ut such
assistance. The most perfect harmony reigned between the two arms
of the Service. There never was a request made, that I am aware
of, either of the Flag-Officer or any of his subordinates, that
was not promptly complied with." And what is true of Porter is at
least as true of Farragut, who was the greater man and the senior
of every one afloat.

Grant could take Vicksburg only by reaching good ground, and the
only good ground was below and in rear of the fortress. There was no
foothold for his army on the east bank of the Mississippi anywhere
between Memphis and Vicksburg. This meant that he must either start
afresh from Memphis and try again to push overland by rail or cross
the swampy peninsula in front of him and circle round his enemy. A
retirement on Memphis, no matter how wise, would look like another
great Union defeat and consequently lower a public morale which,
depressed enough by Fredericksburg, was being kept down by the
constant naval reverses that opened '63. Circling the front was
therefore very much to be preferred from the political point of view.
On the other hand, it was beset by many alarming difficulties; for it
meant starting from the flooded Mississippi and working through the
waterlogged lowlands, across the peninsula, till a foothold could be
seized on the eastern bank below Vicksburg. Moreover, this circling
attack, though feasible, might depress the morale of the troops by
the way. Burnside's disastrous "Mud March" through the January
sloughs of Virginia, made in the vain hope of outflanking Lee, had
lowered the morale of the army almost as much as Fredericksburg
itself had lowered the morale of the people.

Through the depth of winter the army toiled "in ineffectual efforts,"
says Grant, "to reach high land above Vicksburg from which we could
operate against that stronghold, and in making artificial waterways
through which a fleet might pass, avoiding the batteries to the
south of the town, in case the other efforts should fail." A wetter
winter had never been known. The whole complicated network of bends
and bayous, of creeks, streams, runs, and tributary rivers, was
overflowing the few slimy trails through the spongy forest and
threatening the neglected levees which still held back the encroaching
waters. There was nothing to do, however, but to keep the men busy
and the enemy confused by trying first one line and then another
for two weary months. By April, writes Grant, "the wa