Major-General Ulysses S. Grant to Abraham Lincoln, June 19, 1863

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE,        

Near Vicksburg, June 19, 1863.

Hon. A. LINCOLN,
        President of the United States:

SIR: I beg leave very respectfully to call your particular attention to the inclosed letter from Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman to me on the subject of filling the old regiments of the Army from the contemplated draft. I would add that our old regiments, all that remains of them, are veterans equaling regulars in discipline, and far superior to them in the material of which they are composed. A recruit added to them would become an old soldier, from the very contact, before he was aware of it.

Company and regimental officers, camp and garrison equipage, transportation and everything are already provided. He would cost Government nothing but his pay and allowances, and would render efficient services from the start. Placed in a new organization all these things are to be provided. Officers and men have to go through months of schooling, and, from ignorance of how to cook and provide for themselves, the ranks become depleted one-third before valuable services can be expected.

Taken in an economic point of view, one drafted man in an old regiment is worth three in a new one.

I am, sir, with great respect, 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 3 (Serial No. 38), p. 386