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Shortly after the Battle of Shiloh, which shocked the people on both sides due the ferocity and blood shed many politicians in the North urged Grant be fired. Here is the memory of one of them

“I appealed to Lincoln for his own sake to remove Grant at once, and in giving my reasons for it, I simply voiced the admittedly overwhelming protest from the loyal people of the land against Grant’s continuance in command. I could form no judgment during the conversation as to what effect my arguments had upon him beyond the fact that he was greatly distressed at this new complication. When I said everything that could be said from my standpoint, we lapsed into silence. Lincoln remained silent for what seemed a very long time. He then gathered himself up in his chair and said in a tone of earnestness that I shall never forget, “I can’t spare this man, he fights.”

The full text of McClure’s recollections is in Hathitrust. This is the earliest occurrence of this anecdote that I can find (1892).