and hold that point.  At the same time a large naval fleet will be assembled there, and the iron-clads will run the batteries as they did at Mobile.  This will give us the same control of the harbor of Wilmington that we now have of the harbor of Mobile.  What you are to do with the forces at your command, I do not exactly see.  The difficulties of supplying your army, except when they are constantly moving beyond where you are, I plainly see.  If it had not been for Price’s movement, Canby could have sent twelve thousand more men to Mobile.  From your command on the Mississippi, an equal number could have been taken.  With these forces, my idea would have been to divide them, sending one-half to Mobile, and the other half to Savannah.  You could then move as proposed in your telegram, so as to threaten Macon and Augusta equally.  Whichever one should be abandoned by the enemy, you could take and open up a new base of supplies.  My object now in sending a staff-officer to you is not so much to suggest operations for you as to get your views, and to have plans matured by the time every thing can be got ready.  It would probably be the 5th of October before any of the plans here indicated will be executed.  If you have any promotions to recommend, send the names forward, and I will approve them.

In conclusion, it is hardly necessary for me to say that I feel you have accomplished the most gigantic undertaking given to any general in this war, and with a skill and ability that will be acknowledged in history as unsurpassed, if not unequaled.  It gives me as much pleasure to record this in your favor as it world in favor of any living man, myself included.  Truly yours,

U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.

Headquarters military division of the Mississippi
in the field, Atlanta, Georgia, September 20, 1864.

Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant, Commander-in-Chief, City Point,
Virgina

General:  I have the honor to acknowledge, at the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Porter, of your staff, your letter of September 12th, and accept with thanks the honorable and kindly mention of the services of this army in the great cause in which we are all engaged.

I send by Colonel Porter all official reports which are completed, and will in a few days submit a list of names which are deemed worthy of promotion.

I think we owe it to the President to save him the invidious task of selection among the vast number of worthy applicants, and have ordered my army commanders to prepare their lists with great care, and to express their preferences, based upon claims of actual capacity and services rendered.

These I will consolidate, and submit in such a form that, if mistakes are made, they will at least be sanctioned by the best contemporaneous evidence of merit, for I know that vacancies do not exist equal in number to that of the officers who really deserve promotion.