That same day I received, in answer to the Rome dispatch, the following: 

CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, November 2,1864—­11.30 a.m.

Major-General SHERMAN: 

Your dispatch of 9 A.M. yesterday is just received.  I dispatched you the same date, advising that Hood’s army, now that it had worked so far north, ought to be looked upon now as the “object.”  With the force, however, that you have left with General Thomas, he must be able to take care of Hood and destroy him.

I do not see that you can withdraw from where you are to follow Hood, without giving up all we have gained in territory.  I say, then, go on as you propose.

U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General,

This was the first time that General Grant ordered the “march to the sea,” and, although many of his warm friends and admirers insist that he was the author and projector of that march, and that I simply executed his plans, General Grant has never, in my opinion, thought so or said so.  The truth is fully given in an original letter of President Lincoln, which I received at Savannah, Georgia, and have at this instant before me, every word of which is in his own familiar handwriting.  It is dated—­

WASHINGTON, December 26, 1864.

When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious, if not fearful; but, feeling that you were the better judge, and remembering “nothing risked, nothing gained,” I did not interfere.  Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I believe none of us went further than to acquiesce; and, taking the work of General Thomas into account, as it should be taken, it is indeed a great success.  Not only does it afford the obvious and immediate military advantages, but, in showing to the world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of the whole, Hood’s army, it brings those who sat in darkness to see a great light.  But what next?  I suppose it will be safer if I leave General Grant and yourself to decide.

A. LINCOLN

Of course, this judgment; made after the event, was extremely flattering and was all I ever expected, a recognition of the truth and of its importance.  I have often been asked, by well-meaning friends, when the thought of that march first entered my mind.  I knew that an army which had penetrated Georgia as far as Atlanta could not turn back.  It must go ahead, but when, how, and where, depended on many considerations.  As soon as Hood had shifted across from Lovejoy’s to Palmetto, I saw the move in my “mind’s eye;” and, after Jeff.  Davis’s speech at Palmetto, of September 26th, I was more positive in my conviction, but was in doubt as to the time and manner.  When General Hood first struck our railroad above Marietta, we were not ready, and I was forced to watch his movements