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Letter no.
Thirty-four.
This memorandum was written while I was at
Rome, and sent to my rooms.
It accompanied a letter to Russell Young, which
General Grant wished me to see before it was forwarded.
Read this and mail if you approve.
If not, retain until to-morrow and make your suggestions to me. Add a note if you choose to Young and send with mine.
Letter no.
Thirty-five.
The
Comte de Paris wrote to me about this time asking for information in regard to the surrender of
Vicksburg.
General Pemberton, the rebel commander at
Vicksburg, had published an account of that event very different from mine, which I had obtained from
Grant, and the
Comte had asked me if I wished to make any reply.
I forwarded his letter to
General Grant, who wrote as follows on the back of another letter he was sending to me.
I return
Pemberton's letter.
Your statement of the circumstances attending the
Vicksburg surrender are as absolutely correct as it can well be made.
I presume
Bowen did ask the interview between P. and myself without authority.
I did not propose or submit to the settlement of terms by a reference to Commissioners.
Finding that we were about to separate without coming to an agreement
Bowen—who seemed very anxious about an agreement—proposed that he and others of the
Reb Army, and
Gen. A. J. Smith and some others of our Army who were present at the time, should consult and see if they could not agree upon terms which
Pemberton and I would accept.
I declined that and the terms were finally arranged between us through a correspondence which extended late into the night of the 3d of July, 1863.
