he signaled.  She steamed up, and to its commander the cavalry turned over the battery at Haines’s Bluff, and rejoined me in front of Vicksburg.  Allowing a couple of hours for rest and to close up the column, I resumed the march straight on Vicksburg.  About two miles before reaching the forts, the road forked; the left was the main Jackson road, and the right was the “graveyard” road, which entered Vicksburg near a large cemetery.  General Grant in person directed me to take the right-hand road, but, as McPherson had not yet got up from the direction of the railroad-bridge at Big Black, I sent the Eighth Missouri on the main Jackson road, to push the rebel skirmishers into town, and to remain until relieved by McPherson’s advance, which happened late that evening, May 18th.  The battalion of the Thirteenth United States Regulars, commanded by Captain Washington, was at the head of the column on the right-hand road, and pushed the rebels close behind their parapets; one of my staff, Captain Pitzman, receiving a dangerous wound in the hip, which apparently disabled him for life.  By night Blair’s whole division had closed up against the defenses of Vicksburg, which were found to be strong and well manned; and, on General Steele’s head of column arriving, I turned it still more to the right, with orders to work its way down the bluff, so as to make connection with our fleet in the Mississippi River.  There was a good deal of desultory fighting that evening, and a man was killed by the aide of General Grant and myself, as we sat by the road-side looking at Steele’s division passing to the right.  General Steele’s men reached the road which led from Vicksburg up to Haines’s Bluff, which road lay at the foot of the hills, and intercepted some prisoners and wagons which were coming down from Haines’s Bluff.

All that night McPherson’s troops were arriving by the main Jackson road, and McClernand’a by another near the railroad, deploying forward as fast as they struck the rebel works.  My corps (the Fifteenth) had the right of the line of investment; McPherson’s (the Seventeenth) the centre; and McClernand’s (the Thirteenth) the left, reaching from the river above to the railroad below.  Our lines connected, and invested about three-quarters of the land-front of the fortifications of Vicksburg.  On the supposition that the garrison of Vicksburg was demoralized by the defeats at Champion Hills and at the railroad crossing of the Big Black, General Grant ordered an assault at our respective fronts on the 19th.  My troops reached the top of the parapet, but could not cross over.  The rebel parapets were strongly manned, and the enemy fought hard and well.  My loss was pretty heavy, falling chiefly on the Thirteenth Regulars, whose commanding officer, Captain Washington, was killed, and several other regiments were pretty badly cut up.  We, however, held the ground up to the ditch till night, and then drew back only a short distance, and began to counter-trench.  On the graveyard road, our parapet was within less than fifty yards of the rebel ditch.