and conversed for nearly one-half hour with his captives General Grant next visited the flag-ship of Commodore Porter, where he was received with salutes, music, and rousing cheers. When the Confederate troops had been paroled, they returned to their respective homes. General Grant had, meanwhile, sent General Sherman to meet General Johnston, who retreated on learning of the fall of Vicksburg. General Grant next sent General Herron's division to reinforce General Banks at Port Hudson, which surrendered on the 8th of July, and General Ransom was sent to Texas on a cattle raid, in which he captured five thousand head, which were sent to the Union troops at different points on the Mississippi River. General Grant having severed the Confederacy and opened the navigation of the Mississippi by a campaign which is one of the most brilliant recorded in history, both as to its results and the means by which those results were attained. He had fought five battles, made two assaults, prosecuted a siege for forty-seven days and nights, taken prisoner, killed, and wounded over fifty thousand men, and captured two hundred and forty-six cannon. High honors were, of course, heaped upon General Grant after this unprecedented triumph. He was appointed a major general in the regular army, the Legislatures of several States passed resolutions thanking him, swords were presented to him, and President Lincoln wrote him the following letter, which reflects as much credit upon the honest nature of the writer as it did justice to the recipient: "To Major General Grant. "EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 13th, 1863. "MY DEAR GENERAL: I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say further, when you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg I thought you should do what you finally did-march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports and thus go below, and I never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join General Banks, and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong. Yours very truly, "A. LINCOLN." General Grant, in accepting a public dinner tendered him by the loyal citizens of Memphis, wrote: “In accepting this testimonial, which I do at a great sacrifice of personal feeling, I simply desire to pay tribute to the first public exhibition in Memphis of loyalty to the Government which I represent in the Department of the Tennessee. I should dislike to refuse, for considerations of personal convenience, to acknowledge anywhere or in any form the existence of sentiments which I have so long and so ardently desired to see manifested in this Department. The stability of this Government, and the unity of this nation, depend solely on the cordial support and the earnest loyalty of the people." CHAPTER X. ACCIDENT TO GENERAL GRANT AT NEW ORLEANS-APPOINTED COMMANDER OF THE H AVING opened the Mississippi River, General Grant visited New Orleans to confer with General Banks on the practicability of capturing Mobile, which General Halleck had opposed. On the 4th of September, 1863, General Grant, having been invited to review the Union troops, was thrown from his horse, and one of his hips was so paralyzed by the fall that he had to lie for twenty-one days in one position, and then could only move on crutches. on crutches. Meanwhile, General Halleck was ordering detachments of troops here and there without any definite plan of action, the forces under General Rosecrans were badly whipped at Chickamaugua, and Burnside was in a critical position at Knoxville, six hundred miles from his base of supplies. President Lincoln at last comprehended the situation, and consolidated the Departments of the Ohio, of the Cumberland, and of the Tennessee into the Military Division of the Mississippi, with Major General Grant as its commander. General Grant's first act was to supersede General Rosecrans by General George H. Thomas, to whom he telegraphed: "Hold Chattanooga at all hazards; I will be there as soon as possible." And Thomas replied: "We'll hold the town until we starve." Messengers were also sent encouraging Burnside, who was besieged at Knoxville, and hastening Sherman, who was on his way to Chattanooga, to which place he pressed with all speed. While crossing the mountains General Grant, still very lame, was forced to ride on horseback, and his horse falling on him, he received a severe bruise on the leg which had been injured at New Orleans. This rendered it necessary for him to be carried in a blanket by some of his escort, and the party reached Chattanooga at night in a drenching rain, finding the garrison reduced to half rations, and the GENERAL THOMAS. horses and mules literally starving to death. Fortunately. a good supply of ammunition remained on hand. By a series of brilliant movements General Grant opened a line of supplies and commenced offensive operations. The elements were against him, the rains having caused freshets which had carried away the bridges and delayed the reinforcements under Sherman. "I have never felt," said Grant, "such restlessness before," and those present said he "chafed like a wild animal in chains." At last the looked-for troops arrived and the great conflict was commenced. General Hooker was to carry the strong intrenchments of Lookout Moun tain by an assault on the right; General Thomas, in the centre, to take Missionary Ridge, and General Sherman, on the left, to advance by Chickamaugua Creek. Quartermaster General Meigs, in a dispatch written on the field of battle, gives a graphic account of the first afternoon's battles fought by the centre and by each wing. Each commander was successful, Hooker meeting with the most determined resistance. "The day was one of dense mists and rains, and much of General Hooker's battle was fought above the clouds, which concealed him from the view of those below, but from which his musketry was heard." That night the Confederates evacuated the crest of the mountain, and the next morning at sunrise the Stars and Stripes waved on the summit of Lookout. Early on the morning of the 25th the bugles sounded "Forward!" and General Sherman advanced. The fight was fierce and stubborn and General Grant ordered an advance against Missionary Ridge. Line after line of rifle-pits was carried, and probably no battle was ever fought more completely under the eye of the commander. As General Thomas looked on the desperate struggle, he |