HERMAN, Commanding Mill Div. of the Mississippi.

GENERAL:--Your letters brought by General Barnard were received at City
Point, and read with interest. Not having them with me, however, I
cannot say that in this I will be able to satisfy you on all points of
recommendation. As I arrived here at one P.M., and must leave at six
P.M., having in the meantime spent over three hours with the Secretary
and General Halleck, I must be brief. Before your last request to have
Thomas make a campaign into the heart of Alabama, I had ordered
Schofield to Annapolis, Md., with his corps. The advance (six thousand)
will reach the seaboard by the 23d, the remainder following as rapidly
as railroad transportation can be procured from Cincinnati. The corps
numbers over twenty-one thousand men. I was induced to do this because
I did not believe Thomas could possibly be got off before spring. His
pursuit of Hood indicated a sluggishness that satisfied me that he would
never do to conduct one of your campaigns. The command of the advance
of the pursuit was left to subordinates, whilst Thomas followed far
behind. When Hood had crossed the Tennessee, and those in pursuit had
reached it, Thomas had not much more than half crossed the State, from
whence he returned to Nashville to take steamer for Eastport. He is
possessed of excellent judgment, great coolness and honesty, but he is
not good on a pursuit. He also reported his troops fagged, and that it
was necessary to equip up. This report and a determination to give the
enemy no rest determined me to use his surplus troops elsewhere.

Thomas is still left with a sufficient force surplus to go to Selma
under an energetic leader. He has been telegraphed to, to know whether
he could go, and, if so, which of the several routes he would select.
No reply is yet received. Canby has been ordered to act offensively
from the sea-coast to the interior, towards Montgomery and Selma.
Thomas's forces will move from the north at an early day, or some of his
troops will be sent to Canby. Without further reinforcements Canby will
have a moving column of twenty thousand men.

Fort Fisher, you are aware, has been captured. We have a force there of
eight thousand effective. At New Bern about half the number. It is
rumored, through deserters, that Wilmington also has fallen. I am
inclined to believe the rumor, because on the 17th we knew the enemy
were blowing up their works about Fort Caswell,