Thus it is not much to be wondered at that General Thomas’s communication momentarily upset me.  But there was no help for it, so after reflecting on the matter a little I concluded to make the best of the situation.  As in Virginia I should be operating in a field with which I was wholly unfamiliar, and among so many who were strangers, it seemed to me that it would be advisable to have, as a chief staff-officer, one who had had service in the East, if an available man could be found.  In weighing all these considerations in my mind, I fixed upon Captain James W. Forsyth, of the Eighteenth Infantry, then in the regular brigade at Chattanooga—­a dear friend of mine, who had served in the Army of the Potomac, in the Peninsula and Antietam campaigns.  He at once expressed a desire to accept a position on my staff, and having obtained by the next day the necessary authority, he and I started for Washington, accompanied by Lieutenant T. W. C. Moore, one of my aides, leaving behind Lieutenant M. V. Sheridan, my other aide, to forward our horses as soon as they should be sent down to Chattanooga from Loudon, after which he was to join me.

CHAPTER XVIII.

At Washington—­meeting Secretary Stanton—­interview with President
Lincoln—­made commander of the cavalry corps of the army of the
Potomac—­its officers—­general MEADE’s method of using cavalry
—­opening of the campaign—­Spottsylvania C. H.—­A difference with
general Meade—­preparing to fight Stuart’s cavalry.

Accompanied by Captain Forsyth and Lieutenant Moore, I arrived in Washington on the morning of April, 4, 1864, and stopped at Willard’s Hotel, where, staying temporarily, were many officers of the Army of the Potomac en route to their commands from leave at the North.  Among all these, however, I was an entire stranger, and I cannot now recall that I met a single individual whom I had ever before known.

With very little delay after reaching my hotel I made my way to General Halleck’s headquarters and reported to that officer, having learned in the meantime that General Grant was absent from the city.  General Halleck talked to me for a few minutes, outlining briefly the nature and duties of my new command, and the general military situation in Virginia.  When he had finished all he had to say about these matters, he took me to the office of the Secretary of War, to present me to Mr. Stanton.  During the ceremony of introduction, I could feel that Mr. Stanton was eying me closely and searchingly, endeavoring to form some estimate of one about whom he knew absolutely nothing, and whose career probably had never been called