Howard justifying Meade's entire action at Wil- CHAP. IX. liamsport, the President answered him expressing his deep mortification at the escape of Lee, rendered deeper by the high hopes inspired by the brilliant conduct of our troops at Gettysburg; he referred to his own long-cherished and often expressed conviction that if the enemy ever crossed the Potomac he might be destroyed; he said that Meade and his army had expended their skill and toil and blood up to the ripe harvest and then allowed it to go to waste; but he added that, after the lapse of several days, he now felt profoundly grateful to Meade and his army for what they had done without indulging in any criticisms for what they had not done, and General Meade had his full confidence as a brave and skillful officer and a true man.1 While the President's disappointment and irritation were at their keenest, he wrote a letter to General Meade which he never signed or sent. It was not an unusual proceeding with him to put upon paper in this way his expressions of dissatisfaction. and then to lay them away, rather than wound a deserving public servant by even merited censure. The letter is given as the clearest statement which could be made of the failure to reap the full harvest of the Gettysburg victory: 1 The battle of Gettysburg was one of the most destructive in modern history. The Comte de Paris says, "The losses on both sides were almost equal, and enormous considering the number of combatants engaged." According to the revised tables the Union army lost 3072 killed, 14,497 wounded, 5434 captured J. H., Diary, July 21, 1863. CHAP. IX. I have just seen your dispatch to General Halleck, asking to be relieved of your command because of a supposed censure of mine. I am very, very grateful to you for the magnificent success you gave the cause of the country at Gettysburg; and I am sorry now to be the author of the slightest pain to you. But I was in such deep distress myself that I could not restrain some expression of it. I have been oppressed nearly ever since the battles at Gettysburg by what appeared to be evidences that yourself and General Couch and General Smith were not seeking a collision with the enemy, but were trying to get him across the river without another battle. What these evidences were, if you please, I hope to tell you at some time when we shall both feel better. The case, summarily stated, is this: You fought and beat the enemy at Gettysburg; and, of course, to say the least, his loss was as great as yours. He retreated, and you did not, as it seemed to me, pressingly pursue him; but a flood in the river detained him till, by slow degrees, you were again upon him. You had at least twenty thousand veteran troops directly with you, and as many more raw ones within supporting distance, all in addition to those who fought with you at Gettysburg; while it was not possible that he had received a single recruit; and yet you stood and let the flood run down, bridges be built, and the enemy move away at his leisure without attacking him. And Couch and Smith - the latter left Carlisle in time, upon all ordinary calculation, to have aided you in the last battle at Gettysburg, but he did not arrive. At the end of more than ten days, I believe twelve, under constant urging, he reached Hagerstown from Carlisle, which is not an inch over fifty-five miles, if so much, and Couch's movement was very little different. Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely. If you could not safely attack Lee last Monday, how can you possibly do so south of the river, when you can take with you very few more than two-thirds of the force you then had in hand? It would be unreasonable to expect, and I do not expect [that] you can now effect much. Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it. I beg you will not consider this a prosecution or persecution of yourself. As you had learned that I was dissatisfied, I have thought it best to kindly tell you why. CHAP. IX. Lincoln to Meade, July 14, 1863. Autograph MS. CHAPTER X СНАР. Х. 1863. VICKSBURG HE town of Vicksburg stands on a plateau THE some two hundred feet above the river level, which has been cut and carved by the rains of centuries so as to present a chaos of ravines and ridges running in every direction. The hills are composed of a peculiarly tough and fine-grained clay, and the ravines, cut out of them by the running streams, retain their form for many years, only gradually widening under the climate and weather. Except where the streams that form them are very large, the ravines are extremely narrow at the bottom. They are so steep that it is impossible for a full-armed soldier to climb them. The only way in which this net-work of hills and chasms can be traversed is by roads running along the crests of the ridges. All these crests were fully commanded by the Confederate works; and it was this which made the siege of Vicksburg so tedious and toilsome an enterprise. When Grant arrived before the intrenchments, on the evening of May 18th, he thought it possible that the defeats of the last week had so demoralized and discouraged the defenders of the place that a quick rush of his victorious troops might carry the works by a coup-de-main. He СНАР. Х. therefore ordered a general attack on the afternoon of the 19th. Sherman's corps got up to the May, 1863. works, but, as McClernand's and McPherson's were at a greater distance, they were unable to afford Sherman the necessary support, and the attack failed, with no advantage to the Union forces except a nearer approach to the enemy's works, and the gaining of better ground for a future attempt. General Grant did not wait long for his second trial. The reasons which he gave in his report for the second assault have been generally accepted by military critics as sound, in spite of the failure of the enterprise. He believed the assault could be made successful; secondly, he knew that Johnston was at Canton, and was being rapidly reënforced; he was anxious, therefore, to take the place before Johnston could fall upon his rear, and, having done this, he would himself have been able to turn upon Johnston and drive him from the State before the season was too late for campaigning; and, finally, he says: "The troops themselves were impatient to possess Vicksburg, and would not have worked in the trenches with the same zeal, believing it unnecessary, that they vol.xxiv., did after their failure to carry the enemy's works." He therefore ordered, on the evening of the 21st, May, 1863. an assault all along the line at ten o'clock the next morning, and caused all the corps commanders to set their watches by his so that the assault might be made at the same instant. This was done according to orders, and with equal bravery and energy in all three of the corps, and with equal Grant, Report, July 6, 1863. W. R. Part I., p. 55. Grant to Halleck, May 22, and Ibid., pp. 37, 55. |