have two divisions and the cavalry at work breaking up the Gulf Railroad from the Ogeechee to the Altamaha; so that, even if I do not take Savannah, I will leave it in a bad way.  But I still hope that events will give me time to take Savannah, even if I have to assault with some loss.  I am satisfied that, unless we take it, the gunboats never will, for they can make no impression upon the batteries which guard every approach from the sea.  I have a faint belief that, when Colonel Babcock reaches you, you will delay operations long enough to enable me to succeed here.  With Savannah in our possession, at some future time if not now, we can punish South Carolina as she deserves, and as thousands of the people in Georgia hoped we would do.  I do sincerely believe that the whole United States, North and South, would rejoice to have this army turned loose on South Carolina, to devastate that State in the manner we have done in Georgia, and it would have a direst and immediate bearing on your campaign in Virginia.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

W. T. Sherman, Major-General United States Army.

As soon as the army had reached Savannah, and had opened communication with the fleet, I endeavored to ascertain what had transpired in Tennessee since our departure.  We received our letters and files of newspapers, which contained full accounts of all the events there up to about the 1st of December.  As before described, General Hood had three full corps of infantry—­S.  D. Lee’s, A. P. Stewart’s, and Cheatham’s, at Florence, Alabama—­with Forrest’s corps of cavalry, numbering in the aggregate about forty-five thousand men.  General Thomas was in Nashville, Tennessee, quietly engaged in reorganizing his army out of the somewhat broken forces at his disposal.  He had posted his only two regular corps, the Fourth and Twenty-third, under the general command of Major-General J. M. Schofield, at Pulaski, directly in front of Florence, with the three brigades of cavalry (Hatch, Croxton, and Capron), commanded by Major-General Wilson, watching closely for Hood’s initiative.

This force aggregated about thirty thousand men, was therefore inferior to the enemy; and General Schofield was instructed, in case the enemy made a general advance, to fall back slowly toward Nashville, fighting, till he should be reenforced by General Thomas in person.  Hood’s movement was probably hurried by reason of my advance into Georgia; for on the 17th his infantry columns marched from Florence in the direction of Waynesboro’, turning, Schofield’s position at Pulaski.  The latter at once sent his trains to the rear, and on the 21st fell back to Columbia, Tennessee.  General Hood followed up this movement, skirmished lightly with Schofield at Columbia, began the passage of Duck River, below the town, and Cheatham’s corps reached the vicinity of Spring Hill, whither General Schofield had sent General Stanley, with two