The natural way to invest and capture so strong a place, defended
and fortified as Vicksburg was, would have been, if the axioms of
the art of war had been adhered to, by a system of gradual
approaches. A strong base should have been established at
Memphis, and then the army and the fleet moved gradually forward,
building storehouses and taking strong positions as they went. To
do this, however, it first would have been necessary to withdraw
the army from the positions it then held not far above Vicksburg,
on the western bank of the river. But such a movement, at that
time, would not have been understood by the country, and would
have had a discouraging effect on the public mind, which it was
most essential to avoid. The elections of 1862 had gone against
the government, and there was great discouragement throughout the
North. Voluntary enlistments had fallen off, a draft had been
ordered, and the peace party was apparently gaining rapidly in
strength. General Grant, looking at this grave political
situation with the eye of a statesman, decided, as a soldier,
that under no circumstances would he withdraw the army, but that,
whatever happened, he would "press forward to a decisive
victory." In this determination he never faltered, but drove
straight at his object until, five months later, the great
Mississippi stronghold fell before him.

Efforts were made through the winter to reach Vicksburg from the
north by cutting canals, and by attempts to get in through the
bayous and tributary streams of the great river. All these
expedients failed, however, one after another, as Grant, from the
beginning, had feared that they would. He, therefore, took
another and widely different line, and determined to cross the
river from the western to the eastern bank below Vicksburg, to