Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

The country, meanwhile, and the government, had become very impatient. Clamors were raised everywhere against Grant's slowness; the old rumors about his personal character were revived; his soldiers were said to be dying of swamp fevers and dysenteries, in the morasses around Vicksburg; he was pronounced utterly destitute of genius or energy; his repeatedly baffled schemes declared to emanate from a brain unfitted for such trials; his' persistency was dogged obstinacy, his patience was sluggish dulness. McClernand, and Hunter, and Fremont, and McClellan were spoken of as his successors; senators and governors went to Vicksburg, and from Vicksburg to Washington, to work for his removal. McClernand's machinations at this time came very near succeeding. His advocates were never so earnest nor so hopeful, while some of Grant's best friends failed him at the critical moment. But the President said: ‘I rather like the man; I think we'll try him a little longer.’¹ But for this persistency, Grant would undoubtedly have been relieved, and McClernand put in command of the expedition against Vicksburg. Grant was aware of all these efforts to supplant him, and of the probability of their success. His anxieties as a commander were of course enhanced by the near prospect of his removal.

On the 2d of April, Halleck informed him that