General Grant is a witness whose opinion alone may be treated as conclusive.

In his Personal Memoirs [Footnote: Personal Memoirs of U.S.Grant, vol.i.p.

573.] he explicitly and unqualifiedly says that at the close of the Vicksburg campaign his troops fulfilled every requirement of an army, and his volunteer officers were equal to any duty, some of them being in his judgment competent to command an independent army in the field.

Sherman fully shared this opinion.

[Footnote: Letter to Halleck, Official Records, vol.xxxix.