“The achievements of this hour will give a new meaning to this memorable day; and Vicksburg will heighten the glory in the patriot’s heart, which kindles at the mention of Bunker Hill and Yorktown.  The dawn of a conquered peace is breaking before you.  The plaudits of an admiring world will hail you wherever you go.”

Take it altogether it was perhaps the most brilliant operation of the war, and established the reputation of Grant as one of the greatest military leaders of any age.  He, the last of the triumvirate, is passing away; and, in this connection, no apology is needed in quoting the letter which the President wrote with his own hand, and transmitted to him, on receipt of the glorious tidings:—­

My dear general,—­I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.  I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country.  I wish to say a word further.  When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg I thought you should do what you finally did,—­march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and then go below; and I never had any faith, except a general hope, that you knew better than I that the Yazoo-Pass expedition and the like could succeed.  When you got below, and took Fort Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen. Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I thought it was a mistake.  I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong.

And recall now the never-to-be-forgotten scenes at Gettysburg.  The Union army had been defeated at Chancellorsville, and Gen. Lee, having assumed the offensive, had been making the greatest preparations for striking a decisive blow.  Already had he passed through Maryland; he was now in Pennsylvania.  But valiant men were there to meet and oppose.  The fate of the day, the fate of the Confederacy, was staked upon the issue.  I cannot picture the battle; but we all know the result, and how great was the rejoicing in the North when, on that 4th day of July, the tidings of the fall of Vicksburg and the victory at Gettysburg reached the country.

A portion of the battle-field of Gettysburg was set apart as a resting-place for the heroes who fell on that bloody ground.  In November of that year the ceremony of consecration took place.  Edward Everett, the orator and the scholar, delivered the oration; it was a polished specimen of his consummate skill.  After him rose President Lincoln,—­“simple, rude, his care-worn face now lighted and glowing with intense feeling.”  He simply read the touching speech which is already placed among the classics of our language:—­

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.