hat stricken city. He had visited Chicago, witnessed
the splendid work which the troops were doing, seemed to be satisfied,
returned to Springfield, and commenced a quarrel with General
Sheridan and President Grant over the right of the National
Administration to send troops into Chicago, and this quarrel finally
became so bitter that it was one of the reasons for his leaving
the Republican party.

General Palmer had a fairly good record as an officer during the
Civil War; but he did far better at the head of the Department of
Kentucky than he did as a fighting general. He was a native
Kentuckian, understood the people, was a man of good nature and
considerable tact, and handled that trying situation very much to
the satisfaction of Mr. Lincoln. He might have had a brilliant
record as a general had it not been for his unfortunate controversy
with General Sherman at the capture of Atlanta, which resulted in
his resigning his command as the head of the Fourteenth Army Corps,
and being granted leave to return to Illinois, there to await
further orders. General Sherman says of this incident in his
memoirs:

"I placed the Fourteenth Corps (Palmer's) under General Schofield's
orders. This corps numbered at the time 17,288 infantry and 826
artillery; but General Palmer claimed to rank General Schofield in
the date of commission as Major-General, and denied the latter's
right to exercise command over him. General Palmer was a man of
ability, but was not enterprising. His three divisions were compact
and strong, well commanded, admirable on the defensive but slow to
move or to act on the offensive. His corps had sustained up to
the time fewer hard knocks than any other corps in the whole army,
and I was anxious to give it a chance. I always expected to have
a desperate fight to get possession of the Macon Road, which was
then the vital objective of the campaign. Its possession by us
would in my judgment result in the capture of Atlanta and give us
the fruits of victory. . . . On the fourth of August I ordered
General Schofield to make a bold attack on the railroad, anywhere
about East Point, and ordered General Palmer to report to him for
duty. He at once denied General Schofield's right to command him;
but, after examining the dates of their respective commissions,
and hearing their arguments, I wrote to General Palmer:

'From the statements made by yourself and General Schofield to-day,
my decision is, that he