Here two mistakes are perhaps worth noting as curious rather than important: Dwight was not a member of Banks's staff, and the letter from Halleck, dated the 11th of May, which General Grant strangely supposed to have come by way of New Orleans, was, in fact, Halleck's telegram of that date, sent by way of Memphis, which Dwight had picked up as he passed through Grand Gulf, after Grant had cut his communications. Dwight's account may have taken color from his hopes, yet the course of events gives some reason to think he may have had warrant for his belief.
On the 19th of May Grant's first assault of Vicksburg was repulsed with a loss of 942. Three days later he delivered his second assault, which likewise failed, at a cost of 3,199 killed, wounded, and missing. This drove him to the siege and put him in need of more troops; yet when, on the 25th of May, he sat down to write to Banks, it was with the purpose of offering to send down a force of 8,000 or 10,000 men if Banks could now provide the means of transport. But even while Grant wrote, word came that Johnston was gathering in his rear; and so the whole thing was one more given up, and instead, once again he called on Banks for help; and this time he sent down two large steamers, the _Forest Queen_ and _Moderator_, to fetch the men. But Banks had now no men to spare; he too was cast for a siege; he could only echo the entreaty and send back the steamboats empty as they came. So the affair ended.
(1) "Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant," vol. I., p. 524.
Banks at once ordered up the ammunition and the stores from the depot at Riley's, near the headquarters of the day before, and early on the morning of the 28th of May established his headquarters in tents at Young's, in rear of the centre, and began his arrangements to reduce Port Hudson by gradual approaches. At six o'clock in the morning he sent a flag of truce to Gardner, from Augur's front on the Plains Store road, bearing a request for a suspension of hostilities until two o'clock in the afternoon, to permit the removal of the dead and wounded. To this Gardner at once refused to agree unless Banks would agree to withdraw at all points to a distance of eight hundred yards. He also demanded that the fleet should drop down out of range. Banks was unable to consent. A long correspondence followed, twelve letters in all, crossing and recrossing, to the utter confusion of time. At length, shortly after half-past three o'clock, Banks received Gardner's assent to an armistice extending till seven o'clock. The conditions were that the besiegers were to send to the lines of the defence, by unarmed parties, such of the Confederate killed as remained unburied, and such of their wounded as had not already been picked up and sent to the rear. The killed and wounded of the Union army, lying between their lines and the Confederate works, were to be cared for in the same way.