"What do you think of the Tycoon by this time, my boy?"
"Tycoon" and "the Ancient" were names his rather irreverent secretaries had given Lincoln. Nevertheless they both reverenced and loved him. Their nicknames for him were born of affection.
"Why, why," Tom began. He did not quite know how to put into fitting words all he felt about his chief. But John Hay, who was never much interested in the opinion on anything of anybody but himself, went on:
"I'll tell you what he is, Tom. He's a backwoods Jupiter. He sits here and wields both the machinery of government and the bolts of war. A backwoods Jupiter!"
[CHAPTER IX]
Tom Goes to Vicksburg—Morgan's Raid—Gen. Basil W. Duke Captures Tom—Gettysburg—Gen. Robert E. Lee Gives Tom His Breakfast—In Libby Prison—Lincoln's Speech at Gettysburg.
Late in June of 1863 Tom again left General Grant's headquarters. These were then in the outskirts of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The long siege of that town, held by a considerable Confederate force under General Pemberton, was nearing its end. Tom longed to be in at the death, but that could not be. He had been sent with dispatches to Grant and this time there had been no suggestion by the President that he might fight a bit if he felt like it. So he was now again on his way to Washington. He was a long time getting there, nearly a year; and this was the way of it.