Thursday, February 12, 2015

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, February 15, 1864

Nashville, February 15, 1864.

. . . General Grant talks some of going to Chattanooga this week. I don't know whether he will or not, but if he goes I shall go also.

Colonel Bowers and I are very busily engaged of evenings on the General's official report of the battles of Chattanooga, which I assure you is a very unpleasant and I might say thankless undertaking, for the General is very tenacious of the claim that he writes his own reports, and it is necessary for us to follow the text as nearly as possible. With the transposition of sentences, even pages, and the writing out too of the very plans of the battles, this is difficult.

My cough still continues but I think I am improving. For a while I gained strength but have not done so for several days past. If I could take a trip South, I think it would be of great service to me, but the doctors say there is no danger. They ought to tell me the truth and I hope do. A cough, however, from the 10th of October to the 15th of February is not to be slightly treated. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 399

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