Friday, August 30, 2013

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, October 11, 1864

[KINGSTON, GEORGIA, October 11, 1864]

Hood swung over against my road and broke it this side of Marietta, and forced me to come out of Atlanta to drive him off. He sheered off to the west, and is now below Home. I have taken position here where I can watch him. I still hold Atlanta in strength, and have so many detachments guarding the railroad that Hood thinks he may venture to fight me. He certainly surpasses me in the quantity and quality of cavalry, which hangs all around and breaks the railroad and telegraph wires every night. You can imagine what a task I have, 138 miles of railroad, and my forces falling off very fast. I hear some new regiments are now arriving at Nashville, and they may strengthen my line so that I may go ahead, but Mobile or Savannah should be taken before I venture further. I am far beyond all other columns.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 240

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