"HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, In the Field, Atlanta, Ga., September 15, 1864. "MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, Washington, D. C.: "My report is done, and will be forwarded as soon as I get a few more of the subordinate reports. I am now awaiting a courier from General Grant. All well, and troops in fine healthy camps, and supplies coming forward finely. Governor Brown has disbanded his militia, to gather the corn and sorghum of the State. I have reason to believe that he and Stephens want to visit me, and I have sent them a hearty invitation. I will exchange two thousand prisoners with Hood, but no more. "W. T. SHERMAN, "Major-General commanding." "WASHINGTON, D. C., September 17, 1864-10 A. M. "MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN: "I feel great interest in the subjects of your dispatch mentioning corn and sorghum, and contemplate a visit to you. "A. LINCOLN." I have not possession here of all my official records, most of which are out West, and I have selected the above from my more recent letter-books, and I offer them to show how prompt and full have been my official reports, and how unnecessary was all the clamor made touching my action and opinions at the time the basis of agreement of April 18 was submitted to the President. "Grant and his Campaigns:" A MILITARY BIOGRAPHY, Editor of the "United States Service Magazine,” Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman, Maj. Gen. Jas. D. McPherson, Maj. Gen. P. H. Sheridan. and Maps, Plans, &c., &c. Lieut.-Gen. U. S. Grant, This work is in every particular trustworthy and accurate-written by the Lieutenant General's life-long friend, and with his sanction, from official documents, it cannot fail to meet every requirement of the public expectation. The following extracts from the Prefatory Letter from the Author, fully explain the character and scope of the work: University OF PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia, July 1, 1865. MY DEAR SIR:-It is with peculiar pleasure that I have undertaken to write the military biography of LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, because, having known him from boyhood, I have watched the successive steps and symmetrical development of his character, and find in his complete and rounded life not a single point which will require me to trim my pen for the purposes of championship, extenuation or palliation. We were cadets together and I now see how the cadet of 1840 exhibited qualities, which only needed fostering and opportunity to make him the generalisimo of 1865. * * * * I have great pride in knowing that I undertake the work, not only with General Grant's sanction, but with his promise of every assistance. He has directed material and maps to be put in my hands, which cannot otherwise be obtained, and he and the gentlemen of his staff have offered to answer all questions, and supply all I shall need to make the work a faithful historic record. The plan of my biography will exhibit a clear chronological history of General Grant's campaigns; an occasional critical summary at the close of a campaign, connecting its prominent events, and presenting its military sequence; and an appendix, containing the most important dispatches referred to in the text. In the course of the narrative I shall try my pen at sketches of the distinguished commanders who have executed Grant's plans. Many of them are old comrades and friends and I can therefore speak from personal knowledge, without having recourse to loose fancies of rapid writers, who put themselves, but not their heroes, in print. I think I may safely promise the pubiic that although the work might have been better done by other hands, they will find, in this volume, the truth carefully sifted from the great mass of materials, systematically digested, scientifically presented in a military point of view, and uninfluenced by prejudice of any kind whatever "The story of his life From year to year, the battles, sicges, fortunes which interlink in iron chain-work the peaceful youth with the stormy, successful, illustrious manhood of our "great captain." C. B. RICHARDSON, Esq. I am, very sincerely, yours, Sold only by subscription. H. COPPÉE. C. B. RICHARDSON, Publisher, 540 Broadway, N. Y. OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, FROM Its Organization to the Close of the War, BY WILLIAM SWINTON. 1 Vol. 8vo., about 700 Pages, WITH SPLENDID STEEL PORTRAITS OF ITS COMMANDERS, Major General Geo. B. McClellan, Major General Joseph Hooker, PREPARED BY COL. W. H. PAINE, EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK. It is readily conceded that the history of the Army of the Potomac is the history of much the largest and altogether the most important section of the war through which the United States has just passed. Assigned the double duty of guarding the National capital and capturing the capital of the Confederacy, it was the fortune of that army, early named by popular affection "THE GRAND ARMY OF THE POTOMAC," to meet on the soil of Virginia the head and front of all the rebel power. Into that state, as the Flanders of the war, each belligerent poured its richest resources, maintaining there its foremost army under its foremost leaders: and thus was seen for four years the fierce clinch and struggle of two mighty hosts, whose varying fortunes fixed the attention of the nation and the world, and with the issue of whose struggle it was always felt was bound up the issue of the war. And it is a notable circumstance that as the capture of Richmond was the first distinctive object of the war, so when through many lapses and failures was achieved this crowning glory, the war ceased. It is this colossal drama, as it stands related to the army that was the main actor therein, that Mr. Swinton has set forth in his Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. It is believed that the work has been composed under circumstances peculiarly favorable, both as regards the intellectual fitness of the author and the richness of the material employed. As military editor of the N. Y. Times, and its special war correspondent with the Army of the Potomac, Mr. Swinton gained throughout the country the reputation of a military writer and critic of marked brilliancy and power. In addition, however, to his knowledge of the campaigns in Virginia, derived from a personal participation therein, Mr. Swinton has been reinforced with the amplest official material on both sides. The Commanders of the Army of the Potomac, and their subordinate officers, have with much liberality placed at his disposal their full official records and reports, in large part in manuscript; while for the illustration of the doings of the Confederates, without a knowledge of which it is hardly possible rightly to appreciate our own side, he was fortunate enough to obtain the complete reports of the operations in Virginia, and collections of documents and memoirs believed to be unique. With these advantages it is confidently believed that the Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac will be the standard authentic history of that army; and as such it is commended to the sharers in its toils and glories. Sold only by subscription. C. B. RICHARDSON, Publisher, 540 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. |