The 93rd Indiana Infantry in the Civil War: Vicksburg & Jackson

 John Wesley Ringo (1832-1875)

 

May 14, 1863 ‒ Battle of Jackson, Mississippi ‒ Gallant charge of the 17th Iowa, 80th Ohio and 10th Missouri, supported by the first and third brigades of the seventh division / sketched by A.E. Mathews, 31st Reg., O.V.I. (Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

 

 

HISTORICAL NOTE 

The name Mathew B. Brady usually brings Civil War photography to mind. However, the sketch artists employed by publications, such as Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, left an amazing collection of Civil War art. Using paper, pencils, brushes, and watercolor, their detailed images depict the struggles, violence, and everyday lives of Civil War soldiers.

 

NOV 1862 – JUL 1863

BEGINNINGS OF THE 93^RD REGIMENT INDIANA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY

Nov 1862 ‒ Mar 1863

Organization of John Ringo’s future regiment, the 93^rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry, was completed on October 31, 1862, at Camp Emerson near the town of Madison in southern Indiana. On Nov 9, under the command of Colonel DeWitt C. Thomas, the regiment departed Madison for Cairo, IL, traveling by rail. Once there, the new recruits embarked on a steamer and sailed down the Mississippi River to Memphis, TN.

After arriving in Memphis in mid-November 1862, the 93^rd IN was assigned to a brigade commanded by Colonel (later General) Ralph P. Buckland, after which it was attached to Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s XV Army Corps. 

 

Under Sherman, the corps participated in the Tallahatchie March through central Mississippi in December. In the spring, the 93^rd IN was deployed to guard the railroad near Memphis and, by the end of March, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered Sherman to Duckport, LA where the XV Corps became part of Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. (History of the 93^rd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry)

 

Embarkation of General McClernand's Brigade at Cairo - the Advance of the Great Mississippi Expedition - January 10, 1862, a wood engraving from a sketch by Alexander Simplot, published in Harper's Weekly, February 1, 1862. (Wikimedia Commons)

Structure and Command of the Army of the Tennessee 

(John Ringo was in 93rd Regiment Indiana Infantry Company B.)

  

Keep in mind that the number of men in any unit could vary widely as a result of losses due to sickness, desertion, and men who were captured, wounded, or killed in battle. Sometimes a regiment had as few as 400-500 men instead of the full complement of 1,000. As the war progressed, commanders' ranks could also vary from what is in the chart.

 

(National Park Service and History of the 93^rd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry)

 

             *    The four major armies were the Army of the Tennessee, Army of the Ohio, Army of the          

                 Potomac, and the Army of the Cumberland. 

  ** The XV Army Corps was composed of the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd divisions, commanded by 

      Major Generals Frederick Steele, Frank P. Blair and James M. Tuttle, respectively. 

 

 

INTO THE FIRE ‒ THE 93^RD INDIANA IN GRANT’S VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN  

Mar – Jul 1863

 

From late March to mid-April 1863, General Grant made preparations to attack the fortress that was Vicksburg, Mississippi. He hoped to keep losses to a minimum by having a series of canals built so Vicksburg could be attacked without troops being directly in the line of Confederate gunfire. The XV Army Corps was among those employed to dig a canal as part of the extensive Bayou Expeditions. 

 

Digging the canals was a monumental task. Soldiers worked in sticky mud deep enough to go over the tops of their shoes. And it rained – a lot. The men worked while standing in water, sometimes waist deep; morale was low and disease was rampant. Then the water level fell so much it was obvious ships wouldn’t be able to traverse the seven-mile-long canal. After being beset by problems and delays, Grant abandoned his efforts and initiated a bold new strategy for taking control of Vicksburg. 

 

The head of the canal, opposite Vicksburg, Miss., now being cut by Command of Gen. Grant / from a sketch by our special artist, Henri Lovie. Illustration from Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, March 28, 1863. (LOC)

 

General Grant's new plan − to attack Vicksburg by land from the east – meant his army would have to march over forty miles south of the city to cross the Mississippi River. It was going to be difficult. The first step was to get Navy steamships past Vicksburg so they could be used to transport Grant’s Army of the Tennessee across the river and into Confederate territory in Mississippi.

Vicksburg was well-positioned on high bluffs overlooking a horseshoe-shaped bend in the river. Union ships that tried to pass its heavy fortifications had to run the gauntlet. In a daring run on the night of April 16-17, Admiral David Dixon Porter used a small fleet of ironclads and ingenious defenses to successfully break through the Confederate blockade at Vicksburg. Incredibly, Porter lost only one ship and sustained no casualties.

 

Admiral Porter's Fleet Running the Rebel Blockade of the Mississippi at Vicksburg, April 16th, 1863 by Currier & Ives. (Wikimedia Commons)

CAPTION

At half past ten P.M. the boats left their moorings & steamed down the river, the Benton, Admiral Porter, taking the lead_as they approached the point opposite the town, a terrible concentrated fire of the centre, upper and lower batteries, both water and bluff, was directed upon the channel, which here ran within one hundred yards of the shore. At the same moment innumerable floats of turpentine and other combustible materials were set ablaze. In the face of all this fire, the boats made their way with but little loss except the transport Henry Clay which was set on fire & sunk.

 

Left: General Ulysses S. Grant at his headquarters in Cold Harbor, Virginia., 1864. Cropped. (Library of Congress)  Right: Admiral David D. Porter, on deck of Flagship. (Hampton Roads, Dec. ‘64) Cropped. (Library of Congress)

 

GRANT’S ARMY PUSHES ON TO VICKSBURG

Apr 18 – May 17, 1863  

Over the next two weeks, Major Generals James McPherson, commanding Grant’s XVII Army Corps, and John McClernand, commander of the XIII Army Corps, marched their troops down the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River, crossing it at Bruinsburg on April 30-May 1 via Navy transport ships. The 17,000-troop landing was “the largest amphibious operation in American military history until the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II.” (National Park Service) A week later, Sherman’s XV Army Corps, which had been creating a diversion north of Vicksburg to draw Confederate troops away from Grant and Porter, crossed the Mississippi at Grand Gulf and began its march toward the target – the railroad line between Vicksburg and Jackson. 

The Army of the Tennessee marched in three columns some distance apart. It was force of nearly 40,000 troops – destroying the railroad to cripple Confederate supply lines and give Grant an advantage as he moved on to the ultimate target – Vicksburg. However, Grant changed his plan when he learned Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s army was heading for the state capital of Jackson. To keep his own army from being trapped between two Confederate forces – Johnston on the east and General John C. Pemberton from Vicksburg on the west – Grant turned away from the railroad and continued east toward Jackson. Johnston had to be stopped.  

 

 

Left: Portrait of Major General William T. Sherman, officer of the Federal Army by Mathew Brady. (Library of Congress) 

Right: Portrait of Major General James B. McPherson, officer of the Federal Army by Mathew Brady. (Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

  

 

This excerpt from The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant describes conditions on the march from Bruinsburg to Jackson:

                   

I notified General Halleck that I should attack the State capital on the 14^th. A courier carried the dispatch to Grand Gulf through an unprotected country.

 

        Sherman and McPherson communicated with each other during the night and arranged to 

        reach Jackson at about the same hour. It rained in torrents during the night of the 13^th and

        the fore part of the day of the 14^th. The roads were intolerable, and in some places on

        Sherman’s line, where the land was low, they were covered more than a foot deep with 

        water. But the troops never murmured.

 

The map below tracks the movement of Grant’s Army of the Tennessee from Louisiana to Vicksburg.

 

Grant’s Operations against Vicksburg, April-Jul 1863. (Wikimedia Commons. Map by Hal Jespersen, www.CWmaps.com)

The 93^rd IN had its first engagement, an artillery duel, just before entering Jackson on May 14. Three members of the regiment were killed, seven were wounded. The troops spent the next day-and-a-half destroying part of the railroad line, effectively cutting off Confederate supply lines to Vicksburg. The XIII and XVII Corps departed for Vicksburg early on the morning of the 16^th; a few hours out, they engaged Confederate forces at the Battle of Champion Hill. Sherman’s corps departed the Jackson area on the afternoon of the 16^th after inflicting more damage on the railroad.

 

VICKSBURG

May 18–22, 1863

The journey to Vicksburg was long and arduous. The soldiers marched through Louisiana for a month. Then, in only 18 days, they marched nearly 200 miles east across Mississippi to Jackson, and back to the west toward Vicksburg. The troops endured torrential rains, muddy roads, insects, heat, and humidity. And they fought five battles on the way – Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River Bridge; losses had been heavy and the men were exhausted.

As Union troops approached Vicksburg, intimidating bluffs loomed in the distance, some over 200 feet high. They wound around the city for nearly seven miles, their steep faces gouged with ravines and gullies. Vicksburg was called the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy” for good reason. In addition to its formidable topographical features, the Confederate position was well-fortified. 

 

The height and steep incline of the bluffs, combined with a total of nine earthen forts, redoubts, and redans ringing the top, could be used to repulse attackers. Rifle pits toward the top and sharpened sticks that jutted out of the ground farther down the slope made it even more difficult to assault the city. To the tired soldiers in the Army of the Tennessee, Vicksburg must have seemed an impossible challenge.

 

Sherman’s XV Army Corps reached its position in the rear of Vicksburg on May 18. The morning of the 19th, Grant ordered Sherman to make the first assault on the Confederates' rear defenses. The 93^rd IN in Buckland’s brigade was in the thick of it. After many hours and high casualties, Sherman withdrew; a similar assault with all three corps met the same fate on the 22nd. Grant decided his only choice was to lay siege to Vicksburg.

 

Siege of Vicksburg  – Attack on the Confederate Works, May 22d, 1863. (Internet Archive)

 CAPTION 

Our sketch represents the terrible but fruitless assault made on Pemberton’s last line of defense around the city of  Vicksburg. On May 22d, 1863, a tremendous assault was made on the grass-covered fortifications held by the Confederate army. These works consisted of a chain of forts about eight hundred yards apart, connected by deep intrenchments and extending for seven miles . . . The Confederates used for almost the first time hand grenades, which they rolled down the sides of the works on the assaulting party in the ditch or clinging to the side. This dreadful day swept away thousands of gallant Federals. The siege now began in earnest. No army could stand such losses. Closer were the lines drawn around the enemy. Siege guns were mounted. The mines began their work and the fortifications were assailed from beneath.

 

Assaults on Vicksburg, May 22, 1863. (Wikimedia Commons. Map by Hal Jespersen, http://www.posix.com/CWmaps/)

Assaults on Vicksburg, May 22, 1863. Cropped.

 

 

THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG  

May 23 – Jul 4, 1863

During the 47-day siege on Vicksburg, soldiers and civilians were subjected to the sounds of gunfire, shelling, explosions, and shouting both day and night. Residents of the city took refuge in caves dug into the bluffs to stay safe and get some relief from the constant noise of the battle. And because Grant had cut off Confederate supply lines, soldiers and civilians were slowly starving.

In the meantime, Union soldiers were unable to get close enough to effectively attack Confederate rifle pits and trenches from above, so sappers [combat engineers] tunneled their way under the enemy fortifications.

Shirley's House, also known as the White House, during the siege of Vicksburg, 1863. Union troops of Logan's division set about as engineers and sappers to undermine Confederate fortifications but they had to stay under cover for fear of Confederate sharpshooters. (Wikimedia Commons)

 

Siege of Vicksburg – Life in the trenches – Bivouac of Leggett's Brigade, McPherson's Corps, at the White House. (Internet Archive)

 

CAPTION

Our illustration shows the life led by the besieging troops. The deep ravine is studded with the rude huts, or quarters, burrowed in the earth. Here, at the White House, well riddled with Confederate shell were bivouacked Leggett’s brigade of McPherson’s Seventeenth Army Corps. To the left of the house an opening in the bank shows the entrance to the covered way by which the Confederate works were approached.

On June 15, 1863, General Grant wrote to Colonel George G. Pride, his volunteer aide-de-camp:

 

  We have our trenches pulled up so close to the enemy that we can throw hand grenades 

  over into their forts. The enemy do not dare show their heads above the parapet at any 

  time, so close and so watchful are our sharpshooters. The town is completely invested.

  My position is so strong that I feel myself abundantly able to leave it so and go out twenty 

  or thirty miles with force enough to whip two such garrisons. (Wikipedia)

 

In Vicksburg, the Confederates’ situation became more dire. Both sides were experiencing losses, but the lack of food and adequate medical care caused additional Confederate losses due to sickness and disease. The situation was so severe that on July 2 General Pemberton received a note which said in part, “If you can’t feed us, then you had better surrender us, horrible as the idea is, than suffer this noble army to disgrace themselves by desertion.” It was signed, “Many Soldiers.” (National Park Foundation) On July 4, General John C. Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to General Ulysses S. Grant.                                                                                                                                                                   

 

 

   Left: General John C. Pemberton

   (Wikimedia Commons)

 

   Right: General Joseph E. Johnston

   (Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

 

 

• The Vicksburg Campaign was costly. From March 29-July 4, over 10,000 out of 77,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded; the Confederates lost 9,100 out of 33,000 soldiers.

• The siege of Vicksburg alone saw 766 Union soldiers killed, 3,793 wounded, and 276 captured/missing.
  

• The Confederates had 3,202 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing, with 29,495 soldiers surrendering on July 4. (Wikipedia)

 

 

THE JACKSON EXPEDITION & SIEGE OF JACKSON  

Jul 5-25, 1863

 

General Grant’s task force, led by Sherman, left Vicksburg for Jackson on June 22, thirty-five days into the siege. Sherman’s orders were to destroy military installations in Jackson and complete the destruction of the railroads around the city to end any possible relief effort for Pemberton by Johnston.

The 93^rd IN moved east toward Big Black River as part of a force of over 40,000, consisting of the XV, XIII, and IX Corps, while General Johnston’s forces, numbering 30,000, were positioning themselves near the river. Upon learning that General Pemberton had surrendered Vicksburg, Sherman made his move toward Johnston on July 5; Johnston quickly withdrew and headed to Jackson with Sherman in close pursuit.

 

When Sherman arrived in Jackson, the Confederates were already firmly entrenched. Sherman, not wanting to repeat the failures of the two frontal assaults at Vicksburg, encircled the city in preparation for a siege. The two sides battled from July 10-16; on the morning of July 17, Union forces discovered Johnston had evacuated the city during the night.

Map of the Siege of Jackson, Miss, 9. - 17. July 1863. (Wikimedia Commons) My purple dots mark Sherman’s headquarters and General Tuttle's Division, which includes the 93rd Regiment Indiana Infantry.

The 93^rd IN remained in Jackson until the 25^th to finish destroying railroad, after which it encamped near Markham Plantation, about three miles from Messenger Ford on Big Black River. Federal occupation of the capital city ended any future threat against Vicksburg, ensuring that the Mississippi River would remain open to move northern troops and supplies.        

 

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DIG A LITTLE DEEPER

 

• The post, A Union Soldier in Grant’s Army of the Tennessee, describes John Ringo’s  experiences in the 93rd Indiana Infantry during the Civil War.

• History of the 93rd Regiment - Indiana Volunteer Infantry is a transcription of the log of the regiment's commanding officer, Colonel Dewitt C. Thomas. The original is written in his own hand and housed at the Indiana State Office Building.
  

•  A Hoosier’s View of Champion Hill is a firsthand account of the Battle of Champion Hill, written by Captain Francis M. Redburn, commander of Company K of the 24th IN.

• The Engineers at Vicksburg, Part 18: Bridging the Big Black River illustrates the ingenuity of engineers in the Civil War as they built pontoon bridges, corduroy roads, and more to keep the armies moving past the obstacles they encountered.
  

• Published in 1906, Joseph Crowell’s book, The Young Volunteer; the everyday experiences of a soldier boy in the Civil War, chronicles Crowell's experiences in the 13^th Regiment, New Jersey Infantry. It’s alternately informative, entertaining, gruesome, humorous, and heartbreaking. Read it on Internet Archive (free) – the link goes to the title page.
  

• Armies in the American Civil War has a wealth of information on what is involved to keep an army moving, fed, and able to engage in battle.

• A quick summary of Civil War facts from the National Park Service can be found here.

• Frank Leslie’s Illustrated History of the Civil War, published by his wife in 1895, depicts the Civil War using the work of sketch artists and descriptive captions. It's searchable and most easily viewed in full-screen mode.

Howell-Richards Family History – November 2021