"Now behold these men together, Grant and Sherman! Grant of medium size, of short neck, square shoulders, well proportioned head, and firmly knit frame. His heavy brow and large eye, changeable surely, but always masked by his strong self-control, accorded him quiet dignity and becoming respect. His smile, which never failed him up to the last sickness, lighted his face, bespoke humor and good-fellowship, and to Sherman the utmost friendliness. Sherman appeared tall beside him; his forehead high, his hair light and sandy, his eye keen and piercing, and his frame though not so compact as Grant's, supple and expressive of health and energy. Grant inspired you in his wholeness like a fertile prairie, Sherman like a hill-country abounding in choice knolls and mountain heights. His buoyant coming put one at ease. His deep pleasant voice riveted attention, and his fast flowing conversation rewarded your silence.
"There at Nashville they met, and Grant turned over to Sherman the Western armies. Grant hastened back to Washington, Sherman went with him as far as Cincinnati. In a sentence, Sherman has summed up their prolonged council of war: Amidst constant interruptions of a business and social nature we reached the satisfactory conclusion that as soon as the season would permit, all the armies of the Union would assume the 'bold offensive' by 'concentric lines' on the common enemy, and would finish up the job in a single campaign if possible. The main objectives were Lee's Army behind the Rapidan in Virginia, and Joseph E. Johnston's Army at Dalton, Georgia."
"Johnston's army was our work, in a nut-shell. Substantially, take a bold offensive—Beat Johnston—Get into the interior—Inflict damage, and keep our enemy so busy that he cannot reinforce elsewhere.
"To catch glimpses of how the work so ordered was undertaken, there are other pictures. General Sherman had some original ways of rapid transit. A special car took him, the 25th of March, to General G. M. Dodge, a Corps Commander, then at Pulaski, Tennessee. Next he joined McPherson at Huntsville, Alabama. The two latter were very soon with Thomas at Chattanooga; and were after that speedily with Schofield a hundred miles eastward without rail-cars at Knoxville. Schofield turned back with them, so that shortly after, at Chattanooga, in the left hand room of a one story house, now owned by Mr. J. T. Williams, took place before the end of March another memorable war-meeting.
"One figure there was that of General Schofield. He was to bring into the field about fourteen thousand men. He was in form more like Grant than Sherman. He combined intellectual vigor with marked judiciousness. Another figure was McPherson. He had to furnish some twenty-five thousand soldiers. He was equal to Sherman in quickness of thought, but, like all engineers, more wary in his execution.
"With his genial face, his large high head and fine figure, he stood with the noblest. The third, General George H. Thomas, with his nearly seventy thousand aggregate. He was tall and broad, and heavy and handsome, of good judgment and sterling record. These three army commanders were thus assembled, and the hearty Sherman was with them. Of this group, Sherman in his story has said: 'We had nothing like a council of war, but consulted freely and frankly on all matters of interest to them, then in progress or impending.' At farthest the first of May was to end the period of preparation, when the different clans should be gathered and ready for the fray. The leaders of corps and divisions, and the essential consolidations were there fixed upon; and the great problem of safe supply was, at least to themselves, satisfactorily solved.
"The meeting broke up, the commanders returned to their places, taking Sherman for awhile to Nashville. No man can tell the amount of hard work that resulted from this interview. The next month was pregnant with the faith and hope of the coming campaign. Behold the loaded trains, following untiringly in sight of each other; but do not stop to count the broken engines by the wayside, or the cars turned topsy turvey.
"Behold the duplicate and triplicate bridges, the hosts of mules and horses in motion, the redoubts and blockhouses constructed, or building, the sugar, the coffee, and the hard-bread and other supplies, coming into Chattanooga, and the herds of cattle lowing along the dusty roads leading to the front, all the way from Louisville and Nashville. The soldiers said, 'Tecumseh is a great fellow. He means business.' Thorough and confident preparations are always a source of encouragement and inspiration."
The nation was now to see scientific warfare. The campaigns of the Union armies were planned with mathematical accuracy. There were three grand divisions of attack upon the Rebellion. At the east, moving directly against the Rebel capital, was Grant with the Army of the Potomac. West of the Mississippi River was Banks. The great central region was left to Sherman, and his objective point was Atlanta. The Mississippi Valley was fully wrested from Rebel control, and a series of brilliant victories marked the whole line from Vicksburg, on that river, to Chattanooga, among the Appalachian Mountains. Between the river and the mountains the war was practically ended and the Confederacy crushed. But in the rich and populous country between the mountains and the Atlantic coast the insurgents were still strong. There was concentrated all the power that the Richmond Government now possessed. And the people of Georgia and the Carolinas actually believed themselves to be secure from "Yankee invasion," guarded as they were by the powerful armies of Lee and Jackson, and by the mighty natural ramparts of the mountain range.
But Sherman proposed to cross the mountains and march through the heart of this country to Atlanta, which was its industrial centre. This city was the converging point of many important railroads, and here were the principal machine shops and other factories of the Rebel Government. To capture it would break the spirit of the South and cripple its military power as no other blow, not even the capture of Richmond, could do.