At this stage of public affairs, in the latter part of 1863, General Grant was called from the West to take command of the Army of the Potomac.  His great military abilities were known to the whole nation.  Although a graduate of West Point, who had, when young, done good service under General Scott, his mature life had been a failure; and when the war broke out he was engaged in the tanning business at Galena, Illinois, at a salary of $800.  He offered his services to the governor of Illinois, and was made a colonel of volunteers.  Shortly after entering active service he was made brigadier-general, and his ability as a commander was soon apparent.  He gradually rose to the command of the military district of Southeast Missouri; then to the command of the great military rendezvous and depot at Cairo.  Then followed his expedition, assisted by Commodore Foote, against Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, in the early part of 1862, with no encouragement from Halleck, the commanding-general at St. Louis.  The capture of Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River came next, to the amazement and chagrin of the Confederate generals; for which he was made a major-general of volunteers.  This was a great service, which resulted in the surrender of Generals Buckner and Johnston with 15,000 Confederate soldiers, 20,000 stands of arms, 48 pieces of artillery, and 3,000 horses.  But this great success was nothing to the siege and capture of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, which opened the Mississippi and divided the Confederacy, to say nothing of the surrender of nearly 30,000 men, 172 cannon, and 60,000 muskets.  Then followed the great battle of Chattanooga, which shed glory on Thomas, Sherman, Burnside, and Hooker, and raised still higher the military fame of Grant, who had planned and directed it.  No general in the war had approached him in success and ability.  The eyes of the nation were now upon him.  Congress revived for him the grade of lieutenant-general, and the conqueror of Vicksburg and Chattanooga received the honor on March 3, 1864, the first on whom the full rank had been conferred since Washington.  The lieutenant-generalcy conferred on Winfield Scott after the Mexican War was a special brevet title of honor, that rank not existing in our army.

On the 8th of March the President met the successful and fortunate general for the first time, and was delighted with his quiet modesty; on the next day he gave him command of all the armies of the United States.  Grant was given to understand that the work assigned to him personally was the capture of Richmond.  But he was left to follow out his own plans, and march to the Confederate capital by any route he saw fit.  Henceforth the President, feeling full confidence, ceased to concern himself with the plans of the general commanding the Army of the Potomac.  He did not even ask to know them.  All he and the Secretary of War could do was to forward the plans of the Lieutenant-General, and provide all the troops