[private.]
Nashville, Tennessee, March 4,1864.
Dear Sherman: The
bill reviving the grade of lieutenant-general in the army has become a law, and
my name has been sent to the Senate for the place.
I now receive orders to report at Washington immediately, in
person, which indicates either a confirmation or a likelihood of
confirmation. I start in the morning to comply with the order, but I shall say
very distinctly on my arrival there that I shall accept no appointment which
will require me to make that city my headquarters. This, however, is not what I
started out to write about.
While I have been eminently successful in this 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, skill, and the harmonious putting forth
of that energy 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
to 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 suggestions have been of assistance, you know. How far your
execution of whatever has been given you to do entitles you to the reward I am
receiving, you cannot know as well as I do. I feel all the gratitude this
letter would express, giving it the most flattering construction.
The word you I use in the plural, intending it for
McPherson also. I should write to him, and will some day, but, starting in the
morning, I do not know that I will find time just now.
Your friend,
U. S. Grant, Major-General.
SOURCE: William T. Sherman, Memoirs of General
William T. Sherman, Fourth Edition, Revised, Corrected and Complete, Vol.
1, p. 426-7
No comments:
Post a Comment