Ulysses S. Grant: The ‘Unconditional Surrender Continues

Back at his headquarters, Grant mulled over the parole issue, talking to his senior officers informally. “This was the nearest approach to a ‘council of war’ I ever had,” he would later say. Initially, he was totally opposed to the idea of parole, but he allowed his officers to change his mind, and his communiqué to Pemberton that night contained terms that must have made Pemberton and Bowen smile: “As soon as the rolls can be made out, and paroles be signed by officers and men, you will be allowed to march out of our lines, the officers taking with them their side-arms and clothing. The rank and file will be allowed their clothing but no other property.”

Obviously, Grant had become less accommodating since Fort Donelson. The mass of Confederates would be allowed to take with them only the clothes on their backs. His decision to parole the Confederates was probably influenced by the prospect that sticking to his “unconditional surrender” dictum would mean feeding and transporting some 30,000 POWs. Remembering the problems created by shipping some 15,000 prisoners into captivity after Donelson, Grant agreed to parole. He was also looking ahead to the day the war would be over, and was trying to do everything possible to avoid bitter feelings. Unnecessarily humiliating a defeated enemy would certainly foster bitter feelings.

Grant’s terms for his latest “unconditional surrender” went off to Pemberton before 10 p.m. as promised. He gave the Confederate commander until 9 o’clock the following morning to decide. After that, the armistice was over. Before dawn, the Confederate commander’s reply came back: He was willing to surrender Vicksburg on Grant’s terms. The hopelessness of his situation plus Grant’s concession on the parole issue were the deciding factors, but he did ask for a few additional concessions of more symbolic than substantive importance. First, would Grant allow the Confederates to march out of their defenses and stack their arms and regimental colors in a formal ceremony? Second, would he allow officers to retain their personal property? And third, would he respect the “rights and property” of Vicksburg’s citizens? On all of these matters, Pemberton was only following the script laid out by Buckner at Donelson, trying to finagle a few last-minute concessions.

Grant, ever the conciliator, was willing to go along with the first request out of respect for the city’s defenders who had fought so long and so hard, but he interpreted the second and third points to be thinly veiled references to slaves and emphatically rejected them both. All this led to yet another exchange of communiqués, which, since Grant insisted on handling all negotiations personally, kept him up all night and wore out horses sending couriers back and forth. Dawn was coming on before Pemberton gave up trying to wring concessions out of Grant and capitulated completely. The surrender would go forward.

At 10 o’clock on Independence Day, the Confederate commander ordered the Stars and Stripes raised over the Vicksburg battlements. After that, white flags appeared all along the eight miles of Confederate trenches. The two commanders scheduled one final meeting to sign the necessary documents. After Union troops had officially taken possession of the shattered city, Grant and his staff rode into Vicksburg under a white flag and headed for Pemberton’s headquarters in one of the city’s old antebellum mansions. Unlike the congenial meeting with Buckner at Donelson aboard New Uncle Sam, this encounter crackled with tension. Pemberton and his officers were rude from the beginning, failing to offer Grant a seat or even fetch him a drink of water when he asked for it. Grant was unperturbed, however, telling one of his staff who bridled at the treatment, “Well, if Pemberton can stand it, under the circumstances, I can [too].”