war. If General Pemberton had been successful, that success would seem
to have portended the end of Grant's military career. But a different
fate was reserved for the combatants. Grant's army was strong, and had
become seasoned by hardship into the veteran condition. His under
officers--Logan, McPherson, Hovey, McClernand and A.J. Smith--were in
full spirit of battle. The engagement was severely contested. The
Union army, actually engaged, numbered 15,000, and Pemberton's forces
were about equal in number; but the latter were disastrously defeated.
The losses were excessive in proportion to the numbers engaged.

The Confederates now fell back to Big Black river. Their line of
communication with Jackson was cut. A second battle was fought at Big
Black River, and then, on the eighteenth of May, the victorious Union
army surrounded Vicksburg, and the siege was begun. The siege lasted
forty-seven days, and was marked by heroic resistance on the one side
and heroic pertinacity on the other, to the degree of making it one of
the memorable events in the military annals of the world. Gradually
the Union lines were narrowed around the doomed town. Ever nearer and
nearer the lines of riflepits were drawn. Day by day the resources of
the Confederates were reduced. But their defences were strong, and
their courage for a long time unabated.

General Pemberton hoped and expected that an attack on Grant's rear
would be made in such force as to loosen his grip, and to enable
the besieged to rise against the besiegers and break through. The
Confederates, however, had not sufficient forces for such an
enterprise. General Lee, in the East, had now undertaken the
campaign of Gettysburg, and the Confederacy was already strained
in every nerve. General Grant had the way open for supplies and
re-enforcements. The siege was pressed with the utmost vigor, and