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| Monument at Vicksburg. |
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garrison.
Men who have shown so much endurance and courage as those now in Vicksburg, will always challenge the respect of an adversary, and I can assure you will be treated with all the respect due them as prisoners of war. I do not favor the proposition of appointing commissioners to arrange terms of capitulation, because I have no other terms than those indicated above.”
General Bowen expressed to General Smith a strong desire to converse with General Grant.
The latter declined this, but consented to meet General Pemberton between the lines in McPherson's front at any hour that afternoon which the Confederate commander might choose.
The hour of three was appointed.
The moment when the leaders approached the place of meeting was announced by a signal-gun fired by the Nationals, which was answered by the Confederates.
Grant was accompanied by Generals McPherson, Ord, Logan, and A. J. Smith; Pemberton, by General Bowen and Colonel Montgomery.
They met on the southern slope of Fort Hill, to the left of the old Jackson road; and after introductions and a few minutes conversation, the two chiefs withdrew to the shade of a live-oak tree, where they sat down on the grass and held a private conference.1 It ended by Grant promising to send Pemberton a proposition in writing before night, and both agreeing that hostilities should cease while the subject was under discussion.
Toward evening Grant sent General Logan and Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, of his staff, with a letter to Pemberton, in which he proposed that,
on the acceptance of his terms, he should march in one division as a guard and take possession the next morning at eight o'clock; that as soon as paroles could be prepared and signed, the vanquished should march out of the National lines, the officers taking with them their regimental clothing — the staff, field, and cavalry officers one
1 The live-oak tree under which Grant and Pemberton held their private conference was very soon afterward hewn down, and converted into the forms of canes and other objects by the officers and soldiers, as mementoes, and on its site a handsome commemorative monument was erected, which is delineated in the above engraving, as it and its surroundings appeared when the writer sketched it, in April, 1866. The monument was of white veined marble, about twelve feet in height, composed of an obelisk and base, and surmounted by a sphere. It was very much mutilated by having pieces knocked off of every edge, and also of the devices, by relic-seekcrs, and the lettering obliterated by the rebellious, it is said. It was difficult to determine the character of the devices on it, or decipher the inscription. I was informed that they were as follows: On one side of the obelisk was an eagle bearing the Goddess of Liberty on its wings, as it hovered over a group of implements of war, and holding in its talons a shield, and in its beak a ribbon, with the National motto, E Pliuribus Unum. The monument bore the inscription, “To the Memory of the Surrender of Vicksburg, by Lieutenant-General J. G. Pemberton, to Major-General U. S. Grant, U. S. A., on the 4th of July, 1863.”
It was evident that no monument of stone could long endure the vandalism of relic-seekers, so the mutilated one was removed toward the close of 1866, and a new and appropriate one erected on its based, which will forever defy the destructive hand. It is an immense iron cannon, of.very nearly the proportions of the marble obelisk, and is surmounted by a huge shell, which takes the place of the sphere.
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