Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant to Major-General William T. Sherman, November 1, 1864 – 6 p.m.

CITY POINT, VA., November 1, 18646 p.m.
Major-General SHERMAN,
Atlanta, Ga.:

Do you not think it advisable now that Hood has gone so far north to entirely settle him before starting on your proposed campaign? With Hood's army destroyed you can go where you please with impunity. I believed, and still believe, that if you had started south whilst Hood was in the neighborhood of you he would have been forced to go after you. Now that he is so far away, he might look upon the chase as useless and go in one direction whilst you are pushing in the other. If you can see the chance for destroying Hood's army, attend to that first and make your other move secondary.

U.S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 39, Part 2 (Serial No. 79), p. 576; John Bell Hood, Advance and Retreat, p. 265

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