. Our old friend Banks, who had
not yet learnt the elements of war, though schooled by Stonewall
Jackson, never got beyond Port Hudson, and so could not spoil Grant's
command in addition to his own. Fortunately, besides Sherman and
other professional soldiers of quite exceptional ability, Grant had
three of the best generals who ever came from civil life: Logan,
Blair, and Crocker. Logan shed all the vices, while keeping all
the virtues, of the lawyer when he took up arms. Blair knew how
to be one man as an ambitious politician and another as a general
in the field. Crocker was in consumption, but determined to die in
his boots and do his military best for the Union service first.
The personnel of the army was mostly excellent all through. The
men were both hardy and handy as a rule, being to a large extent
farmers, teamsters, railroad and steamboat men, well fitted to meet
the emergencies of the severe and intricate Vicksburg campaign.

Throughout this campaign the army and navy of the Union worked
together as a single amphibious force. Grant's own words are no
mere compliment, but the sober statement of a fact. "The navy, under
Porter, was all it could be during the entire campaign. Without
its assistance the campaign could not have been successfully made
with twice the number of men engaged. It could not have been made
at all, in the way it was, with any number of men, witho