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that the rebels treated this class of prisoners of war, as well as their officers, with great barbarity. It has not been possible however to ascertain the correctness of these representatious in regard to the treatment of these prisoners.

"After the capture of Vicksburg, General Grant reported that his troops were so much fatigued and worn out with forced marches and the labors of the siege, as to absolutely require several weeks of repose before undertaking another campaign. Nevertheless, as the exigencies of the service seemed to require it, he sent out those who were least fatigued on several important expeditions, while the others remained at Vicksburg to put that place in a better defensive condition for a small garrison."

The following letter was written some days after the capitulation by President Lincoln :

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 13th, 1863. "To Major-General GRANT:

"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 service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When you first 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 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.

"Yours, very truly,

"A. LINCOLN."

HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED NORTH AND SOUTH.

The intelligence of the glorious consummation of General Grant's plans was received with the most unbounded delight by the people of the country, and the praise awarded to the gallant soldiers who had achieved the victories, and to their skilful commander, was not in the least lessened by the equally glad tidings which had been. wafted to their ears from the valleys of Pennsylvania. "Gettysburg and Vicksburg" was the watchword which

issued from the lips of every patriot, and throughout the length and breadth of the loyal States, old and young, male and female, united in one hymn of thanksgiving to the Almighty, by whose will our armies in the East and West had met with so much success. Even the Southern journals, while lamenting their losses, did not hesitate to award honor to General Grant, as the following extract from an editorial published in one of these treasonable sheets will show :

"We pardon," says the journalist, "General Grant's smoking a cigar as he entered the smouldering ruins of the town of Vicksburg. A little stage effect is admissible in great captains, considering that Napoleon at Milan wore the little cocked hat and sword of Marengo, and that snuff was the inevitable concomitant of victory in the great Frederick. General Grant is a noble fellow, and by the terms of capitulation which he accorded to the heroic garrison, showed himself as generous as Napoleon was to Wurmser at the surrender of Mantua. His deed will read well in history, and he has secured to himself a name which posterity will pronounce with veneration and gratitude. There is no general in this country, or in Europe, that has done harder work than General Grant, and none that has better graced his victories by the exercise of humanity and virtue. What we learn of the terms of capitulation is sufficient to prove General Grant to be a generous soldier and a man. A truly brave man respects bravery in others, and when the sword is sheathed, considers himself free to follow the dictates of humanity. General Grant is not a general that marks his progress by proclamations to frighten unarmed men, women, and children; he fulminates no arbitrary edicts against the press; he does not make war on newspapers and their correspondents; he flatters no one to get himself puffed; but he is terrible in arms and magnanimous after the battle. Go on, brave General Grant; pursue the course you have

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marked out for yourself, and Clio, the pensive muse, as she records your deeds, will rejoice at her manly theme."

THE FALL OF PORT HUDSON.

The fall of Vicksburg made Port Hudson untenable, and on the eighth of July, 1863, it was surrendered to General Banks, with fifty-one pieces of artillery, five thousand stand of arms, a large amount of ammunition and stores, and nearly six thousand men and officers, including two Generals.

THE PURSUIT AFTER THE SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG THE REOPENING OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

Immediately after the surrender of Vicksburg, General Sherman was ordered by the commander-in-chief to move on the rebel leader Joseph E. Johnston, who, it was understood, was preparing to attack him in the rear, and on the sixth of July he was investing Jackson, Mississippi. On the eleventh a cavalry force captured in a house near Jackson the private library of Jefferson Davis, and several bushels of letters belonging to the same individual, many of the most important of which were subsequently given to the public through the columns of the loyal press; and on the following day another detachment destroyed the railroad east of Jackson. On the thirteenth an unsuccessful attack was made by the enemy, and on the night of the sixteenth, Johnston evacuated Jackson, and fled towards Meridian. One brigade moved immediately forward, and, dashing into the town, raised the flag of the Union on the State House.

While these movements were in progress, General Grant remained at Vicksburg supervising the general arrangements of the movement, and at the same time sending out certain important expeditions, which, in their successful result, had great influence upon the more extensive pro

jects of the skilful commander. Among these was one sent to Yazoo City, which captured three hundred prisoners, six cannon, a number of small arms and eight hundred horses and mules. One steamer was also captured and five burned.

The fall of Jackson ended the campaign, and for a brief period the victorious troops who had in less than three months fought seven hotly contested battles and numerous less important engagements, were given that rest to which their arduous labors and heroic deeds entitled them.

The arrogant and implacable foe had been captured in his stronghold, and wherever the two opposing armies had met in conflict, the evidences of the superior skill and bravery of our troops were everywhere apparent. But the destruction of the great rebel army of the Southwest was not the most important result of General Grant's campaign. There was another which had been awaited with almost equal anxiety by the country, and that was the reopening of the Mississippi river. The fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson accomplished this, and from that date to the present time, navigation has continued uninterrupted along the entire course of that stream from St. Louis to New Orleans, except where guerillas, emboldened by the absence of our troops, have pursued their murderous calling by firing upon a passing steamer, and then escaping to their coverts.

U. S. GRANT APPOINTED MAJOR-GENERALIMPORTANT ORDERS ISSUED.

General Grant remained at Vicksburg until the latter part of August, during which period he attended zealously to the interests of his Department. His services were not unappreciated at Washington, and he was appointed by the President a Major-General in the Regular army, his commission to date from the fourth of July, 1863, the day upon which he had received the surrender of Vicks

burg. The officers of his command also evinced their appreciation and regard, by presenting him with a costly sword, the handle of the weapon representing a young giant crushing the rebellion. On the twentieth of July he gave permission in a general order to five per centum of every military organization to visit their homes for thirty days, but ordered that none should leave who had shirked duty or straggled from their commands, and on the next day he addressed the following letter to the Secre tary of the Treasury:

"HEAD-QUARTErs, Department OF THE TENNESSEE, “VICKSBURG, Miss., July 21st, 1863. "SIR:-Your letter of the fourth instant to me, enclosing a copy of a letter of same date to Mr. Mellen, special agent of the Treasury, is just received. My Assistant Adjutant-General, by whom I shall send this letter, is about starting for Washington; hence I shall be very short in my reply.

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My experience in West Tennessec has convinced me that any trade whatever with the rebellious States is weakening to us of at least thirty-three per cent. of our force. No matter what the restrictions thrown around trade, if any whatever is allowed, it will be made the means of supplying the enemy with what they want. Restrictions, if lived up to, make trade unprofitable, and hence none but dishonest men go into it. I will venture to say that no honest man has made money in West Tennessee in the last year, while many fortunes have been made there during that time.

"The people in the Mississippi Valley are now nearly subjugated. Keep trade out for a few months, and I doubt not but that the work of subjugation will be so complete, that trade can be opened freely with the States of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi; that the people of these States will be more anxious for the enforcement and protection of our laws than the people of the loyal States. They have experienced the misfortune of being without them, and are now in a most happy condition to appreciate their blessings.

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No theory of my own will ever stand in the way of my executing, in good faith, any order I may receive from those in authority over me; but my position has given me an opportunity of seeing what would not be known by persons away from the scene of war, and I venture, therefore, to suggest great caution in opening trade with rebels.

“I am, Sir, very respectfully,
"Your obedient servant,

“U. S. Grant, Major-General. "HON. S. P. CHASE Secretary of the Treasury."

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