HEADQUARTERS, CAMP OF
INSTRUCTION,
BENTON BARRACKS (near
St. Louis, Mo.),
Feb. 3,1862.
Dear Brother:
. . . . . . . . . .
I am still here at the Barracks doing my best to
organize, equip, and prepare regiments for the coming Spring. . . .
I believe an attempt will be made on the Forts on the
Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers in co-operation with Buell who finds with his
120,000 men he still needs help. I rather think they will come up to my figures
yet. Halleck is expected to send them from 30,000 to 50,000 men. Had this been
done early and promptly, the Confederates could not have made Bowling Green and
Columbia next to impregnable. Until these places are reduced it will not do to
advance far into Tennessee and I doubt if it will be done. East Tennessee
cannot exercise much influence on the final result. West Tennessee is more
important, as without the navigation of the Mississippi all commercial
interests will lean to the Southern cause. If the Southern Confederacy can
control the navigation of the lower Mississippi, and European nations from the
mouths of the Mississippi, what can Missouri and Kentucky do? These are,
however, questions for the future. . . .
Affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.
SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The
Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837
to 1891, p. 139
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