In a word, the detractors of the silent general made
little impression on the solitary President, who told them shortly and
decisively: "I can't spare this man; he fights." They wholly failed to
penetrate the protecting fence which the civilian threw around the
soldier, and within the shelter of which that soldier so admirably
performed the feat which more than any other illustrates the national
arms. Certainly the President comes in for his peculiar share of the
praise. When the news came to Mr. Lincoln he wrote to General Grant this
letter:--
"July 16, 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 services you have done the country.
"I wish to say a word further. When you 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 in a general hope that you
knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like would
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.
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