256 GRANT [1863 picions. You have the full control of your appetite and can let drinking alone. Had you not pledged me the sincerity of your honor early last March that you would drink no more during the war and kept that pledge during your recent campaign, you would not to-day have stood first in the world's history as a successful military leader. Your only salvation depends upon your strict adherence to that pledge. You cannot succeed in any other way.' 1 That same day Rawlins removed a box of wine from the front of Grant's tent that had been sent to him to celebrate his prospective entrance into Vicksburg, and next morning he searched every suspected tent for liquor and broke every bottle he found over a near-by stump.2 "How much depends in military matters on one master mind!" said Lincoln when Lee was invading Pennsylvania and Hooker was still in command of the Army of the Potomac.3 A thorough study of the operations against Vicksburg brings the conviction that Grant alone of the Union generals could have conducted that brilliant campaign, discomfiting two Confederate Armies and establishing his own on the high ground "behind Vicksburg," and that he alone could have prosecuted the siege to its successful conclusion. He was a greater general than "Stonewall" Jackson but he might have been still greater could he have said with Jackson, changing only the name of Federal to Confederate, I love whiskey "but I never use it; I am more afraid of it than of Confederate bullets." The anxiety of the President and his advisers over the Vicksburg campaign was intense and their dominant idea as expressed by a confidential friend of Stanton's was, If 1 W. F. Smith, 179. Rawlins's letter 1. c.; Wilson's Under the Old Flag, I, 210. CH. VI] SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG 257 we keep Grant sober we shall take Vicksburg. Rawlins was a potent factor in the final success and he had the intelligent and sympathetic support of two men who fully comprehended the situation - Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Wilson, of Grant's staff, and Charles A. Dana. Dana had been sent to the army by Stanton, with of course the President's consent, to watch Grant; known as "the eyes of the government," he proved a faithful and considerate watchman. He estimated correctly not only Grant but actingAdmiral Porter, Sherman and McPherson; he seems to have won their confidence and did not abuse it. His despatches, written in the terse English of which he was a master, furnish an excellent history of the progress of the campaign.1 The rest of the story may be told briefly. Grant invested Vicksburg closely, maintaining at the same time a sufficient force to repel any attack that might be made on his rear. But Johnston was unable to relieve in any way the beleaguered garrison which was rapidly declining in efficiency through fatigue, illness and lack of food. Grant's army increased by reënforcements to 72,000,2 he steadily and grimly closed about the city and made ready for an attempt to take it by storm. Pemberton, thinking that he could not repel such an assault, gave up Vicksburg. At 10:30 on the morning of July 4, in the self-same hour when Lincoln announced to the country the result at Gettysburg, Grant sent this word to his government, "The enemy surrendered this morning." The number of prisoners taken was 29,491, while the Confederate loss up to that time had probably reached 10,000. Moreover, 170 cannon and 50,000 small arms were captured. The muskets, being of an improved make recently obtained from Europe, were used to replace 1 O. R., XXIV, Pt. I, 63 et seq. 2 W. R. Livermore, 377. 258 SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG [1863 the inferior arms of many regiments in the Union Army. The result had been gained at small cost; Grant's loss during his whole campaign was 9362. Of what occurred when the Federal troops took possession of the city and the Confederates marched out, accounts differ in detail but agree in essence. Grant wrote, "Not a cheer went up, not a remark was made that would give pain." A Confederate officer of high rank recollects a hearty cheer from a division of the Union Army, but it was given "for the gallant defenders of Vicksburg." 1 General Sherman wrote nearly ten years after the close of the Civil War, "The campaign of Vicksburg in its conception and execution, belonged exclusively to General Grant, not only in the great whole, but in the thousands of its details." 2 When the news of the victory reached Port Hudson, the Confederate commander surrendered it to General Banks who had invested it with his army. On July 16 the steamboat Imperial, which had come directly from St. Louis, landed its commercial cargo on the levee at New Orleans. As Lincoln said, "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.' 11 3 Since the first of January the eyes of the North had been on Vicksburg. Hopes had been crushed, then had risen anew, only to meet with fresh disappointment; elation over Grant's May campaign and a false report that the fortress had fallen was followed by a period of weary suspense brightened withal by the glow of confident anticipation. When the final triumph was announced, the wave of gladness that swept the country ran all the higher for having been so long repressed; moreover, it was swelled by the 1 Grant, I, 570; Lockett, B. & L., III, 492. 2 W. Sherman, I, 334. 3 Lincoln, C. W., II, 398. CH. VI GRANT- LEE 259 coincidence of Gettysburg, especially as the popular mind might associate both victories with the Fourth of July, the day of the nation's birth. With Gettysburg and Vicksburg the war should have come to an end.1 While the North took courage in that a great military leader had arisen to give aim to its resources, the South was profoundly depressed over her defeat in the two campaigns. Because of the failure of the invasion into Pennsylvania and "the expressions of discontent in the public journals at the result of the expedition" and the fear that such a feeling might extend to the soldiers, Lee earnestly requested Davis to supply his place as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia with “a younger and abler man"; but this request was promptly refused.2 66 1 See authorities cited, IV, 320, note; Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, 230; O. R., IV, II, 664. Gen. Wayne, C. S. A., son of Justice Wayne, said to Maj. H. L. Higginson in 1866, After Vicksburg and Gettysburg most men, well-informed, knew that the contest was useless and wicked. Jo. Johnston held that opinion. But Davis and Lee disagreed with it and were much blamed on that account.' Letter of H. L. Higginson, Feb. 16, 1905. 2 Mrs. J. Davis, II, 393; O. R., XXIX, Pt. II, 639. Authorities for the Vicksburg campaign O. R., XXIV, Pts. I, III; IV; Grant; W. Sherman; W. R. Livermore; same Milt. Hist. Soc., IX; Welles's Diary, I; N. & H., VII; Wilson's Dana; Wilson's Under the Old Flag; Wilson's Life of Rawlins, M. S.; Dana's Recollections; W. F. Smith; John Fiske; Grant's private letters; Wister's Grant; Garland's Grant; Vilas, The Vicksburg Campaign. CHAPTER VII UNTIL the spring of 1862 the government of Great Britain preserved the neutrality which had been declared by the Queen's proclamation at the commencement of the war; and this neutrality would not have been violated had the feeling of the dominant classes been friendly to the North. The main body of the aristocracy and the highest of the middle class desired that the great democracy should fail, partly because it was a democracy, partly because it enacted high protective tariffs, partly because of sympathy with a people who desired release from what they deemed a position of irksome political subordination and partly because the division of a great power like the United States, which had frequently threatened Great Britain with war, would redound to their political advantage; but with the portion of the middle class engaged in commerce and manufactures, the desire that overshadowed all others was that the war should come to an end so that England could again secure cotton and resume the export of her manufactured goods to America. The North could terminate the war by the recognition of the Southern Confederacy; and the irritation was great over her persistence in the seemingly impossible task of conquering five and one-half millions of people. "Conquer a free population of 3,000,000 souls? the thing is impossible," Chatham had said, and this was applied with force to the case in hand. The friends of the North remained as sincere and active as in the previous autumn, but like the patriots at home they had days of discouragement at the small progress |
