ngular that neither General Sherman nor
General Johnston thought the circumstances above referred to worthy
of being preserved in memory, and I am not quite willing that
General Breckinridge shall carry off all the honor of assisting
the great commanders to make "memoranda" and "military conventions"
at "Bennett's House." But Sherman and Johnston were writing their
own defense, and it was natural that they should omit matter not
pertaining thereto. Besides, I was General Sherman's subordinate,
and owed him all the help I could give in every way. He may have
regarded my services, and perhaps justly, as little more than
clerical, after it was all over, even if he thought of the matter
at all.( 2)

The Confederate troops were promptly furnished with all needed
supplies of food and transportation and sent in comfort to their
homes, freed from the necessity of taxing the slender resources of
the impoverished people on their routes. The surplus animals and
wagons remaining with the army were given to the people of North
Carolina in large numbers, and they were encouraged at once to
resume their industrial pursuits. In the meantime, all who were
in want were furnished with food.

It may not be possible to judge how wise or unwise Sherman's first
"memorandum" might have proved if it had been ratified. It is
always difficult to tell how things that have not been tried would
have worked if they had been. We now know only this much--that
the imagination of man could hardly picture worse results than
those wrought out by the plan that was finally adopted--namely, to
destroy everything that existed in the way of government, and then
build from the bottom on the foundation of ignorance and rascality.

The de facto State governments existing at the time of the surrender
would have been of infinite service in restoring order and material
prosperity, if they had been recognized by the military authority
of the United States and kept under military control similar to
that exercised by the district commissioners under the "reconstruction
acts." And such recognition would in no manner have interfered
with any action Congress might have thought it wise to take looking
to the organization of permanent governments and the admission of
senators and representatives in Congress. After two years of
"reconstruction" under President Johnson's "policy," the Southern
State governments were no better than those he had destroyed. Then
Co