Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant

Upon Halleck's promotion, Grant was put in command of the armies of the Mississippi and the Tennessee. The battles of Iuka and Corinth were fought. By November Grant was once again able to go on with his interrupted strategy of flanking the Mississippi. It was not until the following spring that he walked to his goal with a firm step. In the months between he was not only hampered by many external embarrassments, but his own mind had not come to a final clear determination. The jealousy of McClernand, the treachery that lost him his base at Holly Springs, and his own not very sound plan of co-operating with Sherman on the east bank — these among other causes helped his first failure. Then in the winter months his canal-cutting, and various operations upon both sides of the river, were defeated by Nature herself. Perhaps he