done but to go FORWARD TO A DECISIVE VICTORY. This was in my mind from
the moment I took command in person at Young's Point.

The winter of 1862-3 was a noted one for continuous high water in the
Mississippi and for heavy rains along the lower river. To get dry land,
or rather land above the water, to encamp the troops upon, took many
miles of river front. We had to occupy the levees and the ground
immediately behind. This was so limited that one corps, the 17th, under
General McPherson, was at Lake Providence, seventy miles above
Vicksburg.

It was in January the troops took their position opposite Vicksburg.
The water was very high and the rains were incessant. There seemed no
possibility of a land movement before the end of March or later, and it
would not do to lie idle all this time. The effect would be
demoralizing to the troops and injurious to their health. Friends in
the North would have grown more and more discouraged, and enemies in the
same section more and more insolent in their gibes and denunciation of
the cause and those engaged in it.

I always admired the South, as bad as I thought their cause, for the
boldness with which they silenced all opposition and all croaking, by
press or by individuals, within their control. War at all times,
whether a civil war between sections of a common country or between
nations, ought to be avoided, if possible with honor. But, once entered
into, it is too much for human nature to tolerate an enemy within their
ranks to give aid and comfort to the armies of the opposing section or
nation.

Vicksburg, as stated before, is on the first high land coming to the