"Pursuant to the terms of General Order No. 1, made this day by General McClernand, the title of our army ceases to exist, and constitutes in the future the Army of the Mississippi, composed of two 'army corps,' one to be commanded by General G. W. Morgan, and the other by myself. In relinquishing the command of the Army of the Tennessee, and restricting my authority to my own 'corps,' I desire to express to all commanders, to the soldiers and officers recently operating before Vicksburg, my hearty thanks for the zeal, alacrity, and courage manifested by them on all occasions. We failed in accomplishing one great purpose of our movement, the capturing of Vicksburg, but we were part of a whole. Ours was but part of a combined movement in which others were to assist. We were on time. Unforeseen contingencies must have delayed the others.
"We have destroyed the Shreveport road, we have attacked the defences of Vicksburg, and pushed the attack as far as prudence would justify; and having found it too strong for our single column, we have drawn off in good order and good spirits, ready for any new move. A new commander is now here to lead you. He is chosen by the President of the United States, who is charged by the Constitution to maintain and defend it, and he has the undoubted right to select his own agents. I know that all good officers and soldiers will give him the same hearty support and cheerful obedience they have hitherto given me. There are honors enough in reserve for all, and work enough too. Let each do his appropriate part, and our nation must in the end emerge from this dire conflict, purified and ennobled by the fires which now test its strength and purity."
It should be explained that Grant had not come up to join in the demonstration against Vicksburg because, on December 20th one of his subordinates had in a most disgraceful manner surrendered Holly Springs, with its immense store of supplies, to the Rebels. The failure of Sherman's expedition caused a great outcry against him throughout the country, and he was charged with incapacity, how unjustly the simple narrative fully demonstrates. Long afterward, when Vicksburg had finally been taken, Grant officially declared: "General Sherman's arrangement, as commander of troops in the attack on Chickasaw Bluffs, was admirable. Seeing the ground from the opposite side of the attack afterwards, I saw the impossibility of making it successful." Sherman's losses in the attack were 175 killed, 930 wounded, and 743 prisoners. The Rebel losses were 63 killed, 134 wounded, and 10 prisoners. As a result of this miscarriage, and of the miserable surrender at Holly Springs, Pemberton was left free, with his powerful army, to fall back and occupy Vicksburg, and thus to hold it for a long time against the combined attacks of the Union Army and Navy. Sherman's own estimate of his work, in his farewell orders to his troops, must be regarded as entirely just, and it is amply corroborated by the testimony of Grant and Porter.