WHEN Vicksburg fell, the cheering along the Federal lines in the Mississippi Campaign aroused the attention of the Confederate pickets until it was carried clear through to Louisiana, where the Confederate forces were concentrated at Port Hudson. General Banks had succeeded Butler at New Orleans and was co-operating with Grant on the Mississippi to take possession of the Red River region and expel the Confederate forces from Louisiana and Texas. The siege of Port Hudson had been hard fought. The Confederates under General Gardner agreed that if Vicksburg had fallen their surrender was the only thing left for them. On the ninth of July, in 1863, the Confederate general at Port Hudson with visible emotion tendered his sword. It was declined because his bravery entitled him to retain it. The Federals were now in the entire possession of the Mississippi. While Grant's Army had been pounding at the gates of Vicksburg, Rosecranz was maneuvering with Bragg at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. For six months these two armies stood confronted, but met only in severe skirmishes. Rosecranz compelled Bragg to fall back from one place to another. He was driven through middle Tennessee, to Bridgeport, Alabama, where he crossed the Tennessee River, burned the bridge behind him and entered Chattanooga. The Brady cameras were in the Union lines and arrived in time to secure this negative of the ruined bridge and the pontoon bridge that was being built by the Union forces in pursuit of Bragg. A clash came at Chickamauga, a point about twelve miles from Chattanooga, on the nineteenth and twentieth of September, in 1863. It has been called the greatest battle of the West. The cannonading and the musketry was at close range and the Federal lines were being swept back when General Thomas and his men made the heroic stand that saved the Federal Army from destruction, after a loss of 15,851, killed, wounded and missing. The Confederate victory was gained at the cost of 17,804. [Illustration: BATTLEGROUND OF MISSIONARY RIDGE NEAR CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, TWO DAYS AFTER BATTLE] [Illustration: CONFEDERATE PRISONERS AT CHATTANOOGA] CHICKAMAUGA has been called the greatest battle in the West. When the smoke of the conflict had lifted, the war photographers found the Federal Army closed up in Chattanooga. The Confederate general moved to cut off all communication to the Federal lines, seizing roads, destroying the bridges and preventing access to Nashville where the base of supplies had been located. The Army of the Cumberland was reduced to the verge of starvation. Not less than 10,000 horses and mules perished. Grant was given command of the department of the Mississippi, comprising the armies and departments of the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland. He telegraphed to Thomas: "Hold Chattanooga at all hazards." The hero of Chattanooga replied: "I will hold the town until we starve." [Illustration: BLOCKHOUSES NEAR CHATTANOOGA]