This provision was made to enable him to fall back upon the sea coast, in case he should encounter a force sufficient to stop his onward progress.  He also wrote me a letter, making suggestions as to what he would like to have done in support of his movement farther north.  This letter was brought to City Point by General Barnard at a time when I happened to be going to Washington City, where I arrived on the 21st of January.  I cannot tell the provision I had already made to co-operate with Sherman, in anticipation of his expected movement, better than by giving my reply to this letter.

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 21, 1865.

MAJOR-GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN, Commanding Mill Div. of the Mississippi.

GENERAL:—­Your letters brought by General Barnard were received at City Point, and read with interest.  Not having them with me, however, I cannot say that in this I will be able to satisfy you on all points of recommendation.  As I arrived here at one P.M., and must leave at six P.M., having in the meantime spent over three hours with the Secretary and General Halleck, I must be brief.  Before your last request to have Thomas make a campaign into the heart of Alabama, I had ordered Schofield to Annapolis, Md., with his corps.  The advance (six thousand) will reach the seaboard by the 23d, the remainder following as rapidly as railroad transportation can be procured from Cincinnati.  The corps numbers over twenty-one thousand men.  I was induced to do this because I did not believe Thomas could possibly be got off before spring.  His pursuit of Hood indicated a sluggishness that satisfied me that he would never do to conduct one of your campaigns.  The command of the advance of the pursuit was left to subordinates, whilst Thomas followed far behind.  When Hood had crossed the Tennessee, and those in pursuit had reached it, Thomas had not much more than half crossed the State, from whence he returned to Nashville to take steamer for Eastport.  He is possessed of excellent judgment, great coolness and honesty, but he is not good on a pursuit.  He also reported his troops fagged, and that it was necessary to equip up.  This report and a determination to give the enemy no rest determined me to use his surplus troops elsewhere.

Thomas is still left with a sufficient force surplus to go to Selma under an energetic leader.  He has been telegraphed to, to know whether he could go, and, if so, which of the several routes he would select.  No reply is yet received.  Canby has been ordered to act offensively from the sea-coast to the interior, towards Montgomery and Selma.  Thomas’s forces will move from the north at an early day, or some of his troops will be sent to Canby.  Without further reinforcements Canby will have a moving column of twenty thousand men.

Fort Fisher, you are aware, has been captured.  We have a force there of eight thousand effective.  At New Bern about half the number.  It is rumored, through deserters, that Wilmington also has fallen.  I am inclined to believe the rumor, because on the 17th we knew the enemy were blowing up their works about Fort Caswell, and that on the 18th Terry moved on Wilmington.