Litchfield enquirer., 1865-12-21

garrison at and near tbe mouth of the Ric Grande. All the balance of the vast territory of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas was in the almost undisputed possession of the enemy with sn army of not less than 80O00 effective men that could have been brought into the field had there been sufficient opposition to have brought them out. The let-alone policy had dsmoralized this force so that probably but little more than one-half of it was ever present in garrison at any one time. But the one half or 40,00o men, with the bands of guerrillas scattered through Missouri, Arkansas, and along the Mississippi river, and the disloyal character of much of the population, compelled the use of large number of troops to keep navigation open on the river, and to protect the loyal people to the west of it. To the east of the. Mississippi, we held substantially with the line of the Tennessee and Helston rivers, running eastward to include nearly all of the State of Tennessee South of Chattanooga small foothold had been obtained in Georgia, sufficient to protect East Tennessee from incur sions from the enemy's force at Dalton, Geor gia. West Virginia was substantially within our lines. Virginia, with the exception of the northern border, the Potomac river, and small area about the mouth of the James river cov- cred by the troops at Norfolk and Fort Mon- roe, and the territory covered by the army of the Potomac lying along the Rapidan, was in the possession of the enemy. Alorg the sea- coast footholds had been obtained at Plymouth, Washington, and Newborn, in North Carolina Beaufort, Folly and Morris Islands, Hilton Head, Fort Pulaski, and Port Royal in South Carolina Fernando and St. Augustine in Florida. Key West and Pensacola were also in our possession, while all the important ports were blockaded by the navy. The accompany ing map, . copy of which was sent to General Sherman and other commanders in March. 1864. shows by red lines the territory occupied by us at the beginning of the rebellion and at the opening of the campaign of 1864, while those in bloe are the lines which it was proposed to occupy.
 Behind the Union lines there were many bands of guerrillas and large population dis. loyal to the government, making it necessary to guard every fsot of road or river used in sup. plying our armies. In the south reign oi military despotism prevailed, which made eve Y man and boy capable of bearing arms sold fer, and those who could not bear arms in tn. field, acted as provosts for collecting deserters and returning them. This enabled the enemy to bring almost his entire strength inte the field. The enemy had concentrated the bulk of his forces east of the Mississippi into two armies, commanded by Generals R. E. Lee, and J E Johnson, his sblest and best ,enerals The army commanded by Lee occupied the south bank of the Rapidan. extending from Mine Run westward, strongly intrepched, covering and defending Richmond, the rebel capital, against the army of the Potomac. The army under Johnston occupied g strongly intrenched position at Dalton, Ga, covering and defend ing Atlanta, Ga., place of great importance as railroad centre, against the armies under Major-G General W. T. Sherman. In addition to these armies, he had large cavalry force under Forrest, in northeast Mississippi a con siderable, of all arns, in the Shenandoah valle, and in the western part of Virginia and ex treme eastern part of Tennessee and also con fronting onr sea-coast garrisens. and holding blockaded ports where he had no foothold upor land.
 These two armies, and the cities covered ana defended by them, were the main objectiv, points of the campaign.
 Msjor-General W T Sherman, who was ap pointed to the command of the military divis ion of the Mississippi, embracing all the armie and territory east of the Mississippi river t the Allegbanies, and the department of Arkan sas, west of the Mississippi, had the immediate command of the armies operating agains Johnson.
 Major General George G. Meade had the i'm
 mediate command of the Army of the Potomac from where I exercised general supervision o the movements of all our armies
 General Sherman was instructed to mov' against Johnston's army, to break it up, ant to go into the enemy's country as far as h' could, inficting all tbe damage he could upor their war resources. If the enemy in his iron showed signs of joining Lee, to follow him ul to the best of his ability, while would proven
 the concentration of Lee upon him if it was il the power of the army of the Potomac to do SC
 Mere specific written instructions were no 1 given, for the reason that I had talked ove
 with him the plans of the campaign. and wa
 satisfied that he understood them and woul' sxscute them to the fullest extent possible. II Major General N. P. Banks, then on an ez Ipedition up Red River against Shreveport
 Lsuisiana, (which had been organized previou l to my appointment to command.) was notife by me on the 18th of March of the importanc it was that Shreveport should be taken at tn ! earliest possible day, and that if he found ths
 the taking of it would occupy from ten to fl , teen days, more time than General Sherma |. 1 had given his troops to be absent from the fl command. he would send them back at tt