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march his troops into Virginia, and that Halleck had better keep out of the way because he would not be answerable for what might happen to him at the hands of some rash men in his command.
And Sherman and Halleck remained the bitterest enemies until the last.
It will be seen in Halleck's letter to Grant, to which I have referred, that he says I quarrelled with everybody.
If there can be found any such quarrels on my part with anybody as those of Halleck with all the generals with whom he came in contact, I will agree that I am a more quarrelsome man than Halleck suggested me to be. Witness his quarrel with Banks about the expedition up Red River.
Halleck repeatedly suggested an order to be made, against the better judgment of Banks, who over and over again reported to Halleck his objections to making it. Halleck afterwards made the most slanderous reports to Grant against Banks for doing what he himself had suggested, so that Banks was removed with contumely.
Halleck does not intimate in his letter that in my quarrels I lied or cheated and betrayed all my friends and even my enemies, but he did recommend that I should be sent into Rosecrans' department to have a quarrel with him, with whom also Halleck was then in a quarrel.
Before I made a movement in the campaign of 1864, as will be seen by reading the despatches to Grant, and before I could be accused of having made any failure in the field, Halleck commenced a series of despatches, which he kept up to the last, advising Grant to have me removed from the army.
At last he succeeded, but only after Grant's mind had become soured by false representations of political rivalry and enmity on my part.
But, I may be asked, what was the motive of Halleck in all this?
What had you done to him?
Nothing in the world.
There were two vacancies in the rank of major-general in the regular army,--which I never thought of or desired,--and Grant had recommended one of his own favorites for appointment.
Thereupon Halleck wrote the following letter to Grant:--
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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