fted a
great load of anxiety from the minds of the President, his Cabinet and
the loyal people all over the North. The fate of the Confederacy was
sealed when Vicksburg fell. Much hard fighting was to be done
afterwards and many precious lives were to be sacrificed; but the MORALE
was with the supporters of the Union ever after.

I at the same time wrote to General Banks informing him of the fall and
sending him a copy of the terms; also saying I would send him all the
troops he wanted to insure the capture of the only foothold the enemy
now had on the Mississippi River. General Banks had a number of copies
of this letter printed, or at least a synopsis of it, and very soon a
copy fell into the hands of General Gardner, who was then in command of
Port Hudson. Gardner at once sent a letter to the commander of the
National forces saying that he had been informed of the surrender of
Vicksburg and telling how the information reached him. He added that if
this was true, it was useless for him to hold out longer. General Banks
gave him assurances that Vicksburg had been surrendered, and General
Gardner surrendered unconditionally on the 9th of July. Port Hudson
with nearly 6,000 prisoners, 51 guns, 5,000 small-arms and other stores
fell into the hands of the Union forces: from that day to the close of
the rebellion the Mississippi River, from its source to its mouth,
remained in the control of the National troops.

Pemberton and his army were kept in Vicksburg until the whole could be
paroled. The paroles were in duplicate, by organization (one copy for
each, Federals and Confederates), and signed by the commanding officers
of the companies or regiments. Duplicates were also made for each
soldier and signed by each individually, one to be retained by the
soldier signing and one to be retained by us. Several hundred refused
to sign their paroles, preferring to be sent to the North as prisoners
to being sent back to fight again. Others again kept out of the way,
hoping to escape either alternative.

Pemberton appealed to me in person to compel these men to sign their
paroles, but I declined. It also leaked out that many of the men who
had signed their paroles, intended to desert and go to their homes as
soon as they got out of our lines. Pemberton hearing this, again
appealed to me to assist him. He wanted arms for a battalion, to act as
guards in keeping his men together while being marched to a camp of
instru