248 The American Civil WarDavid Dixon Porter, whose father also raised David
Farragut proved to be a wonderful naval commander.
Intolerant of red tape, Porter's aggressiveness and spirit
of cooperation with the army won him lifetime friendship
with Grant and Sherman. Porter was invaluable in
the Vicksburg campaign and the fall of Fort Fisher.
(Library of Congress)
surrendered almost 30,000 Rebels and
172 artillery pieces. For the second time,
Grant had captured a Confederate army.
The fall of Vicksburg left one last
Confederate toehold on the Mississippi
River - Port Hudson, Louisiana. Located
some 25 miles (40km) north of Baton Rouge,
Port Hudson consisted of extensive
man-made works and natural obstructions,
especially swamps. Like Vicksburg. its
commander, Major-General Franklin
Gardner, hailed from the North. Gardner,
who had fought at Shiloh and in Bragg's
Kentucky campaign, had a mere 7,000 troops
to hold the position.
Against Gardner and his defenders, the
Union sent Major-General Nathanial P.
Banks and 20,000 troops, accompanied by
Farragut's warships. From 8 to 10 May,
Union gunboats shelled and ultimately
silenced the batteries. Banks maneuvered his
troops around the Confederate defenses,
taking a horseshoe-shaped position, with the
ends stretching to the riverbank. On 27 May,
Banks launched an uncoordinated assault.
Among the participants were two black
regiments, the 1st and 3rd Louisiana Native
Guards. Charging well-defended
fortifications, and part of the way through
floodwater, the black infantrymen exhibited
courage, even in the face of severe losses.
The Union attack was repulsed everywhere.
Again on 11 June and then 14 June, the
Union columns attacked and failed. Banks
resigned himself to siege, hoping to starve
out the defenders. One Confederate recorded
in his diary that he and his comrades ate 'alt
the beef - all the mules - all the Dogs - and
all the Rats' they could find.
Once word of the fall of Vicksburg
reached the Port Hudson defenders,
Gardner knew his cause was hopeless. He
surrendered on 9 July. Banks suffered
3,000 casualties in the campaign, while the
Confederates lost 7,200, of whom 5.500 were
taken prisoner. Lincoln could now announce
proudly, 'The Father of Waters again goes
unvexed to the sea.'Crisis in Missouri
The conflict in Missouri stretched back long
before the firing on Fort Sumter in April- Violence first erupted in 1854 when
Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
creating those territories, repealing the
Missouri Compromise, which stated that all
territories north of 36o 30' latitude would be
free soil, and substituting popular
sovereignty - a vote of the people there - to
determine whether slavery could exist or
not. As settlers poured into the Kansas
Territory, a Northern, antislavery flavor was
discernible. To till the balance toward
slaveholders, Missourians crossed the border
and cast ballots illegally and intimidated
antislavery voters. Antislavery Kansans
responded to violence with more violence,
and soon Kansas was aflame in brutality.
Border Ruffians from Missouri launched raids
that resulted in rapes, murders, pillaging,