CHAPTER XIV.
CHATTANOOGA AND KNOXVILLE.
JULY TO DECEMBER, 1863.
After the fall of Vicksburg, and its corollary, Port Hudson, the Mississippi River was wholly in the possession of the Union forces, and formed a perfect line of separation in the territories of our opponents.

Thenceforth, they could not cross it save by stealth, and the military affairs on its west bank became unimportant.
Grant's army had seemingly completed its share of the work of war, and lay, as it were, idle for a time.

In person General Grant went to New Orleans to confer with General Banks, and his victorious army was somewhat dispersed.

Parke's corps (Ninth) returned to Kentucky, and afterward formed part of the Army of the Ohio, under General Burnside; Ord's corps (Thirteenth) was sent down to Natchez, and gradually drifted to New Orleans and Texas; McPhersons (Seventeenth) remained in and near Vicksburg; Hurlbut's (Sixteenth) was at Memphis; and mine (Fifteenth) was encamped along the Big Black, about twenty miles east of Vicksburg.

This corps was composed of four divisions: Steele's (the First) was posted at and near the railroad-bridge; Blair's (the Second), next in order, near Parson Fox's; the Third Division (Tuttle's) was on the ridge about the head of Bear Creek; and the Fourth (Ewing's) was at Messinger's Ford.