If you have any promotions to recommend send the named forward and I will approve them. In conclusion, it is hardly necessary for me to say that I feel you have accomplished the most gigantic undertaking given to any general in this war, and with a skill and ability that will be acknowledged in history as unsurpassed, if not unequaled. It gives me as much pleasure to record this in your favor as it would in favor of any living man, myself included.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

WASHINGTON, September 12, 1864-4 p. m.

Major-General SHERMAN, Atlanta, Ga.:

Is your want of cavalry horses so pressing as to require an extra supply and a stoppage of the ordinary issues to other armies in the West? Can your railroad supply forage to a greatly increased number of horses in your army? The general rule is to issue horses to the different armies in proportion to the number of cavalry reported dismounted. But the rule can be changed in your case if you deem it necessary.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General and Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Atlanta, Ga., September 12, 1864-11 p. m.

(Received 3. 15 a. m. 13th.)

Major General H. W. HALLECK, Chief of Staff:

I do not think that I need at this time cavalry horses in undue proportion. I have lost faith in cavalry raids, and our men take bad care of their animals. There is a large abundance of forage in Alabama and Georgia, and independent columns of cavalry might operate by a circuit from one army to another and destroy the enemy's cavalry, which is more to be feared by us than their infantry. As soon as General Grant determines for me the next move on the chessboard, I will estimate the number I will want, and, in the mean time, would not ask more than a fair proportion for remounts. Wheeler might have been utterly destroyed if we had had more cavalry in Tennessee, but that is now too late. In the future we will have to use cavalry offensively, and trust to the enemy's corn-fields for forage. Our road is repaired and bringing forward supplies, but I doubt its capacity to do much more than feed our trains and artillery horses. All well.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

NASHVILLE, TENN., September 12, 1864.

(Received 1. 10 a. m. 13th.)

Major Thomas T. ECKERT, Washington:

No army news except that suspension of the draft has cost administration 10,000 votes in these armies, and is making McClellan faster than all the stump orators in America. Only peace sneaks and bounty jumpers rejoice.

J. C. VAN DUZER.