Pemberton lost no time in returning the following answer, which reached Grant early in the morning of July 4:

HEADQUARTERS, VICKSBURG, July 3, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT,

Commanding United States Forces :·

GENERAL-I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of this date, proposing terms for the surrender of this garrison and post. In the main, your terms are accepted; but in justice both to the honor and spirit of my troops, manifested in the defence of Vicksburg, I have the honor to submit the following amendments, which, if acceded to by you, will perfect the agreement between us. At ten o'clock to-morrow I propose to evacuate the works in and around Vicksburg, and to surrender the city and garrison under my command by marching out with my colors and arms, and stacking them in front of my present limits, after which you will take possession; officers to retain their side-arms and personal property, and the rights and property of citizens to be respected.

I am, General, yours, very respectfully,

J. C. PEMBERTON, Lieutenant-General.

Grant's answer was dictated by magnanimity; as a soldier, he was willing to allow some show of respect to the officers and men who had borne the horrors of the siege: it was as follows:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TENNESSEE,
BEFORE VICKSBURG, July 4, 1863.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PEMBERTON,

Commanding Forces in Vicksburg:

GENERAL-I have the honor to acknowledge your communication of the 3d of July. The amendments proposed by you cannot be acceded to in full. It will be necessary to furnish every officer and man with a parole, signed by himself, which, with the completion of the rolls of prisoners, will necessarily take some time. Again, I can make no stipulation with regard to the treatment of citizens and their private property. While I do not propose to cause uny of them any undue annoyance or loss, I cannot consent to leave myself under restraint by stipulations. The property which officers can be allowed to take with them will be as stated in the proposition of last evening—that is, that officers will be allowed their private baggage and side-arms, and mounted officers one horse each. If you mean by your proposition for each brigade to march to the front of the lines now occupied by it, and stack their arms at ten o'clock A. M., and then return to the inside and remain as prisoners until

properly paroled, I will make no objection to it. Should no modification be made of your acceptance of my terms by nine o'clock A. M., I shall regard them as having been rejected, and act accordingly. Should these terms be accepted, white flags will be displayed along your lines to prevent such of my troops as may not have been notified from firing on your men. I am, General, very respectfully, Your obedient servant,

These terms were accepted.

U. S. GRANT,

Major-General United States Army.

McPherson's corps was placed under arms. The rebel troops marched out and stacked their arms, to the number. of 31,600 men, occupying three hours in so doing, and our troops marched in: 172 guns also fell into our hands. General Grant's triumphal entry was in the afternoon of July 4.

THE FOURTH OF JULY.

We had become accustomed, in later years, and before the war, to sneer at Fourth of July celebrations; "buncombe" and “fustian" were the other names for the orations pronounced on that day; but the events of this wonderful year were to consecrate it afresh in the hearts of all true patriots. The shouts of Grant's conquering army were echoed back from equally sonorous voices at Gettysburg, where, after three days of hard fighting, in which the glorious Army of the Potomac had utterly baffled and defeated “an enemy superior in numbers, and flushed with the pride of a successful invasion,"* it rested on the 4th of July, to keep the nation's birthday. Vicksburg and Gettysburg! names which shall forever stand among the decisive battles in the world's history, and mark the great crisis in our country's fate; a new declaration of our independence-a seal of our perpetuity. All honor to the men who achieved them!

It is worthy to be recorded, that when Pemberton was asked his motives for selecting the 4th of July as the day of surrender, he said: "The answer is obvious; I believed that

* Meade's order to his troops.

upon that day I should obtain better terms. Well aware of the vanity of our foes, I knew they would attach vast importance to the entrance, on the 4th of July, into the stronghold of the great river, and that, to gratify their national vanity, they would yield then what could not be extorted from them at any other time." We like that word vanity; it could not be improved, except, perhaps, by terms which can hardly be considered synonymous-loyalty, patriotism, and selfrespect.

As to the great importance of the reduction of Vicksburg, we may refer to Sherman's recent statement, that it made the destruction of the rebellion certain, and that the rebels would have abandoned at once a lost cause, had they not been blinded by passion, and lured by false syrens to a greater destruction. Carlyle tells a story of a fabulous Norse warrior who possessed an invisible sword of magic sharpness. It clove his enemy in two, without his feeling the blow, and it was not until he shook himself that he fell apart. Thus Grant, with his magic sword, had cut the great rebellion in twain, but it needed the shaking of a few more campaigns to demonstrate to the rebels, and to the world, that the fatal blow had been given at Vicksburg.

Grant entered Vicksburg in triumph on the afternoon of the 4th; but was very sullenly received at the rebel headquarters. He had defeated the enemy in five battles outside of the city, had taken the State capital, and by the capture of Vicksburg he had captured thirty-seven thousand prisoners, including nineteen general officers, and four thousand officers of lower grades. The rebels had lost in battle, from the beginning of the campaign, upwards of ten thousand men, three hundred and one pieces of artillery, and thirty-five thousand small-arms; they had also surrendered a large amount of public property, consisting of railroads, locomotives, cars, steamboats, cotton, and provisions.

But best of all, in the sententious language of Mr. Lincoln, the great river, which had been fretting and fuming under the iron chain of the rebels, now went unvexed to the sea." On

the 16th of July, the steamboat Imperial arrived at New Orleans from St. Louis, the first boat which had gone over that route for more than two years.

On the 28th of the same month she returned to her wharf at St. Louis, amid the welcoming shouts of thousands. Every shout was a tribute to him who had opened the river, and sent its waters forever "unvexed to the sea."

COMMENTS.

In a review of this great campaign, Grant's actions shine so pre-eminently, that an estimate of the biographer, in the way of a summary, is totally unnecessary. He was active, versatile, tenacious of purpose, Napoleonic in his judgment and use of men, with moral courage to assign or remove them according to their merits. And, combined with all these high qualities, he had exhibited remarkable skill in manoeuvring large armies in the field; in learning instant lessons from repulses; in conducting an arduous siege; in brushing away a succoring army;-always preserving that equal mind which it is more difficult to keep in the extreme of prosperity than in that of adversity. Undisturbed by his great troubles, he was not puffed up by the great success, but was ready for new labors, and, if God should send them, final successes. It is no injustice to others to say that his chief supporters were Sherman, McPherson, and Logan. Sherman, like Grant, has achieved such universal reputation, that we need not pause to eulogize him. McPherson here exhibited to the public those qualities which Grant had long known him to possess, and which were to shine with increasing lustre until his lamentable fall in the Georgia campaign. Logan's dashing valor was eminently conspicuous. Having declared that the Western men would hew their way to the Gulf, he was a bright example of the truth of his prediction; ever at his post, and always distinguished for that fearless impetuosity which the world now considers his characteristic.

Grant at once recommended Sherman and McPherson for the rank of brigadier-general in the regular army.

NOTE.-The sketch of this great campaign would be incomplete without brief reference to the unparalleled march of Colonel (afterwards General) B. H. Grierson, up to that time the most famous raid on record. Its object was, the destruction of public property and of the railroads, and to make a diversion in favor of the army moving upon Vicksburg. Grierson proposed it, and began his preparations on the 1st of April. His force consisted of the Sixth and Seventh Illinois Cavalry and the Second Iowa, commanded respectively by Colonels Loomis, Price, and Hatch.

Starting from La Grange, he moved upon Ripley. Thence he crossed the Tallahatchie. Detachments to deceive the enemy and destroy the railroads, were sent to the east, north, and even the northwest. From Pontotoc he sent back one hundred and seventy-five men, the least valuable, and one gun, to La Grange. A small detachment was sent to Columbus to destroy the track; and at Starksville he captured a rebel mail of great value. On the 22d he was at Louisville, and he crossed the Memphis Railroad at Newton. His route then lay through Raleigh, where he cut the telegraph wires; across the Leaf River, destroying the bridge across the Pearl; through Gallatin and to Union Courthouse. Thence southward, destroying as he went bridges and track. The rebels were now gathering on his track, to stop his return. But he had no idea of returning. At Oskya, where they tried to stop him, he broke them. Then, by Greensburg and Clinton, he rode into Baton Rouge on the 1st of May! A notable ride; in seventeen days he had travelled eight hundred miles through the heart of the State; given the people a great fright; entirely deceived and eluded the armed enemy; destroyed four millions of property; and so injured the railroads, as to make them incapable for some time of being used to our detriment.

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