246 The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War

rible as the idea is. ... I tell you plainly, menare not going to lie here and perish; if they dolove their country, self-preservation is the firstlaw of nature, and hunger will compel a man todo almost anything. You had better heed a warn-ing voice, though it is the voice of a private sol-dier. This army is now ripe for mutiny unless itcan be fed.” The newspapers — which are notgiven to looking facts in the face — tried to takea more hopeful view. On July 2 one of themsaid: “ The great Ulysses has expressed his inten-tion of celebrating the Fourth of July in Vicks­ burg by a grand dinner. . . . Ulysses must getinto the city before he dines in it. The way tocook a rabbit is first catch the rabbit,” etc.

But Ulysses had caught his rabbit. On thatsame day Pemberton had abandoned all hope, andnext morning he sent out a flag of truce. Theday was spent in arranging terms. Grant did notgive up his principle of “ unconditional surrender,”but allowed some merely formal privileges, suchas marching out with colours flying to stack arms.Surrender of The prisoners were all paroled, thusVicksburg . saving the time and expense of trans-porting and feeding so great a number of men.At ten o’clock in the morning of the Fourth ofJuly the Union army occupied the city, and beforeevening Sherman had started with 50,000 men