by H. W. Brands
“No, sir…badly beaten”: J. K. Herbert to Benjamin Butler, Aug. 11, 1864, Private and Official Correspondence of General Benjamin F. Butler (1917), 5:35.
“This morning, as for some days past”: Lincoln memorandum, Aug. 23, 1864, Works of Lincoln, 7:514.
“I would say … my own conscience”: John Hay diary, Nov. 11, 1864, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, ed. Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger (1997), 248.
CHAPTER 43
“It is enough to make the whole world start”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, June 30, 1864, Home Letters of General Sherman (1909), 299.
“Dalton will be our first point”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, April 27, 1864, Home Letters, 289.
“Thomas is my centre”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, May 22, 1864, Home Letters, 292-93.
“I cannot leave the railroad”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, June 30, 1864, Home Letters, 299-300.
“All of Georgia”: Sherman to John Sherman, June 9, 1864, The Sherman Letters (1894), 235-36.
“I propose to study the crossings”: Sherman to Halleck, July 6, 1864, Official Records, 1:38(5):65-66.
“I immediately inquired of General Schofield”: Memoirs of Sherman, 543-44.
“McPherson was then in his prime”: Memoirs of Sherman, 550.
“Poor Mac”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, July 26, 1864, Home Letters, 303.
“He was not out of his place”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, no date given, Home Letters, 302n.
“I know the country swarms with thousands”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, June 26, 1864, Home Letters, 298.
“We have Atlanta close aboard”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, July 26, 1864, Home Letters, 302-03.
“Atlanta is on high ground”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, Aug. 2, 1864, Home Letters, 305-06.
“I have no faith”: Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Aug. 11, 1864, Home Letters, 307.
“I sometimes think our people”: Sherman to Ellen Sherman, Aug. 2, 1864, Home Letters, 306.
“It was the Gordian knot”: Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Aug. 11, 1864, Home Letters, 307.
“That night I was so restless”: Memoirs of Sherman, 581.
“Atlanta is ours, and fairly won”: Sherman to Halleck, Sept. 3, 1864, Official Records, 1:38(5):777.
“The marches, battles, sieges”: Lincoln order of thanks to Sherman et al., Sept. 3, 1864, Works of Lincoln, 7:533.
“In honor of your great victory”: to Sherman, Sept. 4, 1864.
“As soon as your men are properly rested”: to Sherman, Sept. 10, 1864.
CHAPTER 44
“highly spiced … and do it”: David Porter, Campaigning with Grant (1907), 84.
“I want Sheridan put in command”: to Halleck, Aug. 1, 1864.
“This, I think, is exactly right”: Lincoln to Grant, Aug. 3, 1864, Works of Lincoln, 7:476.
“Carry off the crops … hang them without trial”: to Sheridan, Aug. 16, 1864 (two messages).
“Do all the damage to railroads”: to Sheridan, Aug. 26, 1864.
“I endorsed the program”: Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan (1888), 1:487-88.
“Mr. Stanton kept reminding me”: Memoirs of Sheridan, 2:6.
“I have just received”: to Sheridan, Sept. 20, 1864.
“Be ready to move”: H. G. Wright to Sheridan, Oct. 16, 1864, Memoirs of Sheridan, 2:63.
“I noticed that there were many women … almost irresistible”: Memoirs of Sheridan, 2:72-81.
“Turning what bid fair”: to Stanton, Oct. 20, 1864.
CHAPTER 45
“All we want now”: to Washburne, Aug. 16, 1864.
“I have no objection”: to Washburne, Sept. 21, 1864.
“I hope it is not the intention”: to Stanton, Sept. 11, 1864.
“The first, third, and fourth regiments”: Stanton to Grant, Oct. 27, 1864, Papers of Grant, 12:353n.
“The exercise of the right of suffrage”: to Stanton, Sept. 27, 1864.
“The Government is bound”: to Lee, Oct. 3, 1864.
“I shall always regret”: to Lee, Oct. 20, 1864.
“Congratulate the President for me”: to Stanton, Nov. 10, 1864.
CHAPTER 46
“It would have gladdened my heart”: Davis speech, Sept. 23, 1864, Papers of Jefferson Davis (2004), 11:61.
“Davis seemed to be perfectly upset”: Memoirs of Sherman, 616.
“It once in our possession”: Sherman to Grant, Sept. 20, 1864, Official Records, 1:39(2):411-13.
“It will be better to drive Forrest”: to Sherman, Sept. 26, 1864.
“I take it for granted”: Sherman to Halleck, Sept. 29, 1864, Memoirs of Sherman, 619.
“It was by such acts”: Memoirs of Sherman, 626.
“It will be a physical impossibility”: Sherman to Grant, Oct. 9, 1864, Official Records 1:39(3):162.
“I do not believe”: to Sherman, Oct. 11, 1864.
“We cannot now remain on the defensive”: Sherman to Grant, Oct. 11, 1864, Official Records, 1:39(3):202.
“If you are satisfied”: to Sherman, Oct. 12, 1864, Official Records, 1:39(3):202.
“I am now perfecting arrangements”: Sherman to Grant, Oct. 22, 1864, Official Records, 1:39(3):394-95.
“On the 1st of November”: Sherman to A. Beckwith, Oct. 19, 1864, Official Records, 1:39(3):358-59.
“On mature reflection”: to Stanton, Oct. 13, 1864.
“Great good fortune attend you”: to Sherman, Nov. 7, 1864.
“Oh, God, the time of trial … ever seeing again!”: Lunt diary, Nov. 17-19, 1864, in Dolly Sumner Lunt, A Woman’s Wartime Journal (1918), 17-30.
“My orders are not designed”: Sherman to James Calhoun et al., Sept. 12, 1864, The Rebellion Record, ed. Frank Moore (1868), 11:318.
“Stone Mountain … to be his freedom”: Memoirs of Sherman, 656-67.
“The army will forage liberally”: Special Field Orders No. 120, Nov. 9, 1864, Official Records, 1:39(3):713.
“Often I would pass these foraging parties … exceptional and incidental”: Memoirs of Sherman, 659.
“The weather was fine”: Memoirs of Sherman, 669.
“Grant says they are safe”: Memoirs, 647.
“I congratulate you”: to Sherman, Dec. 18, 1864.
“To His Excellency President Lincoln”: Sherman to Lincoln, Dec. 22, 1864, Lincoln Papers.
CHAPTER 47
“If Hood is permitted … to attain this end”: to Thomas, Dec. 2, 1864 (two messages).
“Hood should be attacked”: to Thomas, Dec. 5, 1864.
“Attack Hood at once”: to Thomas, Dec. 6, 1864.
“If you delay any longer”: to Thomas, Dec. 11, 1864.
“General Thomas with the forces”: John C. Van Duzer to Thomas T. Eckert, Dec. 15, 1864, Papers of Grant, 13:125n.
“I was just on my way to Nashville”: to Thomas, Dec. 15, 1864.
“The Wilmington expedition”: to Lincoln, Dec. 28, 1864.
“Please hold on”: to Porter, Dec. 30, 1864.
“Here there is not the slightest suspicion”: to Stanton, Jan. 3, 1865.
“It is exceedingly desirable”: to Terry, Jan. 3, 1865.
“Desertion is increasing”: Lee statement, undated, in James D. McCabe Jr., Life and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee (1866), 572.
“The enemy will certainly use them”: Lee to Barksdale, Feb. 18, 1865, ibid., 574.
“If I were he”: Edward A. Pollard, Life of Jefferson Davis (1869), 437.
“Deeply impressed with the difficulties”: Lee General Orders No. 1, Feb. 9, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(2):1226.
“I think General Grant will move”: to Mary Lee, Feb. 22, 1865, Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee (1905), 146.
“I could not see how it was possible”: Memoirs, 688.
“I felt that the situation”: Memoirs, 687-88.
“I know this trip is necessary”: Sherman to Grant, Jan. 29, 1865, Official Records, 1:47(2):154-56.
“It
is utterly impossible”: Sheridan to Grant, Feb. 12, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(2):545.
“As soon as it is possible”: to Sheridan, Feb. 20, 1865.
“We desire to pass your lines”: Stephens et al. to Grant, Jan. 30, 1865, in Grant to Lincoln, Jan. 31, 1865.
“I found them all very agreeable … ever you did see?”: Memoirs, 685-87.
“The peace feeling”: to Sherman, Feb. 1, 1865.
“General Howard will cross the Saluda”: Special Field Orders No. 26, Feb. 16, 1865, Official Records, 1:47(2):444.
“The northern and western sky”: “The Burning of Columbia Again,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Oct. 1866, 643.
“Oh, that long twelve hours”: Diary entry for Feb. 18, 1865, in When the World Ended: The Diary of Emma LeConte, ed. Earl Schenck Miers (1987 ed.), 48-50.
“If I had made up my mind to burn Columbia”: Sherman in Marion B. Lucas, Sherman and the Burning of Columbia (2000 ed.), 154.
“During the night”: Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard (1907), 122-23.
“One thing is certain”: Memoirs, 681.
CHAPTER 48
“Whilst the enemy holds”: to Meade, March 3, 1865.
“I feel no doubt”: to Charles Ford, March 1, 1865.
“Lieutenant General Longstreet has informed me”: Lee to Grant, March 2, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(2):824.
“General Ord and General Longstreet”: to Lee, March 4, 1865.
“I can assure you”: to Stanton, March 4, 1865.
“Please accept”: Lincoln to Grant, March 7, 1865, Works of Lincoln, 8:339.
“I accept the medal”: Grant speech, March 11, 1865.
“The officers soon selected”: David Porter, Campaigning with Grant (1907), 393-94.
“Save him! Oh, save him!”: Porter, Campaigning with Grant, 394-95.
“We are now having fine weather”: to Jesse Grant, March 19, 1865.
“I have never felt any uneasiness”: to Sherman, March 16, 1865.
“Your problem will be”: to Sheridan, March 19, 1865.
“When this movement commences”: to Sherman, March 22, 1865.
“A large part of the armies”: to Meade, March 24, 1865.
“In the fight today”: to Edward Ord, March 25, 1865.
“The President was not very cheerful … on the left”: Memoirs of Sheridan, 2:130-31.
“After having accomplished the destruction”: to Sheridan, March 28, 1865.
“This portion of your instructions”: Memoirs, 696.
“The heavy rains and horrid roads”: to Lincoln, March 31, 1865.
“The weather is bad for us”: to Julia Dent Grant, March 30, 1865.
“General Sheridan will attack”: Porter to Rawlins, April 1, 1865, in Grant to Lincoln, April 1, 1865.
“The result of this combined movement”: Sheridan to Grant, April 2, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(1):1100-01.
“We are now up”: to Theodore Bowers, April 2, 1865.
CHAPTER 49
“I see no prospect of doing more”: Lee to J. C. Breckinridge, April 2, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(1):1264.
“To move tonight”: Jay Winik, April 1865 (2001), 120.
“It is absolutely necessary”: Lee to Breckinridge, April 2, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(1):1265.
“On the morning of Sunday … streets of Richmond”: LaSalle Corbell Pickett, What Happened to Me (1917), 159-62.
“I have got my army”: Winik, April 1865, 120.
“The first object of the present movement”: to Sheridan, April 3, 1865.
“Efforts will be made”: to Ord, April 3, 1865, Papers of Grant, 14:335-36n.
“Sheridan, who was up with him”: to Sherman, April 5, 1865.
“We have Lee’s army”: to Sherman, April 6, 1865.
“These troops were sent out”: to Theodore Bowers, April 6, 1865.
“Nearly twenty-four hours were lost … the progress slow”: Lee report to Davis, April 12, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(1):1265-66.
“The result of the last week”: to Lee, April 7, 1865.
“I reciprocate your desire”: Lee to Grant, April 7, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(1):56.
“There is but one condition”: to Lee, April 8, 1865.
“I did not intend to propose”: Lee to Grant, April 8, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(1):57.
“The captured trains”: Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan (1888), 2:190.
“The necessity of getting Ord’s column … to General Grant”: Memoirs of Sheridan, 2:196-98.
“On the 8th I had followed”: Memoirs, 730.
“I received your note of this morning”: Lee to Grant, April 9, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(1):57.
“When the officer reached me”: Memoirs, 731.
“I am at this writing”: to Lee, April 9, 1865.
“Is it a trick?”: Adam Badeau, Military History of Ulysses S. Grant, from April 1861 to April 1865 (1881-85), 3:601n.
“Lee was tall”: Badeau, Military History of Grant, 3:603.
“As he was a man of much dignity”: Memoirs, 735.
“In accordance with the substance”: to Lee, April 9, 1865.
“The Confederates were now our prisoners”: Memoirs, 741.
“Thanks be to Almighty God”: Stanton to Grant, April 9, 1865, Papers of Grant, 14:375n.
PART THREE: AND GIVE THE PEACE
CHAPTER 50
“I had never had the courage”: Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant, 126-27.
““I don’t know … their despair, would you?”: Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant, 135, 152-53.
“Everyone was wild … You may go now”: Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant, 154-55.
“It would be impossible”: Memoirs, 750-51.
“The joy that I had witnessed”: Memoirs, 751.
“Permit me to suggest”: from Dana, April 15, 1865, Official Records, 1:46(3):756.
“General Grant, thank God”: Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant, 157.
“Extreme rigor will have to be observed”: to Ord, April 15, 1865.
“I want you to get your cavalry”: to Sheridan, April 15, 1865.
“I enclose herewith a copy … composing said armies”: from Sherman, April 18, 1865, with enclosure, Official Records, 1:47(3):243-44.
“They are of such importance”: to Stanton, April 21, 1865.
“I thought the matter”: Memoirs of Sherman, 852.
“It was an exercise”: New York Times, April 24, 1865.
“I have never in my life”: from Sherman, April 28, 1865, Official Records, 1:47(3):334-35.
CHAPTER 51
“Johnson was a man of the coolest”: Oliver P. Temple, Notable Men of Tennessee, from 1833 to 1875 (1912), 465-67.
“Although it would meet with opposition”: to Halleck, May 6, 1865.
“By going now”: to Stanton, May 18, 1865.
“Until a uniform policy is adopted”: to John Schofield, May 18, 1865.
“The sight was varied and grand”: Memoirs, 768-69.
“To say that I was merely angry”: Memoirs of Sherman, 861-62, 866.
“Mr. Stanton never questioned his own authority”: Memoirs, 769.
“In what manner has Mr. Stanton”: Grant testimony, May 18, 1865.
“The Rio Grande should be strongly held”: to Sheridan, May 17, 1865.
“I regard the act”: to Johnson, June 19, 1865.
“Nonintervention in Mexican affairs”: to Johnson, Sept. 8, 1865.
“Treason is a crime”: Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1960), 20.
CHAPTER 52
“General Grant was in the council-room”: Diary entry for Dec. 15, 1865, Diary of Gideon Welles (1911), 2:396-97.
“I saw much and conversed freely … in whom they rely”: to Johnson, Dec. 18, 1865.
“The aspect of affairs is more promising”: Johnson special message, Dec. 18, 1865, Public Papers.
“They have torn their constitutional states … to its cent
er”: Congressional Globe, 39:1:72-74.
“In all our history”: Johnson veto message, March 27, 1866, Public Papers.
“This is a country for white men”: Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1960), 184.
“fatal and total surrender”: Eric Foner, Reconstruction (1988), 255.
“wanton betrayal of justice and humanity”: Kenneth M. Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction (1965), 142.
“shilly-shally bungling thing”: Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction, 141.
“In my youth”: Congressional Globe, 39:1:3148.
CHAPTER 53
“I look upon it as an indication … Kick ’em out!”: New York Times, Sept. 10, 1866.
“I am getting very tired”: to Julia Dent Grant, Aug. 31, 1866.
“I never have been so tired”: to Julia Dent Grant, Sept. 9, 1866.
“I am no politician…‘next President of the United States!’ ”: New York Times, Sept. 13, 1866 (including excerpt from St. Louis Commercial).
“I regret to say”: to Sheridan, Oct. 12, 1866.
“absolute massacre”: Eric Foner, Reconstruction (1988), 263.
“thrown in like sacks of corn … God damned niggers”: Ted Tunnell, Crucible of Reconstruction: War, Radicalism, and Race in Louisiana, 1862-1877 (1984), 104-06.
“So far there seems”: to Johnson, Oct. 24, 1866.
“There is ground to apprehend danger”: Stanbery to Grant, undated (Nov. 2, 1866), Andrew Johnson Papers, Library of Congress.
“General Grant desires me to say”: Comstock to Meade, Nov. 2, 1866, Papers of Grant, 16:363n.
“General Grant is of the opinion”: New York Times, Nov. 3, 1866.
“Give my respects to the dead dog”: Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1960), 361.
“One of the most ridiculous veto measures”: to Washburne, March 4, 1867.
“Delay may cause further demands”: to Ord, Dec. 6, 1866.
“There is but little difference”: to Sherman, Jan. 13, 1867.
“I am not egotistical enough”: to Washburne, April 5, 1867.