Meantime, General F. P. Blair had rejoined his corps (Seventeenth), and we were receiving at Kingston recruits and returned furlough-men, distributing them to their proper companies.  Paymasters had come down to pay off our men before their departure to a new sphere of action, and commissioners were also on hand from the several States to take the vote of our men in the presidential election then agitating the country.

On the 6th of November, at Kingston, I wrote and telegraphed to General Grant, reviewing the whole situation, gave him my full plan of action, stated that I was ready to march as soon as the election was over, and appointed November 10th as the day for starting.  On the 8th I received this dispatch: 

City point, Virginia, November 7, 1864-10.30 P.M.

Major-General Sherman: 

Your dispatch of this evening received.  I see no present reason for changing your plan.  Should any arise, you will see it, or if I do I will inform you.  I think everything here is favorable now.  Great good fortune attend you!  I believe you will be eminently successful, and, at worst, can only make a march less fruitful of results than hoped for.

U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.

Meantime trains of cars were whirling by, carrying to the rear an immense amount of stores which had accumulated at Atlanta, and at the other stations along the railroad; and General Steedman had come down to Kingston, to take charge of the final evacuation and withdrawal of the several garrisons below Chattanooga.

On the 10th of November the movement may be said to have fairly begun.  All the troops designed for the campaign were ordered to march for Atlanta, and General Corse, before evacuating his post at Rome, was ordered to burn all the mills, factories, etc., etc., that could be useful to the enemy, should he undertake to pursue us, or resume military possession of the country.  This was done on the night of the 10th, and next day Corse reached Kingston.  On the 11th General Thomas and I interchanged full dispatches.  He had heard of the arrival of General A. J. Smith’s two divisions at Paducah, which would surely reach Nashville much sooner than General Hood could possibly do from Florence, so that he was perfectly satisfied with his share of the army.

On the 12th, with a full staff, I started from Kingston for Atlanta; and about noon of that day we reached Cartersville, and sat on the edge of a porch to rest, when the telegraph operator, Mr. Van Valkenburg, or Eddy, got the wire down from the poles to his lap, in which he held a small pocket instrument.  Calling “Chattanooga,” he received this message from General Thomas, dated—­

Nashville, November 12, 1884—­8.80 A.M.

Major-General Sherman: 

Your dispatch of twelve o’clock last night is received.  I have no fears that Beauregard can do us any harm now, and, if he attempts to follow you, I will follow him as far as possible.  If he does not follow you, I will then thoroughly organize my troops, and believe I shall have men enough to ruin him unless he gets out of the way very rapidly.