CITY POINT, VA.,

August 1, 1864, 11.30 A.M.

MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK, Washington D. C.

I am sending General Sheridan for temporary duty whilst the enemy is being expelled from the border.  Unless General Hunter is in the field in person, I want Sheridan put in command of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put himself south of the enemy and follow him to the death.  Wherever the enemy goes let our troops go also.  Once started up the valley they ought to be followed until we get possession of the Virginia Central Railroad.  If General Hunter is in the field, give Sheridan direct command of the 6th corps and cavalry division.  All the cavalry, I presume, will reach Washington in the course of to-morrow.

U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General.

The President in some way or other got to see this dispatch of mine directing certain instructions to be given to the commanders in the field, operating against Early, and sent me the following very characteristic dispatch: 

OFFICE U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH, WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 3, 1864.

Cypher. 6 P.M.,

LT.  GENERAL GRANT, City Point, Va.

I have seen your despatch in which you say, “I want Sheridan put in command of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put himself south of the enemy, and follow him to the death.  Wherever the enemy goes, let our troops go also.”  This, I think, is exactly right, as to how our forces should move.  But please look over the despatches you may have received from here, even since you made that order, and discover, if you can, that there is any idea in the head of any one here, of “putting our army south of the enemy,” or of “following him to the death” in any direction.  I repeat to you it will neither be done nor attempted unless you watch it every day, and hour, and force it.

A. LINCOLN.

I replied to this that “I would start in two hours for Washington,” and soon got off, going directly to the Monocacy without stopping at Washington on my way.  I found General Hunter’s army encamped there, scattered over the fields along the banks of the Monocacy, with many hundreds of cars and locomotives, belonging to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which he had taken the precaution to bring back and collect at that point.  I asked the general where the enemy was.  He replied that he did not know.  He said the fact was, that he was so embarrassed with orders from Washington moving him first to the right and then to the left that he had lost all trace of the enemy.

I then told the general that I would find out where the enemy was, and at once ordered steam got up and trains made up, giving directions to push for Halltown, some four miles above Harper’s Ferry, in the Shenandoah Valley.  The cavalry and the wagon trains were to march, but all the troops that could be transported by the cars were to go in that way.  I knew that the valley was of such importance to the enemy that, no matter how much he was scattered at that time, he would in a very short time be found in front of our troops moving south.