THE GRAND STRATEGY OF THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. (1)
BY WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, GENERAL, U. S. A.

A SHELL AT HEADQUARTERS.

ON the 4th day of March, 1864, General U. S. Grant was summoned to Washington from Nashville to receive his commission of lieutenant general, the highest rank then known in the United States, and the same that was conferred on Washington in 1798. He reached the capital on the 7th, had an interview for the first time with Mr. Lincoln and on the 9th received his commission at the hands of the President, who made a short address, to which Grant made a suitable reply. He was informed that it was desirable that he should come east to command all the armies of the United States, and give his personal supervision to the Army of the Potomac. On the 14th he visited General Meade at Brandy Station, and saw many of his leading officers, but he returned to Washington the next day and went on to Nashville, to which place he had summoned me, then absent on my Meridian expedition. (2) . On the 18th of March he turned over to me the command of the Western armies, and started back for Washington, I accompanying him as far as Cincinnati. Amidst constant interruptions of a business and social nature , we reached the satisfactory conclusion that, as soon as the season would permit, all the armies of the Union would assume the " bold offensive " by " " on the common enemy, and would finish up the J ob in a single campaign if possible. The main "objectives " were Lee's army behind the Rapidan in Virginia, and Joseph E. Johnston's army, at Dalton, Georgia.

(1) Re-arranged from " The Grand Strategy of the War of tho Rebellion," by General Sherman printed in " The Century" magazine for February, 1888, and from a letter by General Sherman to the editor, printed in that periodical for July, 1887. The figures in the text are from Phisterer's "Statistical Record." (Charles Scribner's Sons.)

(2) On February 3d, 1864, General Sherman started from Vicksburg with two columns of infantry under Generals McPherson and Hurlbut , and marched to Meridian, Mississippi, to break up the Mobile and Ohio and the Jackson and Selma 247 railroads. His force was about 20, 000 strong.

A force of cavalry, 10, 000 strong, under General W. Sooy Smith, set out from Memphis on the 11th, intending to cooperate by driving Forrest's cavalry from northern Mississippi, but Smith was headed off by Forrest and defeated in an engagement at West Point, Mississippi, on the 21st. After destroying the railroads on the route, General Sherman abandoned the enterprise, and on February 20th put his troops in motion toward central Mississippi, whence they were transferred, later, to Vicksburg and Memphis.-Editors.