MOSCOW, July 16, 1862
General HALLECK, Corinth:
I cannot express my heartfelt pain at hearing of your orders
and intended departure. You took command in the Valley of the Mississippi at a
period of deep gloom, when I felt that our poor country was doomed to a Mexican
anarchy, but at once arose order, system, firmness, and success in which there
has not been a pause.
I thank you for the kind expression to me, but all I have
done has been based on the absolute confidence I had conceived for your
knowledge of national law and your comprehensive knowledge of things gathered,
God only knows how.
That success will attend you wherever you go I feel no
doubt, for you must know more about the East than you did about the West when
you arrived at Saint Louis a stranger. And there you will find armies organized
and pretty well commanded, instead of the scattered forces you then had. I
attach more importance to the West than the East. The one has a magnificent
future, but enveloped in doubt. The other is comparatively an old country. The
man who at the end of this war holds the military control of the Valley of the
Mississippi will be the man. You should not be removed. I fear the
consequences.
Personally you will rule wherever you go, but I did hope you
would finish up what you had begun, and where your success has attracted the
world's notice.
Instead of that calm, sure, steady progress which has dismayed
our enemy, I now fear alarms, hesitations, and doubt. You cannot be replaced
out here, and it is too great a risk to trust a new man from the East. We are
all the losers; you may gain, but I believe you would prefer to finish what you
have so well begun.
With great respect,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
17, Part 2 (Serial No. 25), p. 100-1
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