John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

It was while at Jackson that Dana received and delivered to Grant Stanton's remarkable despatch of May 5th, “giving him full and absolute authority” to enforce his own commands, and to remove any person who by ignorance, inaction, or any other cause, might interfere with or delay his operations, and this sealed the friendship of Dana and Grant till sometime after the latter became President of the United States. It was also at Jackson that Grant learned that Johnston, the Confederate generalissimo in that quarter, had ordered Pemberton to march out from Vicksburg and attack him in the rear. This new but not unexpected condition of affairs necessitated rapid marches and hard-fought battles, in all of which Dana participated. He did his full part as a staff-officer, as well as an observer, marching in the rain, sleeping in churches and farm-houses, and living off of the country. As he traversed the country he noted the condition of the crops, the abundance of food, and the absence of men of military age. It was at Champion's Hill that he got new and more accurate ideas of the Federal generals, and especially of Logan, Hovey, Crocker, McClernand, and McPherson. It was at the passage of the Big Black that he witnessed the splendid charge of Lawler's intrepid brigade, under the personal leadership of that fearless old soldier and of his young and ardent adjutant-general, Captain Bluford Wilson. It was at that river that he assisted all night in the construction of four separate floating bridges, out of cotton bales, gin-houses, pontoons, and railroad-bridge materials, so that the victorious troops might press on at daylight and close in upon the fortifications of Vicksburg without delay. It is not too much to say that he got a better idea of the real merits of our generals, and gained more practical knowledge of actual military operations, in the final ten days of that campaign, than would have been possible in any other period of the