Executive Mansion,
Washington, July 13,
1863.
Major General Grant
My Dear General
I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I
write this now as a grateful acknowledgement 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 Gen. Banks; and when you turned Northward, East of
the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal
acknowledgement that you were right and I was wrong.
Yours very truly
A. Lincoln
SOURCES: Roy P. Basler, editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,
Volume 6, p. 326. A
draft of this letter can be found among The Abraham Lincoln
Papers at the Library of Congress; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 52, Part 1 (Serial No. 109), p.
406; John Y. Simon,
Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 9, p.197.
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