History of the Forty-Eighth Regiment M. V. M. During the Civil War

Albert Plummer

• Publisher: Library of Alexandria
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781465660411
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

If we observe then the course drained by that river and its tributaries, commencing with Missouri on its right bank and Kentucky on its left bank, we find it to consist of eight or nine large States, large portions of three or four others, and several large Territories, in all a country as large as Europe, as fine as any under the sun, holding at the commencement of the war more people than all the revolted States and destined to become one of the most populous and powerful regions on the face of the globe. If any at the opening of the war supposed that those powerful States, comprising a great and energetic population, would ever consent to a peace that would put the lower course of that great national outlet to the sea in the hands of a foreign power far weaker than themselves, they were blind indeed to the lessons of history. The people of Kentucky alone before they were constituted a State gave formal notice to the Federal Government that if the United States did not conquer Louisiana they would conquer it themselves. In the words of a distinguished citizen of that martial State: "The mouths of the Mississippi belong by the gift of God to the inhabitants of its great valley. Nothing but irresistible force can disinherit them." Akin to this was the feeling of the men of the Northwest at the outbreak of the Civil War. With them the opening of the Mississippi was an absorbing passion and they entered on that enterprise with alacrity and with a grim determination not to cease from their efforts until that great river which forms a part of the life and very existence of the West should be repossessed, and the insulted ensign of the Republic planted on the last battlements of the Rebellion. By the Summer of 1863, after many a bloody fight on the river and on the land, they had reached Vicksburg, and Grant had drawn his lines of investment around that stronghold. Meantime their brethren of the East had ascended the river from its mouth and had taken possession of all the rebel defences on the lower Mississippi. Subsequently Farragut, being away on the Gulf coast, the rebels seized the opportunity to fortify and garrison Port Hudson, in Louisiana. There remained then at the opening of the Summer of '63 these two strongholds, Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the retention of which was necessary to the Confederates if they would maintain their hold on the Mississippi. Both parties to the struggle realized the importance of these positions. Jefferson Davis, while on a visit to Mississippi to inspect the defences of Vicksburg, spoke as follows in a speech at Jackson before the Mississippi Legislature: "Vicksburg and Port Hudson are the real points of attack. Every effort will be made to capture these places with the object of forcing the navigation of the Mississippi and severing the eastern from the western portion of the Confederacy. Let all then who have at heart the welfare and safety of the country go without delay to Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Let them go for thirty or sixty or ninety days. Let them assist in preserving the Mississippi River, that great artery of our country, and thus conduce more than in any other way to the perpetuation of the Confederacy and the success of our cause."

Table of contents

• HISTORY OF THE FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT M. V. M. DURING THE CIVIL WAR