The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-24
PORTER ON GRANTS RECORD.
The Admiral OF the Navy Pays a Tribute to
the Leader of the Army.

The Admiral Of the Navy Pays Tribute to
the Leader of the Army.
"reminiscences of the Civil War.
In the history of the worlds sieges nothing
will be found where more patience was devel-
oped, more endurance under privations or more
courage shown than by the Union forces at the
siege of VickSburg; while on the part of the be-
sieged it was marked by their great fertility of
resource in checking almost every movement of
ours, and for the long months of suffering and
hardships they underwent.
1t belongs of right to General Grant to tell the
story of that event, for in case during the war
did he so clearly show his title to be called a
great general, nor did he elsewhere so fully ex-
hlbit all the qualities which proved him to be a
great soldier.
If General Grant had never performed any
other military act during the war, the capture of
Vicksburg alone, with all the circumstances at
tending the siege, would have entitled him to the
highest renown He had an enemy to deal with
of twice his force and protected by defenses
never surpassed in the art of war.
saw myself the great strongholds at Sevasto-
pol, of the Malakoff tower, and the Redan the
day after they were taken by combined army
OF l2O, 600 men, and these strongholds, which
have become famous in ballads and story, never
in any way compared with the defenses of
Vicksburg which looked as if thousand Titans
had been put to work to make these heights I'M
assailable
am told that there were ffty-six miles of in
The hills above, with their frowning heights
standing in defiance, were enough to deter foe
without having entertainments bristling with
cannon and manned by the hardest troops in the
Confederacy.
After it was all over and General Grant could
see the conquered city lying at his feet he could
well afford to laugh at his vile traducers who
were doing all they could to hamper him by
sending kilograms to the seat of government
questioning his fitness for so important COM
mand.
If those who lent themselves to such things
could be followed through the war, it would be
found that they never made mark-put them
where you would--nor did they achieve any good
for the government.
That was happy Fourth of July when the
confederate flag came down at Vicksburg and
the "stars and stripes" went up in its place,
while Meade's force at Gettysburg was driving
Lees army back to Richmond tattered and torn
That day, so glorious in the annals of our his
tory, lost nothing by the two brilliant events
which were added to our fame, and made it still
more dear to the heart of every true American.
When the Union flag was hoisted on the ramparts
of Vicksburg my flagship and every vessel of the
feet steamed up and down to the levee before
the city.
We discerned dust in the distance, and in a
few moments General Grant at the head of
nearly all his generals with their staffs rode up
to the gangway, and, dismounting, came on
board.
shaking and general congratulation. I opened
all my wine lockers, which contained only
eatawba, on this occasion. 1t disappeared down
the parched threats, which had tasted nothing
for some time but bad water.
Yet it exhilarated that crowd as weak wine
never did before. There was man in the
party who preserved the same quiet demeanor
he always bore, whether in adversely or in vic
tory and that was General Grant
No one, to see him sitting there with that
calm exterior. wOnl0
the great general who had accomplished one of
the most stupendous military feats on record.
There was quiet satisfaction in his face that
could not be concealed, but he behaved on that
occasion if nothing. of Importance had oc-
Cured. General Grant was the only one in that
assemblage who did not touch the simple wine
offered him. He contented himsalf with cigar,
and let me say here that this was his habit dur
ing all the time he commanded before Vicksburg;
also while he commanded before Richmond,
though the same detractors who made false rep
reservations of him in military matters also mis-
represented him in the matter above alluded to.