Lincoln at telegraph office in morning receives Gen. Grant's dispatch announcing capture of Vicksburg, Miss. Bates, Telegraph Office, 156; Abraham Lincoln to Henry W. Halleck, [7 July 1863], CW, 6:319.

Vice President Hamlin and Senators from Maine confer with President and urge better New England coastal defense against piratical depredations of enemy. Abraham Lincoln to Gideon Welles, 7 July 1863, CW, 6:320-21.

At cabinet meeting President appears despondent because Gen. Meade has lingered at Gettysburg. At 12:40 P.M. Sec. Welles gives President telegram from Acting Rear Adm. David D. Porter [for retroactive promotion see December 8, 1863] announcing surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Welles, Diary.

In evening, upon learning of the Union Army's victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi, "a procession with bands of music proceed[s] to the Executive Mansion." A newspaper reports, "a crowd enthusiastically cheered the President, [who] . . . appeared at an upper window." Lincoln remarks that it is fitting that the Vicksburg victory occurred on the "Fourth of July just passed," when defeat came to "those who opposed the declaration that all men are created equal." Lincoln "praise[s] . . . the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the Union." Response to a Serenade, 7 July 1863, CW, 6:319-20; New York Daily Tribune (NY), 8 July 1863, 5:3; The New York Times (NY), 8 July 1863, 8:1-2; Daily Morning Chronicle (Washington, D.C.), 8 July 1863, 2:2-3.