Atlanta Author:Jacob D. Cox Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IH. THE OPPOSING ARMIES. General Grant was not left to carry out his plan of campaign for the Army of the West. Before the spring opened Congress h... more »ad created the grade of Lieutenant-General, which was conferred upon him, and he was called to Washington to assume the direction of all the armies of the United States. In accordance with his desire, the President assigned Sherman to the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, left vacant by his promotion, and the two generals met in Nashville on March 17th to consult as to the immediate steps to be taken. The general purpose was already marked out by the .preliminary movements which have been described, and the Confederate army, under Johnston, now lying near Dalton, was the object at which all efforts must be aimed. Some days before, Sheianan, with prophetic enthusiasm, had written to his commander of his confidence in the future of the National armies under Grant's direction, and saying, "From the west, when our task is done, we will make short work of Charleston and Kichmond, and the impoverished coast of the Atlantic." The public sentiment of the country and of the army concurred with the President in approving Grant's indication of his successor, and from this day to the close of the war the confidence of his army in Sherman and its personal attachment to him never wavered, but only grew stronger from month to month. His l''toiu Cttallanooga to AUantu. courage and activity had been abundantly proven, but his capacity for the independent command of a large army was to be tested. His nervous and restless temperament, with a tendency to irritability, might have raised a doubt whether he would be successful in guiding and directing men of the capacity of his principal subordinates; but experience sho...« less