HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT
OF THE TENNESSEE,
Before Vicksburg,
Miss., July 4, 1863.
Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON,
Commanding Confederate Forces, Vicksburg, Miss.:
GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
communication of July 3. The amendment proposed by you cannot be acceded to in
full. It will be necessary to furnish every officer and man with a parole
signed by himself, which, with the completion of the rolls of prisoners, will
necessarily take some time.
Again, I can make no stipulations with regard to the
treatment of citizens and their private property. While I do not propose to
cause them any undue annoyance or loss, I cannot consent to leave myself under
any restraint by stipulations. The property which officers will be allowed to
take with them will be as stated in my proposition of last evening; that is,
officers will be allowed their private baggage and side-arms, and mounted
officers one horse each.
If you mean by your proposition for each brigade to march to
the front of the lines now occupied by it, and stack arms at 10 a.m., and then
return to the inside, and there remain as prisoners until properly paroled, I
will make no objection to it.
Should no notification be received of your acceptance of my
terms by 9 a.m., I shall regard them as having been rejected, and shall act
accordingly. Should these terms be accepted, white flags should be displayed
along your lines to prevent such of my troops as may not have been notified
from firing upon your men.
I am, general, very
respectfully, your obedient servant,
U.S. GRANT,
Major-General.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
24, Part 1 (Serial No. 36), p. 61
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