During that time the people of Vicksburg sought
refuge from the enemy's shells in caves and cellars, their only food at
times consisting of rats and mule flesh. But on July 4, 1863, the day
after General Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, Vicksburg surrendered to General
Grant. Four days later Port Hudson, some distance below, was captured, and
thus the last stronghold of the Mississippi came under control of the
North.
General Grant had become the hero of the Northern army. His success was in
no small measure due to his dogged perseverance. While his army was laying
siege to Vicksburg, a Confederate woman, at whose door he stopped to ask
for a drink of water, inquired whether he expected ever to capture
Vicksburg. "Certainly," he replied. "But when?" was the next question.
Quickly came the answer: "I cannot tell exactly when I shall take the
town, but _I mean to stay here till I do, if it takes me thirty years_."
General Grant having by his capture of Vicksburg won the confidence of the
people, President Lincoln, in 1864, put him in command of all the Union
armies of the East and the West. In presenting the new commission, Lincoln
addressed him in these words: "As the country herein trusts you, so, under
God, it will sustain you.
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