I received your letter by due course of mail and expected before this to have answered one of your questions in the shape of an official report; that is the one where you ask me the part I played at the battle of Iuka.  When the reports of subalterns come in I will make my report which no doubt will be published and will be a full answer to your question.  I had no more to do with troops under General Ord than I had with those under Rosecrans, but gave the orders to both.  The plan was admirably laid for catching Price and his whole army, but owing to the nature of the ground, direction of the wind, and General Rosecrans having been so far behind where he was expected to be on the morning before the attack, it failed.  In the late battles we have gained such a moral advantage over them however, with Van Dorn and Lovell added, that I do not know but it may have all been for the best.

I have written to Julia to come down here to spend a short time.  It will probably be but a short time that she can stay, but so long as I remain here this will be a pleasant place for her.—­If the children have not already been sent to Covington I told her to bring them with her.  In the last letter I received she said she was about sending them to Covington.

I believe you have now got it all quiet on the Ohio.  I hope it will soon be so every place else.  It does look to me that we now have such an advantage over the rebels that there should be but little more hard fighting.

Give my love to all at home.  Write often and without expecting either very prompt or very long replies.

ULYS.

[October 25th, Grant was placed in command of the Department of the Tennessee and headquarters were established at Oxford, Miss.  Reinforcements continued to come from the North, and by November 2d, he was prepared to take the initiative.  This, he said, was a great relief after two and a half months of continued defence over a large district where every citizen was an enemy.  On November 3d, Grant left Jackson for the campaign against Vicksburg, which did not end until July 4, 1863.

Vicksburg was very important to the enemy on account of its position.  It was the only link connecting the parts of the Confederacy separated by the Mississippi.  While held by the enemy, free navigation of the river was impossible.  During the winter of ’62 to ’63 there were exceptionally heavy rains and continuous high water on the Mississippi.

To his sister Mary.]

Oxford, Mississippi,
Dec. 15th, 1862.

DEAR SISTER: 

Yesterday I received a letter from you and the children and one from Uncle Samuel.  To day I learned by telegraph that Father is at Holly Springs, thirty miles north of here.  Julia is there and as I expect the railroad to be completed to this point by to-morrow I look for them down.  I shall only remain here to-morrow, or next day at farthest; so that Julia will go immediately back to Holly Springs.  It is a pleasant place and she may as well stay there as elsewhere.