VICKSBURG.

The story goes that on a certain occasion some friends of General
Grant, anxious to make him talk about himself--something he would
hardly ever do--said: "General, at what time in your military career
did you perceive that you were the coming man--that you were to have
the responsibility and fame of the command-in-chief and end the war?"
For little while the General smoked on, and then said, "_After
Vicksburg!_"

Certain it is that the star of Grant, long obscured and struggling
through storm and darkness, never emerged into clear light, rising in
the ascendant, until after the capture of the stronghold of the
Confederates on the Mississippi. After that it rose, and rose to the
zenith.

The position of Vicksburg is hard to understand. The river at this
place makes a bend to the north and then turns south again, leaving a
delta, or peninsula, on the Louisiana side. Vicksburg occupies a kind
of shoulder on the Mississippi side. The site is commanding. The river
flows by the bluffs, as if to acknowledge its subjection to them. From
the beginning of the war the Confederate authorities recognized the
vast importance of holding this key to the great inland artery, and
the Federal Government saw the necessity of clutching it from the
enemy.

The mouth of the Mississippi was soon regained by the Government, so
that there was no serious obstruction as far north as where the
northern border of Louisiana crosses the river. From the north the