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if I feign on Macon, you may take it for granted that I have shot off toward Opelika, Montgomery and Mobile Bay or Pensacola.’
The following extracts from the final report of
General Grant, dated
Washington, July 22, 1865, bear pointedly upon the questions under consideration.
In describing the combined movements ordered for the
Spring of 1864, he says:
‘General Sherman was instructed to move against Johnston's army, break it up, and to go into the interior of the enemy's country as far as he could, inflicting all the damage he could upon their war resources.
If the enemy in his front showed signs of joining Lee, to follow him up to the full extent of his ability, while I would prevent the concentration of Lee upon him, if it was in the power of the Army of the Potomac to do so. More specific instructions were not given, for the reason that I had talked over with him the plans of the campaign, and was satisfied that he understood them and would execute them to the fullest extent possible.’
And again:
It was the original design to hold Atlanta, and by getting through to the coast, with a garrison left on the southern railroads, leading east and west through Georgia, to effectually sever the East from the West.
In other words, cut the would-be Confederacy in two again, as it had been cut once by our gaining possession of the Mississippi River. General Sherman's plan virtually effected this object.
That part of
Sherman's plan here referred to, is his proposition to march through
Georgia without holding
Atlanta.
The above citations from the official records, and chiefly from those in
General Sherman's possession, are quite sufficient to show that the correct history of the March to the
Sea is not given in the Memoirs.
There was this important difference between
Grant's plan and
Sherman's:
Grant's contemplated a prior destruction of
Hood's army.
Sherman's was a march away from an enemy.
This branch of the subject will be treated at length in a subsequent chapter.
The records thus far produced are sufficient to show that
General Grant, while still in command at
Nashville, and two
