and in case of danger, some of the scouts must swim the river and bring us information. As we approach the city the party must take great care that they do not get ahead of the other party on the south side, and must conceal themselves and watch our movements. We will try and secure the bridge to the city, one mile below Belle Isle, and release the prisoners at the same time. If we don't succeed they must then dash down, and we will try to carry the bridge by storm. When necessary the men must be filed through the woods and along the river bank. The bridge once secured and the prisoners loose and over the river, the bridges will be burned and the city destroyed.

The men must be kept together and well in hand, and once in the city, it must be destroyed and Jeff. Davis and his Cabinet killed. Pioneers will go along with combustible material. The officer must use his discretion about the time of assisting us. Horses and cattle which we do not need immediately must be shot, rather than left.

Every thing on the canal and elsewhere, of service to the rebels, must be destroyed.

As Gen. Custer may follow me, be careful not to give a false alarm. The signal officer must be prepared to communicate at night by rockets, and in other things pertaining to his department. The Quartermasters and Commissaries must be on the lookout for their departments, and see that there are no delays on their account. The engineer officer will follow and survey the road as we pass over it, &c. The pioneers must be prepared to construct a bridge or destroy one. They must have plenty of oakum and turpentine for burning, which will be soaked and rolled into balls and be given to the men to burn when we get into the city. Torpedoes will only be used by the pioneers for burning the main bridges, &c. They must be prepared to destroy the railroads. Men will branch off to the right with a few pioneers and destroy the bridges and railroads south of Richmond, and then join us at the city. They must be well prepared with torpedoes, &c.

The line of Falling Creek is probably the best to march along, or, as they approach the city, Good's Creek, so that no reenforcements can come up on any

On the approach of Gen. Kilpatrick Richmond was in a defenceless condition. The Departments of the Government were closed and the clerks armed for defence. Men were collected from every quarter to oppose him. At the same time great consternation prevailed. On the 29th of February an act of Congress to revive the grade of Lieutenant-General was approved by President Lincoln. He immediately sent the nomination of Maj.-Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to the Senate for confirmation. On

the House of Representatives, and others, the President rose and said:

GEN. GRANT: The nation's appreciation of what you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to do, in the existing great struggle, are now presented with this commission, constituting you Lieutenant-General in the Army of the United States. With this high honor devolves upon you, also, a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need to add that with what I here speak for the nation, goes my own hearty personal concurrence. To which Gen. Grant replied:

MR. PRESIDENT: I accept this commission with gratitude for the high honor conferred.

With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to disappoint your expec tations.

I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me, and I know that if they are met, it will be due to those armies, and, above, all to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations

and men.

On the 11th of March Gen. Grant returned to Nashville, Tennessee. On the 12th, the following order was issued at Washington:

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, March 12. General Orders No. 98.

The President of the United States orders as folrelieved from duty as General-in-Chief of the Army, lows: 1. Maj-Gen. Halleck is, at his own request, and Lieut.-Gen. U. S. Grant assigned to the command of the Armies of the United States. The headquar ters of the army will be in Washington and also with Lieut.-Gen. Grant in the field.

2. Maj.-Gen. Halleck is assigned to duty in Washington as Chief-of-Staff of the Army, under the direction of the Secretary of War and the LieutenantGeneral commanding. His orders will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

command of the military division of the Mississippi, 3. Maj.-Gen. W. T. Sherman is assigned to the composed of the Department of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas.

4. Maj.-Gen. J. B. McPherson is assigned to the command of the Department and Army of the Ten

I assume command of the Armies of the United States. My headquarters will be in the field, and until further orders will be with the Army of the Potomac. There will be an officers' headquarters in Washington, to which all official communications

The following order has been received from the War Department:

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, March 23, 1864. S General Orders No. 15. By direction of the President of the United States the number of army corps comprising the army of the Potomac will be reduced to three, viz., the 2d, 5th, and 6th corps; and the troops of the other two corps, viz., the 1st and 3d, will be temporarily reorganized and distributed among the 2d, 5th and 6th by the commanding general, who will determine what existing organizations will retain their corps badges and other distinctive marks. The staff and officers of the 2d corps, which are temporarily broken up, will be assigned to vacancies in the other corps, so far as such vacancies may exist. Those for whom there are no vacancies will cease to be considered as officers of the general staff of army corps.

2. Maj.-Gen. G. K. Warren is assigned by the President to the command of the 5th corps.

3. The following general officers are detached from the Army of the Potomac, and will report for orders to the Adjutant General of the army, viz.: Maj.-Gen. George Sykes, U. S. V.; Maj.-Gen. W. H. French, U. S. V.; Maj.-Gen. John Newton, U. S. V.; Brig.-Gen. J. R. Kenly, U. S. V.; Brig.-Gen. F. Spinola, U. S. V., and Brig. Gen. Solomon Meredith, U. S. V. By order of the Secretary of War.

E. D. TOWNSEND, Ass't Adj't Gen. The following arrangements are made to carry out the provisions of the foregoing order:

The 2d, 5th, and 6th army corps will each be consolidated into two divisions. The 1st and 2d divisions of the 3d corps are transferred to the 2d corps, preserving their badges and distinctive marks. The 3d division of the 3d corps is transferred permanently to the 6th corps. The three divisions now forming the 1st corps are transferred to the 5th corps, preserving their badges and distinctive marks, and on forming the 5th corps they will be consolidated into two divisions.

The commanders of divisions transferred to the 2d, 5th, and 6th corps will at once report to the commanders of those corps for instructions. Brig.-Gen. J. B.Carr will report to Maj.-Gen. Hancock, commanding 2d corps, and Brig.-Gen. H. Prince to Maj.-Gen. Sedgwick, commanding 6th corps. The chief of artillery will assign eight batteries each to the 2d, 5th, and 6th corps; the batteries to be taken from those now with the corps and with the 1st and 3d corps. The batteries with the several corps in excess of the above allowance will join the artillery reserve.

The consolidation of divisions called for in this order will be made by the corps commanders concerned, who are authorized to rearrange the brigades of their respective commands in such manner as they may think best for the service. The reassignment of officers of the staff departments consequent upon the reorganization of the army, will be made upon the nomination of chiefs of the staff departments at these headquarters.

Special instructions will be given hereafter with re

spect to staff officers of the 2d corps, temporarily

broken up.

The Major-General Commanding avails himself

of the occasion to say that, in view of the reduced strength of nearly all the regiments serving in this army, the temporary reduction of the army corps to three is a measure imperatively demanded by the best interests of the service, and that the reasons for attaching the 1st and 3d corps for the time. being to other corps, were in no respect founded on any sup the army. All the corps have equally proved their posed inferiority of those corps to the other corps of valor in many fields, and all have equal claims to the confidence of the Government and the country. The 1st and 3d corps will retain their badges and distinctive marks, and the Major-General Commanding indulges the hope that the ranks of the army will be filled at an early day, so that those corps can again be reorganized.

By command of

S. WILLIAMS, Ass't Adj't Gen.

Maj.-Gen. MEADE.

A concentration of troops was now commenced in preparation for a campaign against Richmond, in Virginia, by the Army of the Potomac, under Gen. Meade, and a campaign against Atlanta, in Georgia, by the Army of Tennessee, under Gen. Sherman. Gen. Grant continued to be present with the Army of the Potomac during the year. Gen. Meade was as truly the commander of that army as Gen. W. T. Sherman of the army operating in Georgia, and both these officers were equally under the command of Gen. Grant. His presence with the Army of the Potomac naturally led to his assuming a more direct and personal supervision of affairs in Virginia than he was able to do of the cooperative movement of Gen. Sherman in Georgia. The orders of Gen. Grant to Gen. Meade were of the most general character. The manner of executing them was left to the judgment and

skill of the latter. It was now nine months since the Army of the Potomac had fought a general battle, and seven months since the Western army marched into Chattanooga-the last battle for the possession of which was fought in November.

both armies, and in making preparations for the The month of April passed in reorganizing campaign against Richmond and Atlanta.

It was the middle of March when Gen. Grant turned over the military division of the Mississippi, comprising the departments of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio, to Major-General W. T. Sherman, who had previously commanded the department of the Tennessee, to which Major-General MePherson was soon after assigned. In the succeeding month the general plan of the summer campaign, which contemplated a simultaneous advance upon Richmond by the army of the Potomac, and upon Atlanta from Chattanooga, by the several western armies, was matured, and Gen. Sherman at once bent every energy to the perfecting and enlargement of the communications between Nashville and Chattanooga, his primary and secondary bases, and to the accumulation in the latter place of a sufficient quantity of provisions and military stores. These went forward with great rapidity, and by the end of April the depots in Chattanooga were reported abundantly supplied for all im. mediate purposes.

At this time the headquarters of the armies of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, and the Ohio, were respectively at Huntsville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville; and on the 27th, Gen. Sherman having been notified by Gen. Grant that the Army of the Potomac would march from Culpepper on or about May 5th, and that he wished the movement from Chattanooga to commence at the same time, put his troops in motion toward the latter place. The total force under his command for offensive purposes, was as follows:

Army of the Cumberland, Major-Gen. Thomas Com

Infantry.

Artillery.

Cavalry

Total..

Guns.

manding.

.54.569

2.877

..8,828

60,773

180

ing country extending from the mountainous region to a line passing in a northeasterly direction through Columbus, Macon, and Augusta; and 3. A level country extending to the seaboard, for the most part sandy and thickly covered with pine woods, and along the coast bordered by extensive swamps. The northwestern portion of the State, as far south as Atlanta, is almost exclusively a grain and grassbearing region; the middle and eastern divisions being devoted chiefly to the cultivation of cotton. But its mineral wealth, particularly in iron ores, which abound among the mountains, has, since the commencement of the war, rendered the possession of this first-mentioned division a matter of prime importance to the Confederates. At Etowah, Rome, and Atlanta were large iron works in the employ of the

manding.

22,437

1,494 624 .24,465 96

making a grand aggregate of 88,188 infantry, 4,460 artillery, and 6,149 cavalry, or 98,797 men and 254 guns. The Army of the Cumberland comprised the 4th corps, Gen. Howard; the 14th corps, Gen. Palmer, and the 20th corps, Gen. Hooker; the Army of the Tennessee, the 15th corps, Gen. Logan; the 16th corps, Gen. Dodge; and later in the campaign, the 17th corps, Gen. Blair; and the Army of the Ohio, the 23d corps, Gen. Schofield. These armies were grouped on the morning of May 6th as follows: That of the Cumberland at Ringgold, on the Western and Atlantic Railroad, 23 miles southeast of Chattanooga; that of the Tennessee at Gordon's Mill, on the Chickamauga, eight miles west of Ringgold; and that of the Ohio, near Red Clay, on the Georgia line, about ten miles northeast of Ringgold. The enemy, comprising Gens. Hardee's, Hood's, and Polk's corps of infantry and artillery, and Wheeler's division of cavalry, the whole commanded by Lieut.-General Joseph E. Johnston, of the Confederate Army, lay in and about Dalton, fifteen miles south of Ringgold, on the railroad, the advance being at Tunnel Hill, a station about midway between the two places. Their cavalry were estimated by Gen. Sherman at 10,000 men, and the infantry and artillery at from 45,000 to 50,000, of whom much the greater part were veteran troops.

Topographically considered, the State of Georgia admits of three distinct divisions: 1. A mountainous region, embracing the northwest corner of the State, and which terminates at the Kenesaw Mountain, near Marietta, 120 miles from Chattanooga; 2. A gently undulat

occupation of which by a Union force would be likely to cause much embarrassment, not to speak of cotton and woollen mills at Roswell, Rome, and elsewhere, which turned out large quantities of fabrics for the use of the rebel troops.

Atlanta, lying near the boundary between the northwestern and middle divisions had, previous to the war, become an important centre of railroad communication and trade between the western and Atlantic and Gulf States, and one of the chief manufacturing towns of the South. It is laid out in a circle, two miles in diameter, in the centre of which was the passenger depot (since destroyed) of railroads radiating to Chattanooga, Augusta, Macon, and Montgomery; and the business portion of the town contained many fine blocks of warehouses for storing goods consigned from the north and northwest to the cotton regions of the South. Here also were established the machine shops of the principal railroads, the most extensive rolling mill in the South, foundries, pistol, and tent factories, and numerous works under the direction of the Confederate Government for casting shot and shell, and the manufacture of gun-carriages, cartridges, caps, shoes, clothing, and other military supplies. The population, numbering in 1860 about 15,000, had, subsequent to the commencement of the war, been increased by the arrival of refugees and government officials and employés to fully 20,000. In any event the capture of the place, with its vast stores and costly machinery, would so cripple the rebel resources, that the simple suggestion of such a contingency sent a thrill of alarm through the entire Confederacy. In the opinion of many its importance was not second even to that of Richmond. Strenuous efforts were accordingly put forth for its defence, and the line of approach along the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which is crossed by the Oostanaula and Etowah, branches of the Coosa River, which in turn is a branch of the Alabama, and by the Chattahoochee, and is girt as far as Marietta by ranges of rugged hills, was rendered as difficult for Sherman as the abundant