THE VICKSBURG MINE.

THE WHITE HOUSE, OR SHIRLEY, AT THE ENTRANCE TO McPHERSON'S SAPS AGAINST THE "THIRD LOUISIANA REDAN", VICKSBURG.

get below Vicksburg, unite with Banks against Port Hudson, and make New Orleans a base ; and, with that base and Grand Gulf as a starting-point, move our combined forces against Vicksburg. Upon reaching Grand Gulf, after running its batteries and fighting a battle, I received a letter from Banks informing me that he could not be at Port Hudson under ten days, and then with only fifteen thousand men. The time was worth more than the reenforcements; I therefore determined to push into the interior of the enemy's country.

With a large river behind us, held above and below by the enemy, rapid movements were essential to success. Jackson was captured the day after a new commander had arrived, and only a few days before large reenforcements were expected. A rapid movement west was made ; the garrison of Vicksburg was met in two engagements and badly defeated, and driven back into its stronghold and there successfully besieged.

THE VICKSBURG MINE.BY ANDREW HICKENLOOPER, BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL U. S. V CHIEF ENGINEER , ", OF THE SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS.AFTER the failure of the general assault on May 22d, orders were issued to commence regular siege operations. General J. B. Mc Pherson occupied the center with the seventeenth Army Corps, covering the main Jackson road, on which the Confederates had constructed the most formidable redoubt on the entire line, and intrusted its defense to the 3d Louisiana, a veteran regiment. Because of its strength, commanding position, and heavy armament, this redoubt became the main objective point of the engineering operations of the seventeenth Army Corps.

It was approachable only over a broad, flat ridge, forming a comparatively level plateau, extending eastwardly from the fort for a distance of almost five hundred yards before descending into one of the numerous ravines or depressions which extended in almost every conceivable direction over the ground lying between the contending armies. The Third Division, commanded by General Logan, occupied the position immediately in front of the fort, and upon these troops-more