Major-general grant: 

My dear general:—­I do not remember that you and I ever met personally.  I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment of the almost inestimable service you have done the Country.  I write 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 thus 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 dropped below, and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join General Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake.  I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong.

Yours very truly,

A. Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. M. SCHOFIELD.

War department, Washington, July 13, 1863.

General Schofield.  St. Louis, Mo.: 

I regret to learn of the arrest of the Democrat editor.  I fear this loses you the middle position I desired you to occupy.  I have not learned which of the two letters I wrote you it was that the Democrat published, but I care very little for the publication of any letter I have written.  Please spare me the trouble this is likely to bring.

A. Lincoln.

SON IN COLLEGE DOES NOT WRITE HIS PARENTS

Telegram to R. T. Lincoln.

War department, Washington D.C., July 14, 1863.

Robert T. Lincoln:  New York, Fifth Avenue Hotel: 

Why do I hear no more of you?

A. Lincoln.

INTIMATION OF ARMISTICE PROPOSALS

From James R. Gilmore
to governor Vance of north Carolina,
with the president’s Indorsement.

President’s room, white house, Washington,

July [15?] 1864.

HIS EXCELLENCY ZEBULON B. VANCE.

My dear sir:—­My former business partner, Mr. Frederic Kidder, of Boston, has forwarded to me a letter he has recently received from his brother, Edward Kidder, of Wilmington, in which (Edward Kidder) says that he has had an interview with you in which you expressed an anxiety for any peace compatible with honor; that you regard slavery as already dead, and the establishment of the Confederacy as hopeless; and that you should exert all your influence to bring about any reunion that would admit the South on terms of perfect equality with the North.