Evening star., 1898-01-13
THE vICKsBURG CAMPAIGN.
How 1t is Claimed 1t Was Regarded
by Gen. Grant.

ny Ten. Grant.
To the EDITOR Of The Evening Star:
In The Star of yesterday is a report of a
hearing before the House committee on
rules on the bill to make a national military
park of the Nicksburg battlefield, in which
it is stated follows:
Gen. Henderson, a member of the rules
committee. whose regiment was at Vicks-
burg, asked Col. Grant what estimate Gen.
Grant placed on the Nicksburg campaign
Col. Grant answered that his fathers es-
innate Of Nicksburg, from the standpoint
of a military operation, was low. Gen.
Grant had not considered it a safe move
but it had been forced on him by political
considerations, since retreat would have
meant political disaster in the north. But
While in principle the campaign had not
been approved Col. Grant said his father
regarded the boldness of it's execution as
making it a success.
Ii had furnished a lesson to European
military Authorities to leaving IA base
OF supplies and depending on the enemy'S
country for supplies. and although a dan
Gerous precedent. European military au-
thoritie5 now approve it. Col. Grant said
Sherman agreed with Grant that the cam
paign was not justified from military
standpoint.
1t is quite doubtful, think, whether the
reply of Col. Grant to the question of Gen.
Henderson is here correctely reported: GER
tdllly, 1 recall HOlnlllS III lne DuDuSneI
writings of Gen. Grant which confirms the
statement attributed to his son before the
House committee.
1 have near my hand at this moment
only Col Church's book on Grant" in the
series of Hero es of the Nations" in which
it is stated. RACES ISIS, $50, that, reviewing
his Ficksburg campaign in after years,
Gen Grant said:
Il often go ever our campaigns and
criticise what 1 did, and where 1 made
mistakes. Information now and then COM
ing to light for the first time shows me
frequently where 1 could have done better.
| don't think that there is any one of my
campaigns with which 1 have not some
fault to find and which. as 1 see now,
could not have improved. except perhaps
Nicksburg"
This certainly shows that Gen. Grants
own estimate of Vicksburg, from the
standpoint of a military operation" was
high, not low
Gen. Haleck, in his letter to Grant after
the CAPTURE of the city, said:
"ln boldness of plan. rapidity of execu-
ton and brilliancy of routes. these opera
tions will compare most favorably with
those of Napoleon about Cim. You and
your army have well deserved the graft
tude 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.
On July 10 1862 President Lincoln wrote:
MY Dear General: l do not remember
that you and l ever met personally. l
write this Eow as a grateful acknowledg-
ment for the almost inestimable service
YOU have done the country. l wish to say
a word further. When you first reached
the vicinity of Vicksburg, l thought you
should do what you finally dld-march the
troops across the neck. run the batteries
with the transports and thus go below;
and l never had any faith, except general
hope that you knew better than l, that
the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like
could succeed. When you got below and
took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf and vicinity,
l thought you should go down the river and
ioin Gen. Banks, and when you turned
mort hwa rd, east of the Big Black. 1 feared
IT was a mistake. l now wish to make
personal Acknowledgement that you were
right and l wrong.
If. indeed, Cen Grants estimate of Vicks-
burg, from the standpoint of a military OPP
Grafton, was low. his opinion was not
shared by Gen. Halleck or President Lin
coin.
Col Church says:
.Frort Donelson ended the war in Ken
lucky; Pea Ridge ended the war In Mis-
souri, Now the surrender of N1cksburg
and of Port Hudson drove the confederates
from Mississippi and restored to the nation
its rightful control of that magnificent IN
teriCr basin having central watershed OF
more than twelve hundred thousand miles,
and with its tributaries twice that area;
The territory included in the MISSISSIPPI
basin exceeds that of the whole European
continent, exclusive of Russia, Norway and
Sweden. rs river system includes 4o,oOo
miles of steam navigation, ana IL is esti,
be found homes for 200,OO00Oo people. Dis
possessed of this magnificent realm, the
southern ccnfederacy's dream OF great
semi-tropical slave empire was only
dream
If ever a campaign was justified from
a military standpoint," it was the Vicks-
burg campaign of Gen. Grant. ]. H. A.
January u, 1898.