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 General 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.

Grant was busy with new movements before this letter reached him; indeed, as soon as Vicksburg capitulated, he had begun getting ready to do something else. So occupied was he that he did not even take time to write his plans to the Government, asking Mr. Dana to do it for him.

Three and a half months later, after the Army of the Cumberland had been defeated at Chickamauga and had retired into Chattanooga, Grant was called to its relief. In a month the Confederates were driven from their positions on the ridges above him and East Tennessee was saved. There was no longer in Lincoln's mind a doubt that at last he had found the man he wanted. In the winter following, '63 and '64, after much discussion Congress revived the grade of lieutenant-general in the army purposely for Grant's benefit and on February 29, Lincoln nominated the general to the rank. He proceeded at once to Washington, where on March 9 the President and the General met for the first time. What did the President want him to do, Grant asked. Take Richmond was the President's reply, could he do it? If he had the troops Grant answered. The President promised them. Two months later Grant had re-organized the Army of the Potomac and had started at its head for the final march to Richmond.

CHAPTER XXVII

LINCOLN AND THE SOLDIERS

ANOTHER Serious problem which the failure of the Peninsular campaign thrust on the President was where to get troops for a renewal of the war. When one recalls the eagerness with which men rushed into arms at the opening of the Civil war, it seems as if President Lincoln should never have had anxiety about filling the ranks of the army. For the first year, indeed, it gave him little concern. So promptly were the calls of 1861 answered that in the spring of 1862 an army of 637,126 men was in service. It was believed that with this force the war could be ended, and in April recruiting was stopped. It was a grave mistake. Before the end of May, the losses and discouragements of the Peninsular campaign made it necessary to re-enforce the Army of the Potomac. More men were needed, in fact, all along the line. Lincoln saw that, rather than an army of 600,000 men, he should have one of a million, and, July 2, he issued a call for 300,000 men for three years, and August 4 an order was issued for a draft of 300,000 more for nine months.

By the end of 1862, nearly one and a half million men had been enrolled in the army. Nevertheless, the "strength of the army" at that time was counted at but 918,000. What had become of the half million and more? Nearly 100,000 of them had been killed or totally disabled on the battlefield; 200,000 more, perhaps, had fallen out in the seasoning process. Passed by careless medical examiners, the first fivemile march, the first week of camp life, had brought out some physical weakness which made soldiering out of the

question. The rest of the loss was in three-months', sixmonths', or nine-months' men. They had enlisted for these short periods, and their terms up, they had left the army.

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Moreover, the President had learned by this time that, even when the Secretary of War told him that the "strength of the army" was 918,000, it did not by any means follow that there were that number of men present for duty. Experience had taught him that about one-fourth of the reputed strength" must be allowed for shrinkage; that is, for men in hospitals, men on furloughs, men who had deserted. He had learned that this enormous wastage went on steadily. It followed that, if the army was to be kept up to the millionmen mark, recruiting must be as steady as, and in proportion to, the shrinkage.

Recruiting, so easy at the beginning of the war, had be come by 1862 quite a different matter. Patriotism, love of adventure, excitement could no longer be counted on to fill the ranks. It was plain to the President that hereafter, if he was to have the men he needed, military service must be compulsory. Nothing could have been devised which would have created a louder uproar in the North than the suggestion of a draft. All through the winter of 1862-63, Congress wrangled over the bill ordering it, much of the press in the meantime denouncing it as "despotic" and "contrary to American institutions." The bill passed, however, and the President signed it in March, 1863. At once there was put into operation a huge new military machine, the Bureau of the Provost-Marshal-General, which had for its business the enrollment of all the men in the United States whom the new law considered capable of bearing arms and the drafting enough of them to fill up the quota assigned to each State. This bureau was also to look after deserters.

A whole series of new problems was thrust on the President when the Bureau of the Provost-Marshal-General came