being near. At Donelson, also, you illustrated your whole character. I was not near, and General McPherson in too subordinate a capacity to influence you. "Until you had won Donelson, I confess I was almost cowed by the terrible array of anarchical elements that presented themselves at every point; but that admitted a ray of light I have followed since. "I believe you are as brave, patriotic, and just, as the great prototype, Washington-as unselfish, kind-hearted, and honest as a man should be-but the chief characteristic is the simple faith in success you have always manifested, which I can liken to nothing else than the faith a Christian has in the Saviour. "This faith gave you victory at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Also, when you have completed your best preparations, you go into battle without hesitation, as at Chattanooga-no doubts-no reserves; and I tell you, it was this that made us act with confidence. I knew, wherever I was, that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place, you would help me out, if alive. 'My only point of doubts was, in your knowledge of grand strategy, and of books of science and history; but, I confess, your common sense seems to have supplied all these. "Now as to the future. Don't stay in Washington. West take to yourself the whole Mississippi Valley. make it dead-sure-and I tell you, the Atlantic slopes and Pacific shores will follow its destiny, as sure as the limbs of a tree live or die with the main trunk. We have done much, but still much remains. Time, and time's influences, are with us. We could almost afford to sit still, and let these influences work. Come Let us "Here lies the seat of the coming empire; and from the West, when our task is done, we will make short work of Charleston and Richmond, and the impoverished coast of the Atlantic. "Your sincere friend." On the 12th of March, 1864, the President relieved MajorGeneral Halleck from duty as general-in-chief, and assigned Lieutenant-General Grant to the command of the armies of the United States, with headquarters in the field, and also at Washington, where General Halleck was to remain as chief-ofstaff. By the same order, Sherman was assigned to the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, and MajorGeneral McPherson to the command of the Department and Army of the Tennessee. Sherman received this order at Memphis, on the 14th, while on his way to Huntsville, to prepare for the great campaign in Georgia. In accordance with the request of General Grant, accompanying the order, he immediately proceeded to Nashville, where he arrived on the 17th, and accompanied the lieutenant-general as far on his way to Washington as Cincinnati. During the journey, they had a full and free conference as to the plan of operations in the approaching campaign, and a complete understanding of the work to be done by . each. In a parlor of the Burnet House, at Cincinnati, bending over their maps, the two generals, who had so long been inseparable, planned together that colossal structure whereof the great campaigns of Richmond and Atlanta were but two of the parts, and, grasping one another firmly by the hand, separated, one to the east, the other to the west, each to strike at the same instant his half of the ponderous death-blow. ses corps had relieved the commanders of depart+ case of the great mass of minor and personal ng to the troops under them, so the organization ios, now for the first time introduced into although nothing similar had been intended nd McClella was first called to Washington-left selected to command them entirely free to devote s to the organizon, administration, and movement sses against the enemy. Tactical detalle devolved artment codes. The unit Labitually conby the command of the military division became detachmens were army corps. division of the Mississippi, in the personal f in Ohio, consisting of the Narth std Twenty load just taken command of Ninth Corps was on fier wi |