Wednesday, March 18, 2015

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

Culpepper C. H., Va., April 15, 1864.

. . . The General returned this afternoon from his Annapolis visit. The railroad guards at one of the stations between this and Washington were attacked by a party of the enemy, whom they repulsed a few minutes before the arrival of the train the General was on. So you see his good luck still sticks to him. I have not yet talked with him of the result of his visit to Burnside. We have received bad news from the Mississippi Valley, and will continue to receive just such to cheer us, while timid Generals, who have been time-serving politicians, are retained in command. I hope soon to see such changes made as will give at least confidence that all will be done that can be with the forces given to keep matters quiet on the Mississippi River. I am not one of those who think it probable that we will be able to give perfect peace along the banks of that great river until we have entirely defeated the rebel armies elsewhere. . . .

General Grant's official report of Chattanooga is being published all over the country, and is receiving the most favorable notice in all the leading papers. You know I told you it would do much for his reputation. And you know, too, the manner in which I labored for weeks with Bowers on that report to make it show the real truths, the plans and conceptions which matured into the splendid victory of Chattanooga.  . . . Enclosed I send you what the New York Times says of it. The General fully appreciates the services of Bowers and myself in this matter. He writes his own reports, but they need a great deal of comparing with orders and much rearranging to make them the complete reports that are shown in his reports of Vicksburg and Chattanooga. Few men write with greater terseness that which fills their minds than Grant. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 417-8

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