My Dear General—I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment 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 Gipson, Grand Gulf and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong.
Yours, very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
It is stated on good authority that at the time the news of Grant’s success reached the President, there were several gentlemen present some of whom had just been informing Mr. Lincoln that there were great complaints against General Grant with regard to his intemperate habits. After reading the telegram announcing the fall of Vicksburg, the President turned to his anxious friends of the temperance question and said:
“So I understand Grant drinks whiskey to excess?”
“What whiskey does he drink?”
“What whiskey?” doubtfully queried his hearers.
“Yes. Is it Bourbon or Monongahela?”
“Why do you ask, Mr. President?”
“Because if it makes him win victories like that at Vicksburg, I will send a demijohn of the same kind to every general in the army.”