filled by the
appointment and confirmation of Grant, March 2, 1864, that great soldier
immediately came on to Washington, received his commission at the hands
of President Lincoln, in the cabinet chamber of the White House, on the
9th, paid a flying visit to the Army of the Potomac, on the 10th, and at
once returned to Nashville to plan future movements.

On the 12th, a General Order of the War Department (No. 98) was issued,
relieving Major-General Halleck, "at his own request," from duty as
"General-in-Chief" of the Army, and assigning Lieutenant-General U. S.
Grant to "the command of the Armies of the United States," "the
Headquarters of the Army" to be in Washington, and also with
Lieutenant-General Grant in the Field, Halleck being assigned to "duty,
in Washington, as Chief-of-staff of the Army, under the direction of the
Secretary of War and the Lieutenant-General commanding."

By the same order, Sherman was assigned to the command of the "Military
Division of the Mississippi," composed of the Departments of the Ohio,
the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas; and McPherson to that
of the Department and Army of the Tennessee.

On the 23rd of March, Grant was back again at Washington, and at once
proceeded to Culpepper Court-house, Virginia, where his Headquarters in
the field were, for a time, to be.

Here he completed his plans, and reorganized his Forces, for the coming
conflicts, in the South-west and South-east, which were to result in a
full triumph to the Union Arms, and Peace to a preserved Union.

It is evident, from the utterances of Mr. Lincoln when Vicksburg fell,
that he had then become pretty well satisfied that Grant was "the coming
man," to whom it would be safe to confide the management and chief
leadership of our Armies. Chattanooga merely confirmed that belief--as
indeed it did that of Union men generally. But the concurrent judgment
of Congress and the President had now, as we have seen, placed Grant in
that chief command; and the consequent relief to Mr. Lincoln, in thus
having the heavy responsibility of Army-control, long unwillingly
exercised by him, taken from his own shoulders and placed upon those of
the one great soldier in whom he had learned to have implicit faith,--a
faith earned by steady and unvaryingly successful achievements in the
Field--must have been most grateful.

Other responsibilities would still press heavily enough upon the
President's time and attention.