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On the very day I had agreed to be there I was there,
and we swung our flanks around, and the present Governor of Missouri
fell a prisoner to the enemy on that day. We failed. I waited
anxiously for a co-operating force inland and below, but they
did not come, and after I had made the assault I learned that
the depot at Holly Springs had been broken up, and that General
Grant had sent me word not to attempt it. But it was too late.
Nevertheless, although we were unable to carry it at first, there
were other things to be done. The war covered such a vast area
there was plenty to do. I thought of that affair at Arkansas
Post, although others claim it, and they may have it if they want
it. We cleaned them out there, and General Grant then brought
his army to Vicksburg, and you in St. Louis remember that long
winter – how we were on the levee, with the waters rising and
drowning us like muskrats; how we were seeking channels through
Deer Creek and Yazoo Pass, and how we finally cut a canal across
the peninsula, in front of Vicksburg. But all that time the true
movement was the original movement, and everything not approximating
to it nearer the truth. But we could not make any retrograde
movement. Why? Because your people of the North were too noisy.
VICKSBURG – GRANT – SHERMAN.
We could not take any step backwards, and for that
reason we were compelled to run the batteries at Vicksburg, and
make a lodgement on the ridges or some of the bluffs below Vicksburg.
It is said I protested against it. It is folly. I never protested
in my life – never. [Laughter.] On the contrary, General Grant
rested on me probably more responsibility even than any other
commander under him. For he wrote to me: "I want you to
move upon Haine's Bluff, to enable me to pass the next fort below
– Grand Gulf. I hate to ask you, because the fervor of the North will accuse yon
of being rebellious again." [Laughter.] I love Grant for
his kindness. I did make the feint on Haine's Bluffs, and by
that means Grant ran the blockade easily to Grand Gulf, and made
a lodgement down there and got his army up on the high plateau
in the rear of Vicksburg, while you people here were beguiled
into the belief that Sherman was again repulsed. But we did not
repose confidence in everybody. Then followed the movement on
Jackson, and the 4th of July placed us in posession
of that great stronghold, Vicksburg, and then, as Mr. Lincoln
said, "the Mississippi went unvexed to the sea."
From that day to this the war has been virtually
and properly settled. It was a certainty then. They would have
said, "We give up," but Davis would not ratify it, and
he had them under good discipline, and therefore it was necessary
to fight again. Then came the affair of Chickamauga. The army
of the Mississippi lying along its banks were called into a new
field of action, and so one morning early I got orders to go to
Chattanooga. I did not know where it was hardly. [Laughter.]
I did not know the road to go there. But I found it and got
there in time. [Laughter and cheers;] and although my men were
shoeless and the cold and bitter frosts of winter were upon us,
yet I must still go to Knoxville, thirteen miles further, to relieve
Burnside. That march we made. [A voice; and you got there in
time.] Then winter forced us to lie quiet. During that winter
I took a little exercise down the river, but that is of no account.
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