While commanding in West Tennessee we had occasionally held conversations over the wires, at night, when they were not being otherwise used.  He and General Halleck both cautioned me against giving the President my plans of campaign, saying that he was so kind-hearted, so averse to refusing anything asked of him, that some friend would be sure to get from him all he knew.  I should have said that in our interview the President told me he did not want to know what I proposed to do.  But he submitted a plan of campaign of his own which he wanted me to hear and then do as I pleased about.  He brought out a map of Virginia on which he had evidently marked every position occupied by the Federal and Confederate armies up to that time.  He pointed out on the map two streams which empty into the Potomac, and suggested that the army might be moved on boats and landed between the mouths of these streams.  We would then have the Potomac to bring our supplies, and the tributaries would protect our flanks while we moved out.  I listened respectfully, but did not suggest that the same streams would protect Lee’s flanks while he was shutting us up.

I did not communicate my plans to the President, nor did I to the Secretary of War or to General Halleck.

March the 26th my headquarters were, as stated, at Culpeper, and the work of preparing for an early campaign commenced.

CHAPTER XLVII.

The military situation—­plans for the campaign—­Sheridan assigned to
command of the cavalry—­flank movements—­Forrest at fort Pillow—­general
Banks’s expedition—­colonel Mosby—­an incident of the Wilderness
campaign.

When I assumed command of all the armies the situation was about this:  the Mississippi River was guarded from St. Louis to its mouth; the line of the Arkansas was held, thus giving us all the North-west north of that river.  A few points in Louisiana not remote from the river were held by the Federal troops, as was also the mouth of the Rio Grande.  East of the Mississippi we held substantially all north of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad as far east as Chattanooga, thence along the line of the Tennessee and Holston rivers, taking in nearly all of the State of Tennessee.  West Virginia was in our hands; and that part of old Virginia north of the Rapidan and east of the Blue Ridge we also held.  On the sea-coast we had Fortress Monroe and Norfolk in Virginia; Plymouth, Washington and New Berne in North Carolina; Beaufort, Folly and Morris islands, Hilton Head, Port Royal and Fort Pulaski in South Carolina and Georgia; Fernandina, St. Augustine, Key West and Pensacola in Florida.  The balance of the Southern territory, an empire in extent, was still in the hands of the enemy.