Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

[125] course, was rendered one of the strongest fortified places in America. In June, 1862, after the capture of New Orleans, a combined expedition moved up the river, under Commodore Farragut and Brigadier-General Thomas Williams, who found no difficulty in making their way as far as Vicksburg, five hundred and thirty miles from the sea; there, however, they were checked. A bombardment by the naval force proving ineffectual, part of the fleet ran by the batteries. The troops did not attack the town, but were occupied for several weeks opposite Vicksburg in cutting a canal across the peninsula, formed by the bend in the stream. It was hoped by this canal to divert the waters of the Mississippi from their ordinary channel, and leave the town several miles inland. The attempt was unsuccessful; and the troops and seamen suffering greatly from heat and the diseases incident to the climate, the expedition returned to New Orleans. Since then, the rebels had strengthened the fortifications of the place, both on the land and water sides, until they finally came to believe that Vicksburg was impregnable; and so indeed it proved, to every actual assault.

When General Halleck was ordered to Washington, in July, 1862, to assume command of all the armies, he told Grant that he would prefer to remain in the Department of the Mississippi; that he had been working on a definite plan ever since he had commanded the department; that all he had done had been in pursuance of this plan, and if permitted, he. would return to fulfil it. What the plan was he did not disclose. Until after the battles of Iuka and Corinth, Grant was too constantly on the defensive, to undertake any movement of an aggressive