at I ought to obey the order,
and was giving arguments to support his position when I heard great
cheering to the right of our line, and looking in that direction,
saw Lawler, in his shirt-sleeves, leading a charge upon the enemy.
I immediately mounted my horse and rode in the direction of the
charge, and saw no more of the officer who delivered the despatch,
I think not even to this day."(1)

Here two mistakes are perhaps worth noting as curious rather than
important: Dwight was not a member of Banks's staff, and the letter
from Halleck, dated the 11th of May, which General Grant strangely
supposed to have come by way of New Orleans, was, in fact, Halleck's
telegram of that date, sent by way of Memphis, which Dwight had
picked up as he passed through Grand Gulf, after Grant had cut his
communications. Dwight's account may have taken color from his
hopes, yet the course of events gives some reason to think he may
have had warrant for his belief.

On the 19th of May Grant's first assault of Vicksburg was repulsed
with a loss of 942. Three days later he delivered his second
assault, which likewise failed, at a cost of 3,199 killed, wounded,
and missing. This drove him to the siege and put him in need of
more troops; yet when, on the 25th of May, he sat down to write to
Banks, it was with the purpose of offering to send down a force of
8,000 or 10,000 men if Banks could now provide the means of transport.
But even while Grant wrote, word came that Johnston was gathering
in his rear; and so the whole thing was one more given up, and
instead, once again he called on Banks for help; and this time he
sent down two large steamers, the _Forest Queen_ and _Moderator_,
to fetch the men. But Banks had now no men to spare; he too was
cast for a siege; he could only echo the entreaty and send back
the steamboats empty as they came. So the affair ended.

(1) "Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant," vol. I., p. 524.

CHAPTER XVII.
THE FOURTEENTH OF JUNE.

Banks at once ordered up the ammunition and the stores from the
depot at Riley's, near the headquarters of the day before, and
early on the morning of the 28th of May established his headquarters
in tents at Young's, in rear of the centre, and began his arrangements
to reduce Port Hudson by gradual approaches. At six o'clock in
the morning he sent a flag of truce to Gardner, from Augur's front
on the Plains Store road, bearing a request for a suspension of
hostilities until