a further force in the city; Joseph Johnston, whom he afterwards described as the Southern general who in all the war gave him most trouble, had been sent by Jefferson Davis to take supreme command in the West, and had collected 11,000 men at Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, 45 miles east of Vicksburg.  Grant was able to take his enemy in detail.  Having broken up Johnston’s force he defeated Pemberton in a series of battles.  His victory at Champion’s Hill on May 16, not a fortnight after Chancellorsville, conveyed to his mind the assurance that the North would win the war.  An assault on Vicksburg failed with heavy loss.  Pemberton was at last closely invested in Vicksburg and Grant could establish safe communications with the North by way of the lower Yazoo and up the Mississippi above its mouth.  There had been dissension between Pemberton and Johnston, who, seeing that gunboats proved able to pass Vicksburg in any case, thought that Pemberton, whom he could not at the moment hope to relieve, should abandon Vicksburg and try to save his army.  Long before Johnston could be sufficiently reinforced to attack Grant, Grant’s force had been raised to 71,000.  On July 4, 1863, the day of the annual commemoration of national Independence, Vicksburg was surrendered.  Its garrison, who had suffered severely, were well victualled by Grant and allowed to go free on parole.  Pemberton in his vexation treated Grant with peculiar insolence, which provoked a singular exhibition of the conqueror’s good temper to him; and in his despatches to the President, Grant mentioned nothing with greater pride than the absence of a word or a sign on the part of his men which could hurt the feelings of the fallen.  Johnston was forced to abandon the town of Jackson with its large stores to Sherman, but could not be pursued in his retreat.  On July 9, five days later, the defender of Port Hudson, invested shortly before by Banks, who had not force enough for an assault, heard the news of Vicksburg and surrendered.  Lincoln could now boast to the North that “the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.”

At the very hour when Vicksburg was surrendered Lincoln had been issuing the news of another victory won in the preceding three days, which, along with the capture of Vicksburg, marked the turning point of the war.  For more than a month after the battle of Chancellorsville the two opposing armies in the East had lain inactive.  The Conscription Law, with which we must deal later, had recently been passed, and various elements of discontent and disloyalty in the North showed a great deal of activity.  It seems that Jefferson Davis at first saw no political advantage in the military risk of invading the North.  Lee thought otherwise, and was eager to follow up his success.  At last, early in June, 1863, he started northward.  This time he aimed at the great industrial regions of Pennsylvania, hoping also while assailing them to draw Hooker further