HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
City Point, Va.,
December 27, 1864.
Maj. Gen. W. T.
SHERMAN,
Commanding Military Division of
the Mississippi:
GENERAL: Before
writing you definite instructions for the next campaign, I wanted to receive
your answer to my letter written from Washington. Your confidence in being able
to march up and join this army pleases me, and I believe it can be done. The
effect of such a campaign will be to disorganize the South, and prevent the
organization of new armies from their broken fragments. Hood is now retreating,
with his army broken and demoralized. His loss in men has probably not been far
from 20,000, besides deserters. If time is given the fragments may be collected
together and many of the deserters reassembled; if we can we should act to
prevent this. Your spare army, as it were, moving as proposed, will do this. In
addition to holding Savannah, it looks to me that an intrenched camp ought to
be held on the railroad between Savannah and Charleston. Your movement toward
Branchville will probably enable Foster to reach this with his own force. This
will give us a position in the South from which we can threaten the interior,
without marching over long narrow causeways easily defended, as we have
heretofore been compelled to do. Could not such a camp be established about
Pocotaligo, or Coosawhatchie? I have thought that Hood being so completely
wiped out for present harm, I might bring A. J. Smith here with from 10,000 to
15,000 men. With this increase I could hold my lines and move out with a
greater force than Lee has. It would compel Lee to retain all his present force
in the defenses of Richmond, or abandon them entirely. This latter contingency
is probably the only danger to the easy success of your expedition. In the
event you should meet Lee's army, you would be compelled to beat it, or find
the sea-coast. Of course I shall not let Lee's army escape if I can help it,
and will not let it go without following to the best of my ability. Without
waiting further directions, then, you may make preparations to start on your
northern expedition without delay. Break up the railroads in South and North
Carolina, and join the armies operating against Richmond as soon as you can. I
will leave out all suggestions about the route you should take, knowing that your
information, gained daily in the progress of events, will be better than any
that can be obtained now. It may not be possible for you to march to the rear
of Petersburg, but failing in this you could strike either of the sea-coast
ports in North Carolina held by us; from there you could take shipping. It
would be decidedly preferable, however, if you could march the whole distance.
From the best information I have, you will find no difficulty in supplying your
army until you cross the Roanoke. From there here is but a few days' march, and
supplies could be collected south of the river to bring you through. I shall
establish communication with you there by steam-boat and gun-boat. By this
means your wants can be partially supplied. I shall hope to hear from you soon,
and to hear your plan and about the time of starting. Please instruct Foster to
hold on to all the property captured in Savannah, and especially the cotton. Do
not turn it over to citizens or Treasury agents without orders of the War
Department.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
U.S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
44 (Serial No. 92), p. 820-1
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