A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [250]
Staff at Banks’s headquarters noticed a precipitous drop in morale after the failed attack. The men had lost faith not only in their general but also in themselves. Banks, on the other hand, saw no reason why he should not be more successful the second time around. He brought in additional artillery so that by June 11 he had more than 130 guns. Ever punctilious, he sent a letter to Confederate general Franklin Gardner inside the fort at Port Hudson suggesting that he surrender to “avoid unnecessary sacrifice of life.” Gardner declined even though his men were already exhausted and starving.
On the fourteenth, Banks attacked Port Hudson for the second time. Colonel Currie’s luck ran out at a place called Priest Cap. His division commander, General William Emory, was hit first; the Englishman took his place, shouting “Get on, lads” as he ran toward the fort. Within minutes Currie was struck by bullets in both arms. Almost a hundred members of the 133rd went down behind him. Some four thousand Federals were either killed or wounded that day.
Currie was rescued by his own men and dragged back to safety. His wounding came as a terrible blow to the regiment. He was no longer considered alien but eccentric; his English manner of speaking was regarded as quaint rather than foreign. A hospital ship transported Currie down to New Orleans, where he remained for a few weeks until he was well enough to be sent to Philadelphia to recuperate. It would be several months before he rejoined his regiment.
The survivors of the 133rd went about their duties without enthusiasm. “I think the hope of taking the port without force is a forlorn one,” wrote the regiment’s assistant surgeon. “General Banks has offered a promotion and medals to one thousand who will volunteer to storm their works.… We can see their camps and their soldiers and also the Secesh flag very plainly. We have the Fort completely surrounded but I suppose they have enough provisions inside to last them probably a year.” When the regiment left Baton Rouge there were 800 men and officers; “now we scarcely number 400.”25 But Banks had no intention of withdrawing until Port Hudson surrendered.
The Northern and Southern forces remained in their respective fortifications, slowly shrinking through disease and malnutrition. The only general with the ability to move was the Confederate Joseph Johnston, and he was in a state of passive dejection. He had repeatedly urged Pemberton to evacuate Vicksburg, arguing that the town could always be retaken but his army was irreplaceable. Grant’s siege made escape impossible now; an English army officer traveling through Mississippi asked Johnston about his plans. The general “was too weak to do any good, and he was unable to give me any definite idea as to when he might be strong enough to attack Grant.”26 The officer, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, had arrived in the South on April 8. This was the first time he had encountered anything less than total confidence and determination from a Confederate general. Fremantle’s initial response to the war had been one of casual interest. “In common with many of my countrymen, I felt very indifferent as to which side might win,” he wrote, “but if I had any bias my sympathies were rather in favour of the North, on account of the dislike which an Englishman naturally feels at the idea of slavery.” His support for the North did not, however, survive Seward’s early misfires in international diplomacy: “Soon a sentiment of great admiration for the gallantry and determination of the Southerners, together with the unhappy contrast afforded by the foolish bullying conduct of the Northerners, caused a complete revulsion in my feelings, and I was unable to repress a strong wish to go to America and see something of this wonderful