the troops that could be gathered from the departments of the Atlantic seaboard.  Without discussing here the origin or the wisdom of this controverted proposition, it may be remarked that it was supported by such an array of arguments and influence as would doubtless have secured another trial for it, even in the face of its failure under McClellan, had the condition and strength of the army, and the resources of the country been considered by the administration sufficient to meet all the requirements of the civil and military situation.

At a still later period after General Grant had come to the head of military affairs, had decided to take personal charge of operations in Virginia, and was seriously considering the appointment of General Smith to the immediate command of the Army of the Potomac, it became known to me, through a letter from the latter, that he strongly favored a “powerful movement from the lower James River, or even from the sounds of North Carolina” against the interior of the Confederacy.  I was at that time serving in Washington, as the Chief of the Cavalry Bureau, and upon receipt of the letter laid it before General Rawlins, Grant’s able Chief of Staff, but without giving it my concurrence or approval, for such consideration as he might think best to give it.  It was received at a juncture when the selection of a proper plan of operations was conceded to be a matter of the gravest importance.  It is an interesting fact that the plan in question did not receive the support of Rawlins, although both he and Grant, fresh from the victory of Chattanooga, were warm friends and admirers of General Smith as a strategist.  Rawlins, with unerring instinct, took strong grounds against it, for the reason, as he vigorously expressed it, that he could not see the sense of going so far, and taking so much time to find Lee with a divided army, when he could be reached within a half day’s march directly to the front, with the entire army united and reinforced by all the men the government had at its disposal.  Knowing that this was Grant’s argument as well, I have always supposed that his final decision to advance directly from Culpepper Court House against Lee’s army, and to retain Meade in immediate command of the Army of the Potomac, while the entire available force of Butler’s Department should advance directly from Fort Monroe under the immediate command of General Smith, was due partly to Smith’s decided opposition to the overland line of operations, and to his tenacious adherence to the principal features of the plan which he and Franklin had recommended to Lincoln.  Meade’s approval of the direct line of advance, and his cheerful support of Grant’s plans as explained in detail, aided by Butler’s assurances of hearty co-operation, doubtless had much to do with the retention of those officers in their respective places, and in the assignment of Smith, much to his disappointment, to a relatively subordinate position on the line he had so openly preferred.  It may also account in some degree for the failure of those distinguished generals to work as harmoniously with each other to the common end, as was necessary to ensure success.