[363] other means to reduce the place. It did not, however, set him permanently against this system of simultaneous attacks against positions too strong to be carried by assault; for, as we shall see shortly, he tried the same thing again, although with another army, in the disastrous battle of Cold Harbor, which was an exact repetition of the assault on Vicksburg.
Important results, however, had been accomplished. The energy displayed by the aggressors made Pemberton believe that he was surrounded by more than sixty thousand men, and prevented him from attempting a sortie en masse, which might possibly have secured the escape of the best portion of his troops. Grant, who had brought all his men into action, had not, however, been able to put more than from thirty-two to thirty-five thousand men in line. Besides, notwithstanding the failure of the assault, he had gained much ground and occupied positions which shortened to a great extent the operations of a regular siege. The Federal navy had fought the batteries which commanded the river for the space of four hours, silencing several of them, and a force of considerable magnitude was thus turned from the defence of the lines which Grant was attacking. But the din of battle not reaching as far as Porter's position, the latter had retired about half-past 11 o'clock. He had brought back his vessels in a tolerably good condition, in spite of the large number of shots that had been fired into them, while his losses were insignificant.
During two days Grant would not ask for a suspension of hostilities, leaving a large number of uncared — for wounded exposed to the most excruciating sufferings between the two armies. Finally, Pemberton, more humane than the latter, proposed an armistice: the conflict was suspended for a few hours on the 24th of May, and the victims of the struggle who were yet alive were carried off amid the manifestations of regard which the two armies interchanged on this solemn occasion.
The siege of Vicksburg presents a singular example, not only in the war we are now describing, but, in some respects, in the military history of modern times prior to the events of 1870. From the nature of the works of the place, their development over a space of nearly thirteen miles, the calibre of the guns
