Grant’s Final Judgment on It
Grant’s first assent to Sherman’s plan was made, October 11, on the condition of “holding the line of the Tennessee firmly.” On October 22 Sherman telegraphed: “I am now perfecting arrangements to put into Tennessee a force able to hold the line of the Tennessee.”
Even as late as November 1, Grant again suggested to Sherman that Hood ought to be his “objective,” now that he “has gone so far north.” At an earlier hour the same day, in the despatch above quoted, Sherman telegraphed, “trusting that General Thomas... will be able in a very few days to assume the offensive.” To this Grant replied November 2: “With the force, however, you have left with Thomas, he must be able to take care of Hood and destroy him.” In that despatch of November 1 Sherman had made a statement of the troops Thomas would have, including A. J. Smith’s from Missouri, adding, “but I doubt if they can reach Tennessee in less than ten days.” Now Smith’s troops did not reach Tennessee in less than thirty days instead of ten days, and after the crisis of the campaign was passed; and the effective force in Tennessee before Smith’s arrival was 13,000 men less than Sherman had stated it. So that the whole brunt of the fight with Hood fell upon the two corps which Sherman had sent back, without any help from the reinforcements upon which Sherman counted so largely. It was, in fact, six weeks instead of a “very few days” before Thomas was able “to assume the offensive.” It was not attempted to “hold the line of the Tennessee” either “firmly” or at all.
Having been absent from the army in the field during Hood’s raid in Sherman’s rear, I knew little personally about those estimates of the strength of the opposing forces. For the same reason, I knew nothing of Sherman’s plans or correspondence with Grant which were considered or took place after the fall of Atlanta, though I had been perfectly familiar with the plans discussed previous to that time having in view a change of base to some point on the Atlantic or on the gulf, with a view to further operations in Georgia or the Gulf States, wherever there might be a hostile army to operate against. Yet when I met Sherman at Gaylesburg I was surprised to learn that he was going off to the sea with five sixths of his army, leaving Thomas, with only one of his six corps, and no other veteran troops then ready for field service, to take care of Hood until he could get A. J. Smith from Missouri, incorporate new regiments into the army and make them fit to meet the veteran enemy, remount his cavalry, and concentrate his garrisons and railroad guards in Tennessee! Of course I knew far less than Sherman did about all that, for I had no responsibility and little knowledge about Thomas’s department. But I knew enough to feel astonished when Sherman told me what he proposed to do. I plainly told Sherman so, and urged him to send me back with my corps to join Stanley and help Thomas.(12)
Here arise several interesting questions which would be worthy of consideration, although a satisfactory solution of them might not be possible. Under Sherman’s assurance as to what he had done for Thomas in Tennessee, Grant appears to have been fully satisfied that Thomas would be able to take care of Hood and destroy him, thus eliminating that Confederate army from the future problem in the Atlantic States. But could Sherman, with his more exact knowledge of what he actually had done, have felt the same confidence? In view of that knowledge and of the results of his own previous operations against Hood, could he have expected any such result? Is it not more probable that Sherman simply expected to take advantage of Hood’s temporary absence from Georgia to make his own change of base to Savannah? Did Sherman not, in fact, really expect Hood to follow him, even though at so great a distance, and be prepared to resist his future operations from Savannah? Sherman repeatedly said, in his despatches before he started, that he believed Hood would follow him, being compelled to do so by public clamor. What was Sherman’s plan when he started for Savannah? Was it simply to effect a change of base, or was it for well-defined ulterior purposes? When did Sherman mature his plan to march to Virginia, and when did that plan first dawn upon Sherman’s mind? In this connection, what significance is to be attached to the dates of events in Tennessee, especially the battles of Franklin and Nashville?