stroyed, and nearly half the guard killed or wounded. At the same time, Van Dorn, with a large mounted force, attacked Franklin, but was repulsed by General Granger, losing 19 killed, 35 wounded, and 48 prisoners.

Streight's disastrous expedition.

On the 29th of April Colonel Streight was ordered by Rosecrans to operate in the rear of Bragg's army and destroy the railroads in Northwestern Georgia. He went in steam-boats from Fort Henry to Eastport, and, aided by an infantry force, captured Tuscumbia. Thence he moved into Georgia, intending to destroy Rome and Atlanta. He was pursued by the Confederate cavalry under Forrest and Roddy, and compelled to surrender when near Rome. His men were treated as other prisoners of war, but he was closely confined. The authorities of Georgia insisted on applying against him the laws of that state respecting the exciting of slaves to rebellion. After nearly a year's confinement he escaped out of the Libby Prison at Richmond.

On the 4th of June the Confederate General Forrest made a raid upon Franklin, and on the 11th attacked Triune. His losses in these unsuccessful skirmishes were estimated at over 100; the national, only 17 killed and wounded.

}

SECTION XVIII.

PIERCING OF THE COTTON STATES BY THE ARMY

OF THE WEST.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

THE CONSULTATION.

General Grant was promoted to be Lieutenant General of the Army of the United States.

He changed the plan of the war by giving unity to its operations, and conducting them without intermission.

He gave orders to cease all minor movements, and to act in the Atlantic region against the two great armies of the Confederacy, he himself undertaking the campaign in Virginia, and committing that in Georgia to General Sherman.

Elevation of Grant to be Lieutenant General.

WHILE Grant occupied a subordinate position, his duty restricted to the reopening and securing of the Mississippi River, operations in the transMississippi regions possessed considerable interest for him and his officers. But when the government had detected his singular military abilities, manifested by the siege of Vicksburg, the relief of Rosecrans's army, the victory of Chattanooga, and had raised him to the chief command of all the armies by reviving in his favor the grade of Lieutenant General, which had been accorded to no one since Washington, General Scott being such only by brevet, all minor movements fell into neglect in presence of the gigantic operations which were now to be conduct ed on the grander domain of the whole republic.

His reluctance to

Not without reluctance did Grant contemplate taking command of the Army of the Potomac. He command the Army could not but call to mind Pope's experience of the Potomac. with it. In the previous summer, soon after the fall of Vicksburg, it had been proposed to give him

that command; but in a letter written to Mr. Washburne, August 30th, he said: "My going there could do no possible good. They have able officers who have been brought up in that army, and to import a commander to place over them certainly would not be well." Accordingly, with a deep insight into the motives of human action, he abstained from any thing that might wound the self-love of that army, and the consequence was, as might have been expected, that never was a commander served with greater zeal and devotion.

On the 9th of March, 1864, Grant received his commission at Washington from the hands of the conferred upon President, in presence of the Cabinet. The President said:

The commission

him.

"GENERAL GRANT: The nation's appreciation of what you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to be done in the existing great struggle, are now presented with this commission constituting you Lieutenant General of the armies 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 need scarcely add that with what I here speak for the nation goes my own hearty personal concurrence."

To this the general replied:

"MR. PRESIDENT: I accept the 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 expectations. 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 these armies, and, above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men.”

When Grant first heard that this honor was intended, and before it was conferred, he hastened to write to Sher

man:

“While I have been eminently successful in the war in at least gaining the confidence of the public, no one feels more than I how much of this success is due to the energy

His letter to
Sherman.

and skill of those whom it has been my good fortune to have occupying subordinate positions under me.

"There are many officers to whom these remarks are applicable in a greater or less degree, proportionate to their ability as soldiers; but what I want is to express my thanks to you and McPherson as the men to whom, above all others, I feel indebted for whatever I have had of success. How far your advice and assistance have been of help to me, you know. How far your execution of whatever has been given to you to do entitles you to the reward I am receiving, you can not know as well as I. I feel all the gratitude this letter would express, giving it the most flattering construction.”

Upon the receipt of the order formally placing him in command of the armies, Grant at once tween Grant and summoned Sherman to meet him at Nashville for the purpose of consultation.

Consultation be

Sherman.

The future plan of the war.

Sherman accompanied the Lieutenant General on his return to Washington as far as Cincinnati. In these interviews the plan of operations was matured. It was to abandon every thing unimportant and outlying, and strike at the centres of power of the enemy. These were two-the army of Lee in Virginia, and that of Johnston in Georgia. They were to be assailed simulta neously, so that they could take no advantage of their interior lines in aiding each other; they were also to be assailed incessantly, regardless of the seasons. In his official

report Grant says:

"From an early period of the rebellion I had been impressed with the idea that active and continuous operations of all the troops that could be brought into the field, regardless of the season and weather, were necessary to a speedy termination of the war. The resources

of the enemy and his numerical strength were far inferior to ours; but, as an offset to this, we had a vast territory, with a population hostile to the government, to garrison, and long lines of river and railroad communications to protect, to enable us to supply the operating armies.

"The armies in the East and West acted independently and withImperfection of the out concert, like a balky team, no two ever pulling toformer plans. gether, enabling the enemy to use to great advantage his interior lines of communication for transporting troops from east

to west, re-enforcing the army most vigorously pressed, and to furlough large numbers during seasons of inactivity on our part to go to their homes and do the work of producing supplies for the support of their armies. It was a question whether our numerical strength and resources were not more than balanced by these disadvantages and the enemy's superior position.

The military power must be broken.

"From the first I was firm in the conviction that no peace could be had that would be stable and conducive to the hapof the Confederacy piness of the people, both North and South, until the military power of the rebellion was entirely broken. I therefore determined first to use the greatest number of troops practicable against the armed force of the enemy, preventing him from using the same force at different seasons against first one and then another of our armies, and the possibility of repose for refitting and producing the necessary supplies for carrying on resistance. Second, to hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until, by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him but an equal submission with the loyal section of our common country to the Constitution and laws of the land."

No man ever more thoroughly appreciated the military maxim that it is not the mass present, but the mass acting that wins battles.

Details of opera

man.

At Nashville, early in April, Sherman received from Grant an outline statement of the proposed tions sent to Sher- operations. A map was sent him by General Comstock. It was one of Colton's railroad maps, with pencil lines in red indicating the existing front, which coincided nearly with the valley of the Tennessee River, and a blue line following the upper Chattahoochee down to West Point, across to Montgomery, and down the Alabama, including Mobile. It showed the general advance of front proposed. Of this Sherman remarked: "That map to me, with its red and blue lines, contains more information and ideas than a volume of printed matter. From it I see all, and glad am I that there are minds now in Washington able to devise."

Grant's letter, dated Washington, April 4th, 1864, is in abstract as follows:

"It is my design, if the enemy keeps quiet, and allows me to take