e the stillness of the
morning, and gave them time to make ready. Such was their extremity
that in Grover's front they burned their last caps in repelling
the final assault, and, for the time, were able to replenish only
from the pouches of the fallen.

Under cover of night all the wounded that were able to walk or
crawl made their way to places of safety in the rear; while,
disregarding the incessant fire of the sharp-shooters, heavy details
and volunteer parties of stretcher-bearers, plying their melancholy
trade, carried the wounded with gentle care to the hospitals and
the dead swiftly to the long trenches. The proportion of killed
and mortally wounded, already unusually heavy, was increased by
the exposure and privations of the long day, while many, whom it
was impossible to find or reach during the night, succumbed sooner
or later during the next forty-eight hours. For although when, on
the morning of the 15th, Banks sent a flag of truce asking leave
to send in medical and hospital supplies for the comfort of the
wounded of both armies, Gardner promptly assented, and in his reply
called attention to the condition of the dead and wounded before
the breastworks, yet it was not until the evening of the 16th that
Banks could bring himself to ask for a suspension of hostilities
for the relief of the suffering and the burial of the slain. But
three days and two nights had already passed; most of the hurt,
and these the most grievously, were already beyond the need of
succor. The same thing had already occurred at Vicksburg.

The operations at Vicksburg and Port Hudson were so far alike in
their character and objects that no just estimate of the events at
either place can well be formed without considering what happened
at the other. In this view it is instructive to observe that Grant
assaulted the Confederate position at Vicksburg within a few hours
after the arrival of his troops in front of the place, on the
afternoon of the 19th of May, when two determined attacks were
easily thrown off by the defenders, with a loss to their assailants
of 942 men. On the 22d of May Grant delivered the second assault,
in which about three fourths of his whole effective force of 43,000
of all arms were engaged. The full corps of Sherman and McPherson,
comprising six divisions, were repulsed by four brigades of the
garrison, numbering probably 13,000 effectives. In this second
assault Grant's loss was 3,199. These are the