een hundred yards after leaving the
river on the south, the bluff is broken into irregular ridges and
deep ravines, with narrow plateaus; thence for two thousand yards
the lines crossed the broad cotton fields of Gibbons's and of
Slaughter's plantations; beyond these for four hundred yards they
were carried over difficult gullies; beyond these again for fourteen
hundred yards their course lay through fields and over hilly ground
to the ravine at the bottom of which runs Sandy Creek. Here, on
the day of the investment, the line of Confederate earthworks
stopped, the country lying toward the northeast being considered
so difficult that no attack was looked for in that quarter. Sandy
Creek finds its way into the marshy bottom of Foster's Creek, and
from Sandy Creek, where the earthworks ended, to the river at the
mouth of Foster's Creek, is about twenty-five hundred yards. Save
where the axe had been busy, nearly the whole country was covered
with a heavy growth of magnolia trees of great size and beauty.
This was a line that, for its complete defence against a regular
siege, conducted according to the strict principles of military
science, as laid down in the books, should have had a force of
fifteen thousand men. At the end of March the garrison consisted
of 1,366 officers, 14,921 men of all arms present for duty, making
a total of 16,287. The main body was organized in 5 brigades,
commanded by Beall, Buford, Gregg, Maxey, and Rust. The fortifications
on the river front mounted 22 heavy guns, from 10-inch columbiads
down to 24-pounder siege guns, manned by 3 battalions of heavy
artillerists, while 13 light batteries, probably numbering 78
pieces, were available for the defence of all the lines: of these
batteries only 5 were now left, with 30 guns.

When, early in May, Pemberton began to feel the weight of Grant's
pressure, he called on Gardner for reinforcements; thus Rust and
Buford marched to the relief of Vicksburg on the 4th of May, Gregg
followed on the 5th, and Maxey on the 8th. Miles was to have
followed Maxey; in fact the preparations and orders had been given
for the evacuation of Port Hudson; but now the same uncertainty
and vacillation on the part of the Confederate chiefs that were to
seal the doom of Vicksburg began to be felt at Port Hudson. Gardner,
who had moved out with Maxey, had hardly arrived at Clinton when
he was met by an order from Pemberton to return to Port Hudson with
a few thousand