Fort Donelson, Ten.
Dear Julia.
Enclosed I send
you seven hundred dollars which with as much as you can spare from money you
already have you may lend to the store taking a note payable to yourself. In
sending this I am anticipating my March pay but I will be able to send you one
hundred every month for your support and when all is paid up I can send you
four hundred per month for you to apply the savings for your own benefit. I
want you to accumulate all you can against any accident that may arise. I hope
this War will not continue long and when it does end I want to have a few
hundred dollars at least independent of every body. My pay now is over $6000
per year and I can live off of one thousand even as a Maj. Gen. Keeping my
horses is necessarily somewhat expensive but in other particulars I spend but
very little.—Should I not be where you can join me this Summer I want you to
visit your friends and mine.—Send the children to school and tell them to be
good and not annoy anybody. Dear children tell them their pa thinks of them
every day notwithstanding he has so much els to think of. I have done a good
job at Forts Henry and Donelson but I am being so much crippled in my resources
that I very much fear that I shall not be able to advance so rapidly as I would
like. When I left Cairo steam transportation was so scarse that it took two
trips to bring up my force leaving behind nearly all my wagons and leaving the
cavalry to march. Since that I have been unable to get up these teams. Besides
this Gen. Buell ordered to his column some of my troops that were at
Clarkesville; the loss in battle and from fatigue and exposure takes of a
number of thousands; I sent off two regiments to guard prisoners who have not
been returned, and if I leave, garrisons will have to be left here, at
Clarkesville and Fort Henry. This will weaken me so much that great results
cannot be expected. I shall write to Gen. Halleck to-day however stating all
these facts. I have written to those at Cairo who should have rectified this
matter but without much response. Remember this is a private letter and is not
to be made public. You had better keep it however. I do hope that I will be placed
in a seperate Department so as to be more independent, not that I have any
fault to find with Gen. Halleck on the contrary I regard him as one of the
greatest men of the age and there are not two men in the United States who I
would prefer serving under to McClellan & Halleck. They would be my own
chois for the positions they fill if left to me to make. Kiss the children for
me. The same for yourself.
Ulys.
SOURCE: John Y. Simon & William M. Ferraro,
Editors The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 4: January
8-March 31, 1862, p. 305-6
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