Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/79

Rh lines, the officers taking with them their side-arms and clothing, and the field, staff, and cavalry officers one horse each. The rank and file were to be allowed all their clothing, but no other property. If these conditions were accepted, any amount of rations deemed necessary was to be taken from the stores they had, and also the necessary cooking utensils for preparing them. Thirty wagons also, counting two two-horse or mule teams as one, were to be allowed to transport such articles as could not be carried along. The same conditions were allowed to all sick and wounded officers and soldiers as fast as they became able to travel.

The officer who received this letter said that it would be impossible to answer it by night, and it was not till a little before peep of day that the proposed reply was furnished. In the main the terms were accepted, but Pemberton proposed as amendments:

General Grant in his reply said:

The answer came back promptly: "The terms proposed by you are accepted."

We had a glorious celebration that day. Pemberton's note had been received just after daylight, and at the appointed hour of ten o'clock the surrender was consummated. I rode into Vicksburg at the side of the conqueror, and afterward perambulated among the conquered. The rebel soldiers were generally more contented even than we. Now they were going home, they said. They had had enough of the war. The cause of the Confederacy was lost. They wanted to take the oath of allegiance, many of them. I was not surprised to learn a month later that of the twenty odd thousand well men who were paroled at Vicksburg the greater part had since dispersed; and I felt sure they could never be got to serve again. The officers, on the other hand, all declared their determination never to give in. They had mostly on that day the look of men who have been crying all night. One major who commanded a regiment from Missouri burst into tears as he followed his disarmed men back into their lines after they had surrendered their colors and their guns in front of them.

I found the buildings of Vicksburg in a better condition than I had expected. Still, there were a good many people living in caves dug in the banks. Naturally the shells did less damage to these vaults than to dwellings. At the end of the first week after our entrance 66,000 stand of small arms had been collected, mainly in good condition, and more were constantly being discovered. They were concealed in caves, as well as in all sorts of buildings. The siege and sea-coast guns found exceeded sixty, and the whole captured artillery was above 200 pieces. The stores of rebel ammunition also proved to be surprisingly heavy. As Grant expressed it, there was enough to have kept up the defense for six years at the rate they were using it. The stock of army clothing was officially invoiced at $5,000,000—Confederate prices. Of sugar, molasses, and salt there was a large quantity, and 60,000 pounds of bacon were found in one place.

The day after we entered the town (July 5th) I wrote Mr. Stanton a long telegram, describing the surrender and giving him all the important facts I had gathered concerning the condition of things in Vicksburg, and at the same time telling him Grant's plans. The telegram, for some reason, has never found its way into the War Records, so that I give it here in full:

The following telegram received at Washington, 10, July 11, 1863.

The surrender was quietly consummated yesterday morning at the appointed hour of ten o'clock. The rebel troops marched out and stacked arms in front of their works, while General Pemberton appeared for a moment with his staff upon the parapet of the central fort. The occupation of the place by our forces