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[178] generous words spoken of Thomas' success at Nashville, coupled with the statement that, upon learning the result, he wrote through General Webster, ‘complimenting him [Thomas] in the highest terms.’ Though not produced that letter exists in the records, and the part of it in any degree complimentary in its character is as follows:

headquarters Military division of the Mississippi, in the field, Savannah, Ga., December 23, 1864.
General J. D. Webster, Nashville, Tenn.
Dear General: Major Dixon arrived last night, bringing your letter of the 10th December, for which I am very much obliged, as it gives me a clear and distinct view of the situation of affairs at Nashville up to that date. I have also from the War Department a copy of General Thomas' dispatch, giving an account of the attack on Hood on the 15th, which was successful, but not complete. I await further accounts with anxiety, as Thomas' complete success is necessary to vindicate my plans for this campaign, and I have no doubt that my calculation that Thomas had in hand (including A. J. Smith's troops) a force large enough to whip Hood in a fair fight was correct. I approve of Thomas' allowing Hood to come north far enough to enable him to concentrate his own men, though I would have preferred that Hood should have been checked about Columbia. Still, if Thomas followed up his success of the 15th, and gave Hood a good whaling, and is at this moment following him closely, the whole campaign in any division will be even more perfect than the Atlanta campaign, for at this end of the line I have realized all I had reason to hope for, except in the release of our prisoners, which was simply an impossibility.

December 24—I have just received a letter from General Grant, giving a detail of General Thomas' operations up to the 18th, and I am gratified beyond measure at the result.

Show this letter to General Thomas, and tell him to consider it addressed to him, as I have not time to write more now. * * * *

I am, very truly, yours,

W. T. Sherman, Major-General

Perhaps the most glaring instance of injustice to General Thomas found in the book appears on page 209. It is contained in a general letter to Grant upon the situation before Savannah, and plans for a coming campaign, dated in front of the latter place December 16th. It has the following paragraph in regard to Thomas:

I myself am somewhat astonished at the attitude of things in Tennessee. I

Cincinnati: Wilstach, Baldwin & Co. 1875.

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