to learn than
they. Perhaps I was also, on account of comparative youth, more
teachable. At any rate, the two lessons from Halleck above referred
to, and later experience, cause me to do "a world of thinking"; so
that I was amazed beyond expression when, in the winter of 1863-
64, just before Grant was made lieutenant-general, Halleck told me
that _his_ plan for the next campaign was to send west of the
Mississippi River force enough to finish the war in all that region
of country, and then return and clear up the States east of that
river! I said nothing, but could not help thinking that it was,
sure enough, time to have another general-in-chief of the army.
But accepting his strategic theory of operations in the American
Civil War,--territorial conquest,--his plans of campaign were
unquestionably sound.

Halleck was, I believe, a man of great ability and of high military
education, though with little practical experience in war; yet his
peculiar views, and still more singular action, have seemed to me
very remarkable. He remained in Washington, practically inert,
while one of the great armies of which he was general-in-chief was
suffering sore reverses, almost in sight of the Capitol, and the
country's cause greatly imperiled for want of a competent commander
for that army. How could a soldier resist the impulse to "do or
die" at the head of that army? But General Halleck must have known
better than any one else at that time the limits of his own capacity.
He probably knew that even his great ability and education did not
suffice to qualify him for the command of an army in the field.
If so, his action afforded a patriotic example which some others
would have done well to imitate.

As I have before stated, General Halleck was always kind and just
to me, so far as I ever knew, and I was much indebted to him for
support when it was needed. Now I find in the records the following
letter:

"Richmond, Va., May 10, 1865, 10:30 A. M.
"Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War:

"I beg leave to withdraw for the present my recommendation of
Schofield as military governor of North Carolina. It is represented
to me that he and General Blair were the principal advisers of
Sherman in his armistice with the rebel General Johnston. If so,
he is not a proper person to command in North Carolina. I therefore
suspend my recommendation for further developments.

"H. W. Halleck, Major-General."

The fact was that I h