Pemberton himself was as crabbed and sour as a boor whose hen-coop had been robbed. His manner was morose and ungentlemanly, and his speech cold and curt. At last one of the party, with higher notions of chivalry than his companions, brought a chair for Grant. The day was hot and dusty, and the general asked for a glass of water. He was rudely informed that he could find water in the house. He entered, and searched the premises till a negro appeared, who supplied his want. Returning to the porch, he found his seat had been taken; and, during the rest of the interview, which lasted half an hour, he remained standing, in the company of these conquered rebels, who kept their seats in his presence! In the light of this remarkable interview, I am inclined to believe that my friend Pollard, who denounces Pemberton as an imbecile, was more than half right in his estimate of the man; for no decent person, under such circumstances, would have been guilty of such flagrant discourtesy, as ridiculous as it was gross. Grant was a Christian. He did not even resent this incivility. "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." Grant did so, literally; for at this interview Pemberton requested him to supply his garrison with rations. He did not say, "Let the dead bury their dead," as less magnanimous men than he might have done, after the contemptuous impoliteness of the rebels. Grant immediately consented; but probably there was not "chivalry" enough left in the bantam general to feel the heat of the "coals of fire upon his head." [Illustration: GRANT AND PEMBERTON IN VICKSBURG.--Page 236.] Grant notified Banks, at Port Hudson, of the capture of Vicksburg, and offered to send him an army corps of "as good troops as ever trod American soil; no better are found on any other." Four days after the surrender, Port Hudson followed the example of Vicksburg. This event virtually completed the conquest of treason in the West. The Father of Waters rolled "unvexed to the sea," in the expressive language of President Lincoln. To sum up the results, in the words of Pollard, who is not particularly amiable at this point of his struggles through "The Lost Cause,"--"It was the loss of one of the largest armies which the Confederates had in the field; the decisive event of the Mississippi Valley; and the severance of the Southern Confederacy."