loss of the enemy in the last two weeks at 10,000 killed and wounded.  We have lost heavily, mostly in captured when the enemy gained temporary advantages.  Watch closely, and if you find this theory correct, push with all vigor.  Give the enemy no rest, and if it is possible to follow to the Virginia Central road, follow that far.  Do all the damage to railroads and crops you can.  Carry off stock of all descriptions and negroes, so as to prevent further planting.  If the war is to last another year we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste.

“U.  S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.

“Headquarters armies of the united states,
“City point, Va., Sept. 4,—­10 A. M.—­1864.

“Major-general Sheridan, Charlestown, Va.: 

“In cleaning out the arms-bearing community of Loudoun County and the subsistence for armies, exercise your own judgment as to who should be exempt from arrest, and as to who should receive pay for their stock, grain, etc.  It is our interest that that county should not be capable of subsisting a hostile army, and at the same time we want to inflict as little hardship upon Union men as possible.

“U.  S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.”

“City point, Va., Nov. 9, 1864. 
“Major-general Sheridan, Cedar Creek, Va.: 

“Do you not think it advisable to notify all citizens living east of the Blue Ridge to move out north of the Potomac all their stock, grain, and provisions of every description?  There is no doubt about the necessity of clearing out that country so that it will not support Mosby’s gang.  And the question is whether it is not better that the people should save what they can.  So long as the war lasts they must be prevented from raising another crop, both there and as high up the valley as we can control.

“U.  S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.”

He had rightly concluded that it was time to bring the war home to a people engaged in raising crops from a prolific soil to feed the country’s enemies, and devoting to the Confederacy its best youth.  I endorsed the programme in all its parts, for the stores of meat and grain that the valley provided, and the men it furnished for Lee’s depleted regiments, were the strongest auxiliaries he possessed in the whole insurgent section.  In war a territory like this is a factor of great importance, and whichever adversary controls it permanently reaps all the advantages of its prosperity.  Hence, as I have said, I endorsed Grant’s programme, for I do not hold war to mean simply that lines of men shall engage each other in battle, and material interests be ignored.  This is but a duel, in which one combatant seeks the other’s life; war means much more, and is far worse than this.  Those who rest at home in peace and plenty see but little of the horrors