AS the tide of battle drifted to the West in 1863, the war photographers hurried to the region of the Mississippi. Grant had been pursuing his operations toward Vicksburg. With Sherman and McClernand, he was maneuvering to take the key to the South by storm. A photograph is here shown of Champion Hills near Big Black River territory, on the outskirts of Vicksburg, where the armies first met. The Confederates held a strong line of earthworks on the eastern bank of the river. The Federals, before a heavy fire of musketry, crossed a ditch, delivered a terrific volley, and clambered over the breastworks with empty muskets. The Confederates, in falling back, found that their comrades had set fire to both of the bridges and were compelled to surrender. Two thousand prisoners, eighteen pieces of artillery, six thousand stand of small arms, and many commissary stores were captured. General Lawler's Brigade led the charge. The battle lasted four hours. On the eighteenth of May, 1863, the Federals began crossing the Big Black by felling trees on both banks so that they tumbled into the river and interlaced, using bales of cotton instead of boats. On the morning of the twenty-second, with furious cannonading, the last assault on the defences of Vicksburg was made. This campaign is a remarkable military exploit. In twenty days Grant crossed the Mississippi River with his entire force, moved into the rear of Vicksburg, fought and won four distinct battles, captured the State Capitol, and destroyed the Confederate arsenals and manufactories. His troops marched one hundred eighty miles with only five days' rations from the quartermaster, and captured over six thousand prisoners, twenty-seven cannon and sixty-one field pieces. All this was accomplished by forty thousand brave men against sixty thousand. [Illustration: BOMB-PROOF CAMP IN UNION LINES IN FRONT OF VICKSBURG] [Illustration: BEHIND THE ENTRENCHMENT AT BATTERY SHERMAN BEFORE VICKSBURG]