than a brief mention of his own plans, which unforseen
events had made it unnecessary fully to execute. But history will
do justice to Grant's great strategical designs as well as to his
great achievements. I trust it may be my good fortune to contribute
something hereafter toward the payment of this debt of gratitude
which all Americans owe to the greatest soldier of the Union.

The fact that Savannah was one of the points in both Grant's plans
and Sherman's was merely an incident, and a very unimportant one.
Indeed, after Hood got out of his way, Sherman might as well, and
I think better, have marched direct to Augusta, and thence northward,
wholly ignoring Savannah as well as Charleston, except that he
would have arrived in Virginia rather early in the season. Savannah
was a good place to go in order to spend the winter, besides
destroying Georgia en route.

Of course it is much easier to see what might have been done than
to see in advance what can or ought to be done. But it can hardly
be believed that Sherman did not think of everything that was
possible, as well as many things that were not. At least, so simple
a proposition as the following could not have escaped his mind.

Sherman was, as he so confidently said, absolute "master of the
situation" before he started for Savannah. Hood and Forrest had
utterly failed so to damage his communications that they could not
be put in order again in a few days. He was able, if he chose, to
remain in perfect security at Atlanta all winter, with two or three
corps, while he sent back to Thomas ample force to dispose of Hood.
Then, if the result of the operations of a larger force in Tennessee
had been as decisive as they actually were with the smaller one
Thomas had, Sherman could have recalled to Atlanta all of the troops
he had sent to Tennessee, and thus marched toward Virginia with
eighty-five or ninety or even one hundred thousand men, instead of
sixty thousand. All this could have surely been accomplished by
the middle of January, or before the time when Sherman actually
began his march from Savannah. From Atlanta to Columbia, South
Carolina, crossing the Savannah River above Augusta, is an easier
march than that from Savannah to Columbia. Or if Sherman had not
cared about paying a visit to Columbia en route, he could have
taken the much shorter "Piedmont route" to Charlotte, North Carolina,
and thence northward by whichever route he pleased. Instead of