and they entered on that enterprise with alacrity and with a grim determination not to cease from their efforts until that great river which forms a part of the life and very existence of the West should be repossessed, and the insulted ensign of the Republic planted on the last battlements of the Rebellion.
By the Summer of 1863, after many a bloody fight on the river and on the land, they had reached Vicksburg, and Grant had drawn his lines of investment around that stronghold. Meantime their brethren of the East had ascended the river from its mouth and had taken possession of all the rebel defences on the lower Mississippi. Subsequently Farragut, being away on the Gulf coast, the rebels seized the opportunity to fortify and garrison Port Hudson, in Louisiana. There remained then at the opening of the Summer of '63 these two strongholds, Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the retention of which was necessary to the Confederates if they would maintain their hold on the Mississippi.
Both parties to the struggle realized the importance of these positions. Jefferson Davis, while on a visit to Mississippi to inspect the defences of Vicksburg, spoke as follows in a speech at Jackson before the Mississippi Legislature: "Vicksburg and Port Hudson are the real points of attack. Every effort will be made to capture these places with the object of forcing the navigation of the Mississippi and severing the eastern from the western portion of the Confederacy. Let all then who have at heart the welfare and safety of the country go without delay to Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Let them go for thirty or sixty or ninety days. Let them assist in preserving the Mississippi River, that
