ly baffled,
and always triumphant in the end, had shown the nation a man of a kind
the people had longed for and in whom they proudly rejoiced. The hopes
to which Donelson had given birth were confirmed in the hero of
Vicksburg, who was straightway made a major-general in the regular army,
from which, when a first lieutenant, he had resigned nine years before.

CHAPTER XI

NEW RESPONSIBILITIES--CHATTANOOGA

Halleck, issuing orders from Washington, proceeded to disperse Grant's
army hither and yon as he thought fractions of it to be needed. Grant
wanted to move on Mobile from Lake Pontchartrain, but was not permitted
to do it. Having gone to New Orleans in obedience to a necessity of
conference with General Banks, he suffered a severe injury by the fall
of a fractious horse, as he was returning from a review of Banks's army.
For a long time he was unconscious. As soon as he could be moved he was
taken on a bed to a steamer. For several days after reaching Vicksburg
he was unable to leave his bed. Meantime he was repeatedly called upon
to send reinforcements to Rosecrans, in Chattanooga, to which place the
latter had retreated after the repulse of his army at Chickamauga,
September 19 and 20. On October 3, Grant was directed to go to Cairo and
report by telegraph to the Secretary of War as soon as he was able to
take the field. He started on the same day, ill as he still was. On
arriving in Cairo he was ordered to proceed to Louisville. He was met at
Indianapolis by Secretary Stanton, whom he had never before seen, and
they proceeded together.

On the train Secretary Stanton handed him two orders, telling him to
take his choice of them. Both created the military division of the
Mississippi, including all the territory between the Alleghanies and the
Mississippi River, north of General Banks's department, and assigning
command of it to Grant. One order left the commanders of the three
departments, the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, as they were,
the other relieved General Rosecrans, commanding the Army of the
Cumberland, and assigned Gen. George H. Thomas to his place. General
Grant accepted the latter. This consolidation was a late compliance
with his earnest, unselfish counsel given before the Vicksburg campaign.
Its wisdom had become apparent.

The centre of interest and anxiety now was Chattanooga, in East
Tennessee, near the border of Georgia. The Confederates had been
striving to retrieve the