Details
GRANT, ULYSSES S., Lieutenant General. Autograph letter signed ("U.S. Grant Maj. Gen."), with initialled postscript, to MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN Comdg. 15th Army Corps, Head Quarters, Dept. of the Ten[nessee], Rocky Springs [Mississippi], 8 May 1863. 2 pages, 4to, integral blank, verso with usual endorsements.
GRANT TO SHERMAN: CLOSING THE UNION NET AROUND VICKSBURG
A fine battlefield communique, written a few days before the battle at Raymond, Mississippi on 12 May. Grant had made dogged and unsuccessful attempts since October 1862 to reduce the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. Then "against the advice of his subordinates, in violation of his orders, and with the full knowledge that his action would meet with disapproval from Washington, Grant made the decision that elevated him to the rank of the great captains. Knowing that Confederate reinforcements were being assembled at Jackson, 45 miles east, he undertook the sort of strategic penetration so favored by Napoleon: he would move to get between the separated wings of the enemy's force and defeat first one and then the other..." (Boatner, p.874). Here, preparing for the move inland towards Jackson, Grant takes steps to ensure the safety of his army's supply trains and communications lines as his army presses northeast from its landing stations on the Missississippi River deep into rebel Mississippi. "Troops moving in the road I have not deemed it necessary heretofore to send escorts with [wagon] trains passing back and forth. If however all your forces have left Grand Gulf it will not be intirely safe to send them so any longer. I would direct therefore that you leave in Brigade at the forks of the roads where they divide one branch going to Willow Springs, the other to Hankinson's Ferry, until wagons now behind are all up. I will direct [William Silliman] Hillyer to load all the wagons he can tomorrow and send them up to your Brigade to be escorted by it. After that to send no more, but to load them to leave them ready, until troops are coming to escort them...."
In his postscript, Grant adds: "It would be well for you to empty all the wagons you can and send them back to be escorted up with provisions by the Brigade you leave back..." Sherman's reply to Grant of the 9th explained the problems at the river croosings: "there are 500 wagons across the River and with each is an officer pressing to have it cross over as the absolute safety of the Army depends on that wagon. Make some uniform & just rule and send some body back to regulate this matter as your road will soon be crowded, & jammed unless it be done.....It is useless to push me out here till their supplies are regulated, unless you intend to live on the Country...." Published (omitting the postscript, from retained copies) in U.S. Grant, Papers, ed. John Y. Simon, 8:178 and note.
Provenance:
1. Charles A. Griswold (1830- ), who earned A.M. and M.D. degress at Yale, then in October 1862 became Assistant Surgeon to the 95th Regiment of Illinois Infantry. His regiment was part of the XVth Corps under Sherman's command throughout the Vicksburg campaign (they participated in the Yazoo Pass expedition); and later in the bBattle of Missionary Ridge and the March To the Sea. In december 1964 he was promoted to Regimental Surgeon. He was mustered out in June 1865 (biographical materials and copies of his muster documents accompany the lot)
2. The present owner, by descent.
GRANT TO SHERMAN: CLOSING THE UNION NET AROUND VICKSBURG
A fine battlefield communique, written a few days before the battle at Raymond, Mississippi on 12 May. Grant had made dogged and unsuccessful attempts since October 1862 to reduce the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. Then "against the advice of his subordinates, in violation of his orders, and with the full knowledge that his action would meet with disapproval from Washington, Grant made the decision that elevated him to the rank of the great captains. Knowing that Confederate reinforcements were being assembled at Jackson, 45 miles east, he undertook the sort of strategic penetration so favored by Napoleon: he would move to get between the separated wings of the enemy's force and defeat first one and then the other..." (Boatner, p.874). Here, preparing for the move inland towards Jackson, Grant takes steps to ensure the safety of his army's supply trains and communications lines as his army presses northeast from its landing stations on the Missississippi River deep into rebel Mississippi. "Troops moving in the road I have not deemed it necessary heretofore to send escorts with [wagon] trains passing back and forth. If however all your forces have left Grand Gulf it will not be intirely safe to send them so any longer. I would direct therefore that you leave in Brigade at the forks of the roads where they divide one branch going to Willow Springs, the other to Hankinson's Ferry, until wagons now behind are all up. I will direct [William Silliman] Hillyer to load all the wagons he can tomorrow and send them up to your Brigade to be escorted by it. After that to send no more, but to load them to leave them ready, until troops are coming to escort them...."
In his postscript, Grant adds: "It would be well for you to empty all the wagons you can and send them back to be escorted up with provisions by the Brigade you leave back..." Sherman's reply to Grant of the 9th explained the problems at the river croosings: "there are 500 wagons across the River and with each is an officer pressing to have it cross over as the absolute safety of the Army depends on that wagon. Make some uniform & just rule and send some body back to regulate this matter as your road will soon be crowded, & jammed unless it be done.....It is useless to push me out here till their supplies are regulated, unless you intend to live on the Country...." Published (omitting the postscript, from retained copies) in U.S. Grant, Papers, ed. John Y. Simon, 8:178 and note.
Provenance:
1. Charles A. Griswold (1830- ), who earned A.M. and M.D. degress at Yale, then in October 1862 became Assistant Surgeon to the 95th Regiment of Illinois Infantry. His regiment was part of the XVth Corps under Sherman's command throughout the Vicksburg campaign (they participated in the Yazoo Pass expedition); and later in the bBattle of Missionary Ridge and the March To the Sea. In december 1964 he was promoted to Regimental Surgeon. He was mustered out in June 1865 (biographical materials and copies of his muster documents accompany the lot)
2. The present owner, by descent.