REPORTING TO SHERMAN.
On the morning of the 7th Corse sent me down to Kenesaw to take his report to Sherman, and supplement the gaps in the information which his wound forbade elaborating. As I reached the summit of the mountain, conscious of bearing welcome and important tidings of great joy, and considering what special form Sherman’s delight might take, I found him surrounded by a group of generals and staff scanning with binoculars the long clouds of dust that, rising above the forest to the westward, betokened a great movement of troops. It was Hood en route northward. As Sherman turned and saw me, his greeting was, “Hello! How’s Corse?” I answered that he was doing very well, and Sherman glanced over the report which I handed him, and inquired, “Pretty hot, wasn’t it?” and without waiting for an answer, said, “I knew it was all right when Corse got there; I’ll write him presently.” As I stood, anxiously waiting an invitation to unbosom myself of the accumulated information that it wearied me to carry, he turned back to take another look at Hood, and some one asked, “General, what do you think Hood is going to do?” Sherman replied, with an outburst of irritation, “How the devil can I tell? If it were Joe Johnston now—Johnston was a sensible man and did sensible things. Hood is a d—d fool and is liable to do anything.” This view of his antagonist is, it will be observed, paraphrased in his letter to Corse, written immediately after, into “Hood is eccentric,” but his off-hand response was substantially as I have given it.
My interview was over. Nor since that time, until this evening, have I had a chance to “unload.”