CHICKASAW BAYOU or BLUFFS, Battle of, fought 29 Dec. 1862. On 8 Dec. 1862 General Grant ordered Gen. W. T. Sherman to organize at Memphis, Tenn., an expedition which in co-operation with Adm. D. D. Porter's gunboat fleet should reduce Vicksburg. On the 22d the expedition rendezvoused at Friar's Point on the Mississippi, ready to move up the Yazoo River in rear of Vicksburg. Sherman had the four divisions of Gens. F. Steele, Geo. W. Morgan, M. L. Smith and A. J. Smith, aggre gating about 30,000 men. The transports, pre ceded by the gunboats, entered Yazoo River on the 25th, and on the 26th and 27th the troops were landed on its south bank, confronting the bluffs overlooking the swamps through which ran Chickasaw Bayou. Gen. J. C. Pemberton, commanding the Confederate forces in Missis sippi, was at Grenada opposing Grant, who was moving south from Grand Junction and Cor inth on the line of the railroads. On the 21st Pemberton heard that the fleet and transports were moving down the Mississippi for the sup posed purpose of attacking Vicksburg, which at the time was held by Gen. Martin L. Smith with the brigade of Gen. S. D. Lee. Vaughn's brigade was immediately ordered to Vicksburg, and was soon followed by the brigades of Gregg and Barton. Pemberton arrived at Vicksburg on the 26th and the last of the three brigades during the night of the 27th. Pemberton dis posed his forces, under Vaughn, Gregg, Bar ton and Lee, on a line from Vicksburg on the left to Haynes' Bluff on the right, a distance of 13 miles, on high ground overlooking Chick asaw Bayou and the Yazoo River, S. D. Lee holding Walnut Hills from Vicksburg to Sny der's Mill on the right, a distance of 10 miles. Lee, a good engineer and a fine officer, strength ened his position by works for his batteries and rifle pits on the slope of the bluff, which rose about 200 feet above the Bayou. Between this position and where Sherman had landed was bottom land, almost wholly densely wooded, intersected with bayous and low, swampy ground. There were but three roads through this area, and these were obstructed by earth works and felled timber. By these Sherman advanced on the morning of the 27th, Steele on the left, Morgan on the right of Steele and M. L. Smith and A. J. Smith on the right of Morgan. There was heavy skirmishing on the 27th and 28th, the Confederate outposts were driven in, and on the night of the 28th the Union troops lay parallel to Chickasaw or Walnut Hills bluff and about 600 yards from its foot. The main assault on the bluff was to be made by Morgan, supported by Steele; while, to make a diversion in favor of Morgan, A. J. Smith, with M. L. Smith's division and one brigade of his own, was to cross a lake, a mile below Morgan, by a narrow sand-bar, and attack. On the extreme tight the rest of A. J. Smith's division was to demonstrate on the road to Vicksburg. On the morning of the 29th Morgan represented to Sherman that an attack from his position was impracticable; but Sherman, after an examination, rode off to his headquarters, whence he sent his adjutant-gen eral to Morgan with this message : "Tell Mot gan to give the signal for assault; that we will lose 5,000 men before we take Vicksburg, and may as well lose them here as anywhere else.'
Morgan replied that Sherman's entire army could not carry the position in his front, but that he would order the assault. De Courcy's brigade of Morgan's division, and the two brig ades of Blair and Thayer of Steele's, were formed for the assault. The signal was given by a heavy artillery fire upon the Confederate lines, and at 12 o'clock the three brigades went forward. By some misunderstanding Thayer's brigade, with the exception of the 4th Iowa, diverged too far to the right, but De Courcy, Blair and Thayer (with the 4th Iowa), about 6,000 men, after clearing the obstruction in front and floundering through deep mire and tangled marsh, under a terrific fire of artillery, finally made a lodgment on the hard table land at the foot of the bluff, where an aban doned line of works gave shelter, and where some of the men stopped. All formation was broken up, brigades and regiments mixed, but on went the main body, pushed up the bluff, and reached different points of Lee's works, where they were met on both flanks by such a withering fire from the rifle-pits that ran diag onally up the slope of the hill, and so severe a cross-fire of shell and canister from the bat teries, that the men faltered and, no support being in sight, fell back to the point of starting, leaving about 1,500 killed, wounded and cap tured. Lee lost 115. More to the right, where A. J. Smith was to demonstrate, the 6th Mis souri gained the levee at the foot of the bluff, but not able to go farther under the hot fire poured upon them from above, the men sought shelter by digging with hands and bayonets into the bank of the levee, where they remained un til night covered their withdrawal, after a loss of 57 killed and wounded. Sherman thought of renewing the assault in the morning, but after a personal examination, he came to the conclusion that the enemy's centre could not be broken without crippling his army beyond the power to act with any vigor afterward, and proposed to attack Haynes' Bluff, higher up the Yazoo. Preparations were made to assault at 4 o'clock on the morning of 1 Jan. 1863. Admiral Porter, who was to co-operate in this attack, found the fog so dense on the river that he could not move his boats. The attack was deferred and then abandoned, and by sunrise, 2 January, the troops were all embarked on transports and sailed for Milliken's Bend. The Union loss in the assault on Chickasaw Bluffs and in the skirmishing preceding it was 1,213 killed and wounded, and 563 missing. The Confederate loss was 177 killed and wounded, and 10 missing. Consult 'Official Records' (Vol. XVII); The Century Company's 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil War' (Vol. III); Greene, F. V., 'The Sherman's 'Memoirs' (New York IN.:),