Chapter XXI




Grant at Vicksburg


While Lee had been disposing of McClellan, Pope and Burnside, Grant
had remained in comparative idleness near Corinth, Mississippi.
He had, it is true, been assigned to high command in the West when
Halleck was ordered to Washington, but the battle of Shiloh had
prejudiced the authorities against him and his troops were gradually
transferred to other commanders, leaving him with an army barely
sufficient to guard the territory it already held. This treatment
seriously depressed him and with plenty of time to brood over his
troubles, he was in some danger of lapsing into the bad habits
which had once had such a fatal hold upon him. But at this crisis
his wife was by his side to steady and encourage him, and the
Confederates soon diverted his thoughts from his own grievances by
giving him plenty of work to keep them at arm's length. Meanwhile,
however, something much more disturbing occurred, for he suddenly
discovered that preparations were being made to place his long-cherished
campaign for the opening of the Mississippi River in the hands of
McClernand, the political General whose conduct at Fort Donelson