Grant was only a captain at first. Then he was made a colonel, and was soon raised to the rank of general. He met the Confederates first at Belmont, Missouri. Here he was defeated, and had to take his men aboard river-boats to get them away. That was his first and nearly his last defeat.
The Confederates had built two strong forts in Kentucky which they named Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. General Grant marched against them with an army and Commodore Foote steamed against them with a fleet of iron-clad steamboats. Fort Henry was taken by the fleet before Grant could get to it. Then he marched across country to Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River. He attacked this fort so fiercely that the Confederates tried to get out of it but did not succeed. Then they proposed to surrender, and asked him what terms he would give them.
"No terms except an immediate and unconditional surrender," he said. "I propose to move immediately on your works."
This settled the matter. They surrendered—fifteen thousand in all. After that many said that U. S. Grant stood for "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
I cannot tell you about all the fights that took place in the West, but there was a terrible battle at a place called Pittsburg Landing, which lasted two days, and in which Grant came very near being defeated. There was a severe one at Murfreesboro on the last day of the year, and another three days afterwards. Grant was not there, but Bragg, the Confederate General, was defeated.
The Confederates had an important stronghold on the Mississippi River at the city of Vicksburg, where they had many forts and a large number of cannon. General Sherman tried to capture these forts but was driven back. Then General Grant tried it and found it a very hard task.
The country was all swamp and creeks which no army could get through, so Grant at last marched south on the other side of the river, and then crossed over and marched north again. He had to fight every step of his way, and to live on the food his men could carry, for he had cut loose from the North. But he soon reached the city and began a long siege. The Confederates held out until all their food was gone, and until they had eaten up nearly all their horses and mules. Then they surrendered. Twenty-seven thousand men were taken prisoners.
This took place on the 4th of July, 1863, the same day that General Lee marched away from the field at Gettysburg. That was one of the greatest Fourths of July this country had ever seen, for with it the last chance of the South was lost. General Lee had lost many thousands of his hardy veterans, men whom he could never replace. And in the fighting around Vicksburg and the capture of that city nearly fifty thousand more fell on the battle-field or were taken prisoners. It was a loss which the leaders of the Southern army bitterly felt. Fighting kept on for two years more, but they would have been wiser to give up then and save all the death and misery that came to them afterwards.