“General Grant is a copious worker and fighter,” President Lincoln wrote
to General Burnside in July, 1863, “but a meagre writer or telegrapher.”
Grant never wrote a report until the battle was over.
President Lincoln wrote a letter to General Grant on July 13th, 1863,
which indicated the strength of the hold the successful fighter had upon
the man in the White House.
It ran as follows:
“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 write 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 Big Black, I feared it was a mistake.
“I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and
I was wrong.”