Pentecostal Possibilities or "The Story of My Life"
by Milton Lorenzo (M. L.) Haney
CHAPTER 36
Young's Point and Vicksburg
After the capture of Arkansas Post, we came to Young's Point, in front of Vicksburg. The design was to make the impression that we were going to finish Butler's canal, and hence some digging was done, but a higher end was in view. There was much sickness, and many deaths occurred at this point, till it seemed the flower of American youth were going to be left in that levee. It was a time of great darkness as to National destiny, and those at home will never know how dark it seemed to those who were at the front. The papers from home were filled with incidents of merry making, and frolic, showing that the masses had no conception of our peril, or the depths of the clouds which hung over us. If I had been cut off from prayer, I think our environment would have killed me. To me the absence of humility, and genuine repentance, accompanied with such strides of worldliness, and forgetfulness of God, as were apparent in the North, while death was gathering such harvests, were finger pointings of doom.
Our churches at home were increasing rapidly in worldliness, and indulging in festivities beyond precedent, while we were dying by the thousand, and a black cloud was hanging over us by day and by night! I resolved to unbosom my soul to a few devoted ministers and beg of them to call the churches to fasting instead of feasting, and prayer instead of frolics. So I selected No. 1, of Illinois, whom I knew to have been a man of deep piety, and widely known, laying our condition before him, and the danger of utter wreck of our Government if God did not interpose soon. I was relieved in pouring my soul out to him, and waited for his answer with great desire. After days of delay it came, and I tore loose the envelope and sat down on a log to feast my hungry soul. The following is the substance of the answer: "Rev. M. L. Haney: Dear Brother: our letter received; glad to hear from you. I am in the hedge business and seed is very scarce here. I hear you are going up Red River, and I wish you would procure me some osage orange seed. Yours truly, B. L.---." My heart sank within me. If ship loads of seed had been at my disposal I could not have sent him a handful! I was driven to God, and sought a place for prayer by the root of an old elm tree, or gum tree. God heard me, and let heaven loose on my soul and gave me to see through to victory. I was so blessed, and the power of God so rested upon me that I staggered like a drunken man on returning to my tent.
Captain J. M. Augustine was tenting with me at the time. He was a superior young man, but painfully given to doubts as to the Bible and the Christian religion, so that I recognized him as an infidel. He had well nigh ruined a brother, who was at home, with his skeptical sentiments. I had hardly gotten seated when he opened up with some skeptical suggestion, and I was so filled with the Holy Ghost that I answered him, first describing his condition, and then my own, leaving him floundering in his little canoe, while I was riding into port on Lord the old ship of Zion! The Captain drew a long breath, saying: "Well, if I say anything more, I guess I will have to get a new subject!" from that time till his death I never heard one more skeptical hint from his lips. When on furlough, he begged of his brother, whom he had led into doubt, to forget all he had ever said on the subject, and stick to his mother's Bible.
The Mississippi River had been thoroughly blockaded at Vicksburg, and a fearful array of artillery over-looked the river from its hills for nearly five miles. If supplies for an army could run this blockade, then an army could reach, and cross, the river below the city, and Vicksburg could be put into siege. One morning a wooden gunboat ran the gauntlet, and came out unhurt, and Grant called for volunteers to man the transports, which were to run the blockade, and soon had to place a guard on each vessel to prevent it from being overrun. The old steamboat officers would not run the risk, and each boat had to be officered with soldiers. Hence for days these beginners were maneuvering those great vessels on the river at Milliken's Bend. Governor Yates came down for the occasion, and invited me to go on his staff, so I could be on Grant's boat of observation. So I was greatly favored. Grant's boat was anchored at a point in the river where he could see the whole movement. At a sign three large steamers laden with army stores left for the blockade. On the point of land west of the river, and nearest the city, there was a cluster of houses, which the rebels were to set on fire in case boats should undertake to pass in the night. So by the blaze of the burning buildings Grant's boats were clearly visible. The roar of artillery was grand and fearful, but those braves made the entire circuit without injury. General Grant rarely showed much emotion or acted nervously, but that night he walked the boat backwards and forwards, indicating a deep solicitude for the men who had volunteered to face death as these had done. That as among the most striking scenes I ever witnessed, but the daring of those men gave us Vicksburg.
Three large Mississippi steamboats laden with army supplies were now below the city, and under our control. So Grant was ready to move, and leaving Milliken's Bend in April, the Union forces were on their way to Grand Gulf, on the Louisiana side of the river It was of the highest importance, on reaching Grand Gulf, that the crossing be effected with the least possible opposition. So the army of Sherman was sent up the Yazoo River to attack Gaines' Bluff. So, unexpectedly to the enemy, two heavy lines of infantry, with artillery, were landed in front of Gaines' Bluff, with a gunboat or two to back them, as though we were going up that bluff at any cost. This drew from Vicksburg, and below, a heavy army to reinforce Gaines' Bluff, and diverted the attention of the Confederate commander from Grand Gulf till Grant's army was on the Vicksburg side of the river, and Sherman retired from Gaines' Bluff like a gentleman, without any serious loss to his army, and hastened to join Grant in the battle of Champion Hills.
Having reached our new base of supplies, we crossed the Mississippi, and, coming to Raymond, were halted to rest, and see the prisoners. I knew that prisoners meant wounded men, and asked a citizen where our wounded were. Pointing southward, he said: "That brick church is full of them." Having but a brief time, I hastened and found it as he said, and, speaking to each boy, I went the rounds, but came to a beautiful young man of about twenty years, whose eyes were covered with a wet cloth. I asked as to his wound, and the nurse replied: "His eyes are shot out, sir!" And lifting the bandage, he showed me his wound. A musket ball had struck him in the right temple, cutting off the optic nerve, and came out at the left eye! I could hardly speak. He was a bright, beautiful boy, with a strong body, likely to lie for many years in utter darkness. At last I said: "My boy, I suppose the sun is forever blotted out." To which he replied with a victorious voice: "Yes, sir, but I have light within!" It seemed no words on my part could reach a case like this--of apparent desolation--but I doubt whether I have ever found a calmer, more restful or triumphant soul. Twenty years after this I was preaching in Iowa about Christ as a wonderful Saviour, and brought this illustration in proof that He could satisfy us in any emergency. After dismissal an old soldier introduced himself to me, saying: "I was among the wounded in that little brick church at Raymond, and you talked with me." I asked if he knew that blind boy, and he said: "I guess I did know him. Mr. Haney, that was the happiest man I ever saw. I was with him for three months afterwards, and I have never seen so happy a human being." O, it pays to have full salvation!
The enemy met us at Champion Hills, east of Black River, and after a fearful battle was repulsed, but allowed to cross Black River and get into Vicksburg, which brought on the siege. The battle was fought by our army on the right and centre, and an utter rout of the enemy followed. The mass of the rebels routed passed in front of General Frank Blair's command reached and crossed the bridge, and set it on fire without being molested. Frank Blair's troops would have captured that army with the slightest loss if he had let them. I galloped up and down that line and was fully assured the enemy was routed, and panic stricken, and twice urged my Colonel to see Blair and get him to move, and at last we were ordered forward, when a six-pound gun opened on us, but hit nobody, and we were halted till the enemy was out of our hands. It seemed to me fearful that a battle costing so much blood, which had put the enemy within our reach, with the smallest possible sacrifice, should be lost by sheer cowardice or neglect. It pressed my very soul so that I offered to take that gun if the Colonel would give me fifty men! When we did go forward, and reached the road over which they retreated, we found caissons and other implements of war wildly strewn about, proving that their capture would have been an easy task. The result of our failure was the siege of Vicksburg, with its fearful sacrifices of human lives and treasure.