When we reached the James River, however,
all effects of the battle of Cold Harbor seemed to have disappeared.
There was more justification for the assault at Vicksburg. We were in a
Southern climate, at the beginning of the hot season. The Army of the
Tennessee had won five successive victories over the garrison of
Vicksburg in the three preceding weeks. They had driven a portion of
that army from Port Gibson with considerable loss, after having flanked
them out of their stronghold at Grand Gulf. They had attacked another
portion of the same army at Raymond, more than fifty miles farther in
the interior of the State, and driven them back into Jackson with great
loss in killed, wounded, captured and missing, besides loss of large and
small arms: they had captured the capital of the State of Mississippi,
with a large amount of materials of war and manufactures. Only a few
days before, they had beaten the enemy then penned up in the town first
at Champion's Hill, next at Big Black River Bridge, inflicting upon him
a loss of fifteen thousand or more men (including those cut off from
returning) besides large losses in arms and ammunition. The Army of the
Tennessee had come to believe that they could beat their antagonist
under any circumstances. There was no telling how long a regular siege
might last.
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