Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

‘ [400] 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.’

Halleck was almost equally generous in his praise of a campaign which he had once disapproved. The following letter reflects as much credit on the writer as it can possibly confer on the recipient: ‘Your report, dated July 6th, of your campaign in Mississippi, ending in the capitulation of Vicksburg, was received last evening. Your narration of the campaign, like the operations themselves, is brief, soldierly, and in every respect creditable and satisfactory. In boldness of plan, rapidity of execution, and brilliancy of routes, these operations will compare most favorably with those of Napoleon about Ulm. You and your army have well deserved the gratitude of your country, and it will be the boast of your children that their fathers were of the heroic army which reopened the Mississippi river.’

The grade of major-general in the regular army was immediately conferred on the successful soldier, and other honors, votes of thanks, and costly gifts were showered upon him. The country rang with applause, and the victory of Gettysburg occurring on the same day, the spirit of the people rose at once from the gloom and depression into which it had fallen, to an elation and confidence like that it had