Although Lincoln praised Grant’s Vicksburg campaign as “one of the most brilliant in the world” in a letter to a congressman on May 26, the President had had doubts about his leadership. Concerned by allegations that Grant was incompetent, opposed to emancipation, and frequently drunk, Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton had sent Charles A. Dana as a special emissary to Grant’s headquarters in the spring of 1863. Aware of the nature of Dana’s mission, Grant took him into his confidence, and Dana’s favorable reports helped reassure the President. Lincoln received definitive news of the surrender of Vicksburg on July 7 and wrote his first personal note to Grant six days later.
Executive Mansion,
Washington, July 13, 1863.
Major General Grant
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-Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen. Banks; and when you turned Northward East of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong.
Yours very truly
A. LINCOLN