to march my troops westwardly from the base line of operations.[1]
It was then, I repeat, at this critical period, while General Johnston was manœuvering with both General Grant and Lieutenant-General Pemberton, and apparently at a notable disadvantage, with the odds much against him, that the enemy's cavalry disclosed new signs of life along the northern Mississippi border, and made constantly recurring incursions within the then Confederate lines, with the apparent intent of impeding the concentration of Confederate troops in any attempt to relieve Vicksburg.
During this period, after having repelled the enemy along my northern line of defence, not having sufficient force to reciprocate the courtesy of the enemy's attempted invasion, and while indulging in the strategy of "masterly inactivity," one of my spies informed me, on or about the 22d day of June, that General Pemberton would "surrender Vicksburg on the 4th day of July," then near at hand. I assured him that such a rumor must be entirely groundless, that General Pemberton was not the man to surrender, and that he well knew that there were three hundred and sixty-four other days in the year, on any one of which he might surrender; and, furthermore, that the 4th of July had been sufficiently signalized already that the rumor was incredible! The spy then said that "General Dodge," the Federal commander at Corinth, "had stated in his presence that Vicksburg was to be surrendered to the Federal army on the 4th of July proximo."
Before leaving the neighborhood of Guntown, on the 18th, Major W. M. Inge was ordered from Tupelo with one hundred and twenty-five select men, to be joined by Captain Warren, who had been sent with an equal number to scout along the enemy's lines eastwardly from Camp Davis, with instructions to repel a small raid of the enemy reported moving towards Fulton, which was done by him after some slight skirmishing, capturing two wagons, an ambulance, and eight
- ↑ It is to be observed that this was during a critical period of the war in the Valley of the Mississippi. Vicksburg was then, and had been for some time, besieged by General Grant with a powerful land and naval, or gunboat force, and that General J. E. Johnston had been sent by the Confederate Executive to redeem, so far as might still be practicable, the effects of accumulated blunders, and especially in the assignment, at an earlier period, of Major General Lovell, that "brilliant" commander, who had already ignobly sacrificed Louisiana to the "water-gods!" and also Lieutenant-General Pemberton, who had been promoted from the defence of Charleston, bearing a diploma as lieutenant-general, even to the banks of the Mississippi, who embraced the anniversary of a signal event to commemorate the surrender of his army!
