On March 24, 1864, General Sherman writes from his headquarters,
then at Nashville, Tenn.
I went to Cincinnati with Grant to see Ellen. I stayed but
two days, and am now here. I go to Decatur, Huntsville, and Chattanooga, to be
gone a week, and then return here. I shall have plenty to do. I am bored for
photographs, etc. I send you the only one I have, which you can have
duplicated, and let the operator sell to the curious. Give Grant all the
support you can. If he can escape the toils of the schemers, he may do some
good. He will fight, and the Army of the Potomac will have all the fighting
they want. He will expect your friendship — we are close friends. His
simplicity and modesty are natural and not affected. Whatever part is assigned
me I will attempt, cost what it may in life and treasure. . . .
And again he writes: —
Grant encourages his juniors and takes pleasure in
supporting them. . . . Newspaper men are afraid of me, and I hope before the
war is much older we shall be allowed to conscript every citizen of good
physique found about our camps, on the ground that he has fled to escape the
draft. Such an order would have an admirable effect.
SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The
Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837
to 1891, p. 223-4
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