This is an admirable point—­country open, and the two railroads in good order back to Wilmington and Beaufort.  We have already brought up stores enough to fill our wagons, and only await some few articles, and the arrival of some men who are marching up from the coast, to be off.

General Grant explained to me his orders to you, which, of course, are all right.  You can make reports direct to Washington or to General Grant, but keep me advised occasionally of the general state of affairs, that I may know what is happening.  I must give my undivided attention to matters here.  You will hear from a thousand sources pretty fair accounts of our next march.  Yours truly,

W. T. Sherman, Major-General.

[Letter from admiral Dahlgren]

South Atlantic squadron
flag-ship Philadelphia, Charleston, April 20, 1865

Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding Armies of the Tennessee,
Georgia, and Mississippi.

Mr dear general:  I was much gratified by a sight of your handwriting, which has just reached me from Goldsboro’; it was very suggestive of a past to me, when these regions were the scene of your operations.

As you progressed through South Carolina, there was no manifestation of weakness or of an intention to abandon Charleston, until within a few hours of the fact.  On the 11th of February I was at Stono, and a spirited demonstration was made by General Schimmel-pfennig and the vessels.  He drove the rebels from their rifle-pits in front of the lines, extending from Fort Pringle, and pushed them vigorously.  The next day I was at Bull’s Bay, with a dozen steamers, among them the finest of the squadron.  General Potter had twelve to fifteen hundred men, the object being to carry out your views.  We made as much fuss as possible, and with better success than I anticipated, for it seems that the rebs conceived Stono to be a feint, and the real object at Bull’s Bay, supposing, from the number of steamers and boats, that we had several thousand men.  Now came an aide from General Gillmore, at Port Royal, with your cipher-dispatch from Midway, so I steamed down to Port Royal to see him.  Next day was spent in vain efforts to decipher-finally it was accomplished.  You thought that the state of the roads might force you to turn upon Charleston; so I went there on the 15th, but there was no sign yet of flinching.  Then I went to Bull’s Bay next day (16th), and found that the troops were not yet ashore, owing to the difficulties of shoal water.  One of the gunboats had contrived to get up to within shelling range, and both soldiers and sailors were working hard.  On the evening of the 18th I steamed down to Stono to see how matters were going there.  Passing Charleston, I noticed two large fires, well inside—­probably preparing to leave.  On the 17th, in Stono, rumors were