Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/488

 PORTRAIT OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT.

The following year a much larger army was convoyed down the river by a fleet of gunboats, and landed at Milliken's bend, sixteen or seventeen miles above the city, on the west bank of the river. A tentative and unsuccessful effort was made by General Grant to divert the river across the peninsula by cutting a canal, so as to pass his vessels of war and transports below out of reach of the batteries on the bluffs. Meantime a furious and incessant cannonade was kept up between the gunboats and shore batteries. Finally a large part of