After the loss of Fort Donelson the Confederates fell back to a second line of defense and took position at Corinth. General Grant's army was at Pittsburg Landing, eighteen miles away; not far off was the village of Shiloh, from which the battle is now generally named. Here, early on Sunday morning (April 6, 1862), Grant was attacked by Johnston, and his men were driven back a mile and a half toward the river. It was a fearful battle, lasting until nearly dark. Not until after midnight was Grant able to rest, and then, sitting in the rain, with his back against the foot of a tree, he slept a few hours before the renewal of battle on Monday morning. With reinforcements he was able on the second day to drive the enemy off the field and win a signal victory. By this battle Grant broke the Confederates' second line of defense. Although they fought bravely and well to prevent the Union troops from getting control of the Mississippi River, by the close of 1862 the South had lost every stronghold on the river except Port Hudson and Vicksburg. [Illustration: General and Mrs. Grant with Their Son at City Point, Virginia.] Vicksburg was so strongly defended that the Confederates believed that it could not be taken. A resolute effort to capture it was made by General Grant in 1863. After a brilliant campaign of strategy, by which he got around the defenses, he laid siege to the city itself. For seven weeks the Confederate army held out. During that time the people of Vicksburg sought refuge from the enemy's shells in caves and cellars, their only food at times consisting of rats and mule flesh. But on July 4, 1863, the day after General Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant. Four days later Port Hudson, some distance below, was captured, and thus the last stronghold of the Mississippi came under control of the North. General Grant had become the hero of the Northern army. His success was in no small measure due to his dogged perseverance. While his army was laying siege to Vicksburg, a Confederate woman, at whose door he stopped to ask for a drink of water, inquired whether he expected ever to capture Vicksburg. "Certainly," he replied. "But when?" was the next question. Quickly came the answer: "I cannot tell exactly when I shall take the town, but _I mean to stay here till I do, if it takes me thirty years_." General Grant having by his capture of Vicksburg won the confidence of the people, President Lincoln, in 1864, put him in command of all the Union armies of the East and the West. In presenting the new commission, Lincoln addressed him in these words: "As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you." WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN