NASHVILLE, April 27,
1864.
. . . To-morrow I start for Chattanooga and at once prepare
for the coming campaign. I will have 20,000 less men than I calculated, from
the Red River disaster1 and two divisions of McPherson, whose
furlough won't expire. These furloughs have, as I feared, impaired if not lost
us this campaign. When men get home they forget their comrades here, and though
Governors are very patriotic in offers of troops their acts fall far short of
their promises. Our armies are now weaker than at any former point of the war.
My old corps has dwindled away to 10,000 though we had promises that all the
regiments would come with two or three hundred recruits each, but the recruits
seem to have pocketed the money and like selfish men staid at home.
I will begin with Schofield, 12,000 infantry and 5,000
cavalry; Thomas, 40,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry; and McPherson, 20,000
infantry and 5,000 cavalry. Combined it is a big army and a good one, and it
will take a strong opposition to stop us once in motion.
Dalton will be our first point, Kingston next, then
Allatoona and then Atlanta. All the attacks of the enemy on Paducah, Fort
Pillow and in North Carolina are to draw us off from our concentration. As soon
as we move they will attempt to cut in behind and cut our roads and fight us in
front. So we are forced to detach men to guard our railroads all the way from Louisville
to Chattanooga. . . .
__________
1 The failure of the Red River expedition under
General Banks. See p. 285.
SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of
General Sherman, p. 288-9. A full copy of this letter can
be found in the William
T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives
(UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/13
