Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete
did for surrendering. But it must be recollected that his first letter
asking terms was received about 10 o'clock A.M., July 3d. It then could
hardly be expected that it would take twenty-four hours to effect a
surrender. He knew that Johnston was in our rear for the purpose of
raising the siege, and he naturally would want to hold out as long as he
could. He knew his men would not resist an assault, and one was
expected on the fourth. In our interview he told me he had rations
enough to hold out for some time--my recollection is two weeks. It was
this statement that induced me to insert in the terms that he was to
draw rations for his men from his own supplies.
On the 4th of July General Holmes, with an army of eight or nine
thousand men belonging to the trans-Mississippi department, made an
attack upon Helena, Arkansas. He was totally defeated by General
Prentiss, who was holding Helena with less than forty-two hundred
soldiers. Holmes reported his loss at 1,636, of which 173 were killed;
but as Prentiss buried 400, Holmes evidently understated his losses.
The Union loss was 57 killed, 127 wounded, and between 30 and 40
missing. This was the last effort on the part of the Confederacy to
raise the siege of Vicksburg.
On the third, as soon as negotiations were commenced, I notified Sherman
and directed him to be ready to take the offensive against Johnston,
drive him out of the State and destroy his army if he could. Steele and
Ord were directed at the same time to be in readiness to join Sherman as
soon as the surrender took place. Of this Sherman was notified.
I rode into Vicksburg with the troops, and went to the river to exchange
congratulations with the navy upon our joint victory. At that time I
found that many of the citizens had been living under ground. The
ridges upon which Vicksburg is built, and those back to the Big Black,
are composed of a deep yellow clay of great tenacity. Where roads and
streets are cut through, perpendicular banks are left and stand as well
as if composed of stone. The magazines of the enemy were made by
running passage-ways into this clay at places where there were deep
cuts. Many citizens secured places of safety for their families by
carving out rooms in these embankments. A door-way in these cases would
be cut in a high bank, starting from the level of the road or street,
and after running in a few feet a room of the size required was carved
out of the clay, the dirt being removed by the door-way. In some
instances I saw where two rooms were cut out, for a single family, with
a door-way in the clay wall separating them. Some of these were
carpeted and furnished with considerable elaboration. In these the
occupants were fully secure from the shells of the navy, which were
dropped into the city night and dav without intermission.
I returned to my old headquarters outside in the afternoon, and did not
move into the town until the sixth. On the afternoon of the fourth I
sent Captain Wm. M. Dunn of my staff to Cairo, the nearest point where
the telegraph could be reached, with a dispatch to the general-in-chief.
It was as follows:
"The enemy surrendered this morning. The only terms allowed is their
parole as prisoners of war. This I regard as a great advantage to us at
this moment. It saves, probably, several days in the capture, and
leaves troops and transports ready for immediate service. Sherman, with
a large force, moves immediately on Johnston, to drive him from the
State. I will send troops to the relief of Banks, and return the 9th
army corps to Burnside."
This news, with the victory at Gettysburg won the same day, lifted a
great load of anxiety from the minds of the President, his Cabinet and
the loyal people all over the North. The fate of the Confederacy was
sealed when Vicksburg fell. Much hard fighting was to be done
afterwards and many precious lives were to be sacrificed; but the MORALE
was with the supporters of the Union ever after.
I at the same time wrote to General Banks informing him of the fall and
sending him a copy of the terms; also saying I would send him all the
troops he wanted to insure the capture of the only foothold the enemy
now had on the Mississippi River. General Banks had a number of copies
of this letter printed, or at least a synopsis of it, and very soon a
copy fell into the hands of General Gardner, who was then in command of
Port Hudson. Gardner at once sent a letter to the commander of the
National forces saying that he had been informed of the surrender of
Vicksburg and telling how the information reached him. He added that if
this was true, it was useless for him to hold out longer. General Banks
gave him assurances that Vicksburg had been surrendered, and General
Gardner surrendered unconditionally on the 9th of July. Port Hudson
with nearly 6,000 prisoners, 51 guns, 5,000 small-arms and other stores
fell into the hands of the Union forces: from that day to the close of
the rebellion the Mississippi River, from its source to its mouth,
remained in the control of the National troops.
Pemberton and his army were kept in Vicksburg until the whole could be
paroled. The paroles were in duplicate, by organization (one copy for
each, Federals and Confederates), and signed by the commanding officers
of the companies or regiments. Duplicates were also made for each
soldier and signed by each individually, one to be retained by the
soldier signing and one to be retained by us. Several hundred refused
to sign their paroles, preferring to be sent to the North as prisoners
to being sent back to fight again. Others again kept out of the way,
hoping to escape either alternative.
Pemberton appealed to me in person to compel these men to sign their
paroles, but I declined. It also leaked out that many of the men who
had signed their paroles, intended to desert and go to their homes as
soon as they got out of our lines. Pemberton hearing this, again
appealed to me to assist him. He wanted arms for a battalion, to act as
guards in keeping his men together while being marched to a camp of
instruction, where he expected to keep them until exchanged. This
request was also declined. It was precisely what I expected and hoped
that they would do. I told him, however, that I would see that they
marched beyond our lines in good order. By the eleventh, just one week
after the surrender, the paroles were completed and the Confederate
garrison marched out. Many deserted, and fewer of them were ever
returned to the ranks to fight again than would have been the case had
the surrender been unconditional and the prisoners sent to the James
River to be paroled.
As soon as our troops took possession of the city guards were
established along the whole line of parapet, from the river above to the
river below. The prisoners were allowed to occupy their old camps
behind the intrenchments. No restraint was put upon them, except by
their own commanders. They were rationed about as our own men, and from
our supplies. The men of the two armies fraternized as if they had been
fighting for the same cause. When they passed out of the works they had
so long and so gallantly defended, between lines of their late
antagonists, not a cheer went up, not a remark was made that would give
pain. Really, I believe there was a feeling of sadness just then in the
breasts of most of the Union soldiers at seeing the dejection of their
late antagonists.
The day before the departure the following order was issued:
"Paroled prisoners will be sent out of here to-morrow. They will be
authorized to cross at the railroad bridge, and move from there to
Edward's Ferry, (*14) and on by way of Raymond. Instruct the commands to
be orderly and quiet as these prisoners pass, to make no offensive
remarks, and not to harbor any who fall out of ranks after they have
passed."
CHAPTER XXXIX.
RETROSPECT OF THE CAMPAIGN--SHERMAN'S MOVEMENTS--PROPOSED MOVEMENT UPON
MOBILE--A PAINFUL ACCIDENT--ORDERED TO REPORT AT CAIRO.
The capture of Vicksburg, with its garrison, ordnance and ordnance
stores, and the successful battles fought in reaching them, gave new
spirit to the loyal people of the North. New hopes for the final
success of the cause of the Union were inspired. The victory gained at
Gettysburg, upon the same day, added to their hopes. Now the
Mississippi River was entirely in the possession of the National troops;
for the fall of Vicksburg gave us Port Hudson at once. The army of
northern Virginia was driven out of Pennsylvania and forced back to
about the same ground it occupied in 1861. The Army of the Tennessee
united with the Army of the Gulf, dividing the Confederate States
completely.
The first dispatch I received from the government after the fall of
Vicksburg was in these words:
"I fear your paroling the prisoners at Vicksburg, without actual
delivery to a proper agent as required by the seventh article of the
cartel, may be construed into an absolute release, and that the men will
immediately be placed in the ranks of the enemy. Such has been the case
elsewhere. If these prisoners have not been allowed to depart, you will
detain them until further orders."
Halleck did not know that they had already been delivered into the hands
of Major Watts, Confederate commissioner for the exchange of prisoners.
At Vicksburg 31,600 prisoners were surrendered, together with 172 cannon
about 60,000 muskets and a large amount of ammunition. The small-arms
of the enemy were far superior to the bulk of ours. Up to this time our
troops at the West had been limited to the old United States flint-lock
muskets changed into percussion, or the Belgian musket imported early in
the war--almost as dangerous to the person firing it as to the one aimed
at--and a few new and improved arms. These were of many different
calibers, a fact that caused much trouble in distributing ammunition
during an engagement. The enemy had generally new arms which had run
the blockade and were of uniform caliber. After the surrender I
authorized all colonels whose regiments were armed with inferior
muskets, to place them in the stack of captured arms and replace them
with the latter. A large number of arms turned in to the Ordnance
Department as captured, were thus arms that had really been used by the
Union army in the capture of Vicksburg.
In this narrative I have not made the mention I should like of officers,
dead and alive, whose services entitle them to special mention. Neither
have I made that mention of the navy which its services deserve.
Suffice it to say, the close of the siege of Vicksburg found us with an
army unsurpassed, in proportion to its numbers, taken as a whole of
officers and men. A military education was acquired which no other
school could have given. Men who thought a company was quite enough for
them to command properly at the beginning, would have made good
regimental or brigade commanders; most of the brigade commanders were
equal to the command of a division, and one, Ransom, would have been
equal to the command of a corps at least. Logan and Crocker ended the
campaign fitted to command independent armies.
General F. P. Blair joined me at Milliken's Bend a full-fledged general,
without having served in a lower grade. He commanded a division in the
campaign. I had known Blair in Missouri, where I had voted against him
in 1858 when he ran for Congress. I knew him as a frank, positive and
generous man, true to his friends even to a fault, but always a leader.
I dreaded his coming; I knew from experience that it was more difficult
to command two generals desiring to be leaders than it was to command
one army officered intelligently and with subordination. It affords me