I have your dispatch of to-day.
My command need some rest and pay. Our roads are also broken back near
Nashville, and
Wheeler is not yet disposed of. Still I am perfectly alive to the importance of pushing our advantage to the utmost.
I do not think we can afford to operate further, dependent on the railroad.
It takes so many men to guard it, and even then it is nightly broken by the enemy's cavalry that swarms about us.
Macon is distant one hundred and three miles and
Augusta one hundred and seventy-five miles. If I could be sure of finding provisions and ammunition at
Augusta or
Columbus, Georgia, I can march to
Milledgeville and compel
Hood to give up
Augusta or
Macon, and could then turn on the other.
The country will afford forage and many supplies, but not enough in any one place to admit of a delay.
In scattering for forage we have a great many men picked up by the enemy's cavalry.
If you can manage to take the
Savannah River as high as
Augusta, or the
Chattahoochee as far up as
Columbus, I can sweep the whole
State of Georgia, otherwise I would risk our whole army by going too far from
Atlanta.