men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”1

1 Lincoln, Complete Works, vol. ii. p. 439. In chap. vii. vol. viii. Nicolay and Hay have given a very interesting account of this address; see, also, the Nation, Nov. 28, 1895, p. 387.

My authorities for the campaign of Gettysburg are the correspondence and orders in O. R., vol. xxvii. parts i., ii., and iii.; reports of Halleck, Hooker, Meade, Ingalls, Hunt, Doubleday, Hancock, Gibbon, Webb, Hays, Humphreys, Sedgwick, Howard, Schurz, Slocum, part i. ; reports of Couch and W. F. Smith, part ii.; reports of Lee, Longstreet, Ewell, A. P. Hill, part ii.; testimony of Butterfield, Doubleday, Hancock, Humphreys, Hunt, Meade, Sedgwick, Sickles, Wadsworth, Warren, Williams, C. W., 1865, vol. i.; articles of Longstreet, Hunt, Halstead, Gibbon, Law, Allan, Alexander, Francis A. Walker, Century War Book, vol. iii.; Life of Lee, Long; do. by Fitzhugh Lee; do. by Cooke; do. by White; Taylor, Four Years with Gen. Lee; Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox; Nicolay and Hay, vol. vii.; Lincoln, Complete Works, vol. ii.; Walker, History of the Second Army Corps; Walker's Hancock; Doubleday, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg; Davis, Confederate Government, vol. ii.; Schuckers's Chase; Life of Seward, vol. iii.; Swinton, Army of the Potomac; do. Decisive Battles; General Wolseley in the North American Review for Sept. and Oct. 1889; the files from May 11 to July 6 of the N. Y. Tribune, Times, World, Herald, Eve. Post; Boston Courier, Advertiser; Chicago Tribune; Phila. Inquirer; Washington Nat. Intelligencer; Columbus Crisis.

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CHAPTER XXI

BEFORE and during the war the Mississippi River possessed, as a channel of communication and commerce, a great importance, which has steadily diminished with the development of the railroad system of the West. The importance of gaining the control of it was from the first appreciated at the North. Looked upon in the East as a military advantage, it was deemed by the people of the Western States indispensable to their existence as an outlet to their products, an artery for their supply. The free navigation of the Mississippi" were words to conjure with, not only in the Southwest, but everywhere west of the Alleghanies, except in the region directly tributary to the great lakes. From the location of his home Lincoln was brought up with this sentiment, he had his mind impregnated with it in manhood, and now he did not for a moment lose sight of its military and commercial consequence. The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson and the resulting operations had freed the Mississippi north of Vicksburg; the capture of New Orleans had given us its mouth. But the Confederates had practical possession of it between their two strong fortresses of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, a distance of about two hundred miles, and thereby retained communication between Louisiana and Texas on one side and the rest of the Confederacy on the other. Louisiana supplied them with sugar, and the great State of Texas furnished quantities of grain and beef, besides affording, by virtue of its contiguity to Mexico, an avenue for munitions of war received from

1 California and Oregon are manifestly excepted from this general statement.

Europe at the Mexican port of Matamoras,1-a consideration of weight, for the ports of the Southern States were now pretty effectually sealed by the Federal blockade. Of the two fastnesses Vicksburg was by far the more important, and the desire in the Confederacy to keep it was ardent. Sentiment as well as military judgment inclined Jefferson Davis to make a strenuous effort for its defence. It was in his own State, whose notables were dear to him not only because in his view they were patriots, but because most of them were personal acquaintances or friends. His own plantation, too, was in the neighborhood of Vicksburg. He had in December, 1862, paid a visit to the State of Mississippi, and inspected with his soldier's eye the fortifications of the city, and, tarrying in Jackson to address the legislature, had urged them fervently to do their utmost in co-operation with the Confederate government to preserve this stronghold and their State from the inroads of the enemy.

From the Union point of view the three most important strategic points in the South were Richmond, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. Vicksburg ranked second, for its capture would give the United States the control of the Mississippi River and cut the Confederacy asunder. One attempt had been made to take it by a bombardment from gun-boats and mortarvessels, and later another by an assault of the army. Both had failed. Nevertheless, the government, the army, and the navy determined to persevere. Since it was within his province, Grant assumed, January 30, 1863, "the immediate command of the expedition against Vicksburg.” 3

Vicksburg, which for the most part was built upon a bluff two hundred feet above high-water mark of the river, was a natural stronghold, strengthened by art and unassailable from the front. The problem was to reach the high ground on the

1 Capt. Mahan's Farragut, pp. 207, 223, 241; Soley, The Blockade and the Cruisers, p. 37.

2 See Nicolay and Hay, vol. v. p. 348, vol. vii. p. 131; Capt. Mahan's Farragut, p. 177; Swinton's Decisive Battles, chap. vii.; ante, p. 221. 8 O. R., vol v. part i. p. 11.

CH. XXI.]

GRANT'S VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN

301

east bank of the river so that it might be attacked or besieged from the side or rear. Grant prosecuted the work on a canal which had been begun with the object of making a channel across the peninsula opposite Vicksburg, by which transports might pass below it, carrying troops and supplies to a new base. With the same purpose he endeavored to open a route through the bayous from Milliken's Bend on the north to New Carthage on the south. Other devices of artificial channels connecting natural water-courses above Vicksburg were tried; apparently, indeed, every experiment was made that engineering skill or military initiative could suggest. Nearly two months were spent in such operations, and all of them failed.

It had been a winter of heavy and continuous rains. The river had risen to an unusual height, and in places the levees had given way. "The whole country was covered with water. Troops could scarcely find dry ground on which to pitch their tents. Malarial fevers, measles, and small-pox broke out among the men." From newspaper correspondents, from letters which the soldiers wrote home, from reports of visitors to the camps, the people of the North knew in detail of the many attempts and failures, of the exceeding discomfort of the army, and received exaggerated accounts of the sickness which prevailed.2 Having in mind the Grant of Shiloh rather than the Grant of Donelson, they looked upon his actions in a fault-finding mood, and believed the stories of his intemperance which were now in large measure revived. McClernand, one of his corps commanders who had hoped to head the expedition against Vicksburg, a patriotic War Democrat, a clever politician, and a man of influence in the West, was a mover in the intrigue for his displacement. An able

1 Grant's Personal Memoirs, vol. i. p. 458. This is directly and indirectly supported by Grant's contemporaneous despatches to Washington. See O. R., vol. xxiv. part i. pp. 10, 14, 17, 18, 19, 24.

2 See Grant to Halleck, Feb. 18, ibid., p. 18; Grant to E. B. Washburne, March 10, Grant letters edited by Wilson, p. 25.

3 Gen. Sherman's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 315; Dana and Wilson, Life of

Western journalist who swayed public opinion maintained, in a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, that Grant was incompetent, accused him of gross misconduct, and demanded, "in the name of the Western people and the Western troops, that his command should be taken from him and given to Rosecrans."1 Chase sent this letter to the President with his sanction, and added that reports inculpating General Grant "are too common to be safely or even prudently disregarded." " Nevertheless, Lincoln stood by his general

faithfully.3

Grant was slandered. To Rawlins, his assistant adjutantgeneral, his true friend and mentor, he had early in March given a pledge on his honor that he would drink no more during the war, and at this time he was adhering to the pledge with rigor. His despatches and letters exhibit a cool brain, his actions show a steady judgment and unremitting energy. Since the battle of Shiloh 5 he had most of the time had a

Grant, p. 113; Badeau, Milt. Hist. of Grant, vol. i. p. 180; Grant's Personal Memoirs, vol. i. p. 458; N. Y. Eve. Post, July 8.

1 April 4, Nicolay and Hay, vol. vii. p. 153.

2 Ibid., p. 154.

8 It is to this period that Nicolay and Hay assign the retort of Lincoln to the zealous persons who demanded Grant's removal because he drank too much whiskey: "If I knew what brand of whiskey he drinks, I would send a barrel or so to some other generals." — Ibid.; Richardson's Life of Grant, p. 299; Anecdotes of A. Lincoln, J. R. McClure, p. 94. Nicolay and Hay do not vouch absolutely for the authenticity of this anecdote, and I doubt it, for the reason that if the traditions be true the President and Stanton were disturbed at the reports of Grant's intemperance. In his Reminiscences, Charles A. Dana gives a partial confirmation of this. "Stanton sent for me to come to Washington," Dana writes. "He wanted some one to go to Grant's army, he said, to report daily to him the military proceedings and to give such information as would enable Mr. Lincoln and him to settle their minds as to Grant, about whom at that time there were many doubts and against whom there was some complaint." The letter sending Dana his appointment is dated March 12. — McClure's Magazine, Nov. 1897, p. 29. See Dana to Stanton, July 13, ibid., Jan. 1898, p. 254.

4 Letter of Rawlins to Grant, June 6, From Chattanooga to Petersburg, W. F. Smith, p. 179. In this connection see Charles A. Dana's Reminis cences, McClure's Magazine, Jan. 1898, pp. 254, 258.

5 This took place April 6, 7, 1862. See vol. iii. p. 620.