"There at Nashville they met, and Grant turned over to Sherman the Western armies. Grant hastened back to Washington, Sherman went with him as far as Cincinnati. In a sentence, Sherman has summed up their prolonged council of war: 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 'concentric lines' on the common enemy, and would finish up the job 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."
"Johnston's army was our work, in a nut-shell. Substantially, take a bold offensive--Beat Johnston--Get into the interior--Inflict damage, and keep our enemy so busy that he cannot reinforce elsewhere.
"To catch glimpses of how the work so ordered was undertaken, there are other pictures. General Sherman had some original ways of rapid transit. A special car took him, the 25th of March, to General G. M. Dodge, a Corps Commander, then at Pulaski, Tennessee. Next he joined McPherson at Huntsville, Alabama. The two latter were very soon with Thomas at Chattanooga; and were after that speedily with Schofield a hundred miles eastward without rail-cars at Knoxville. Schofield turned back with them, so that shortly after, at Chattanooga, in the left hand room of a one story house, now owned by Mr. J. T. Williams, took place before the end of March another memorable war-meeting.
"One figure there was that of General Schofield. He was to bring into the field about fourteen thousand men. He was in form more like Grant than Sherman. He combined intellectual vigor with marked judiciousness. Another figure was McPherson. He had to furnish some twenty-five thousand soldiers. He was equal to Sherman in quickness of thought, but, like all engineers, more wary in his execution.
"With his genial face, his large high head and fine figure, he stood with the noblest. The third, General George H. Thomas, with his nearly seventy thousand aggregate. He was tall and broad, and heavy and handsome, of good judgment and sterling record. These three army commanders were thus assembled, and the hearty Sherman was with them. Of this group, Sherman in his story has said: 'We had nothing like a council of war, but consulted freely and frankly on all matters of interest to them, then in progress or impending.' At farthest the first of May was to end the period of preparation, when the different clans should be gathered and ready for the fray. The leaders of corps and divisions, and the essential consolidations were there fixed upon; and the great problem of safe supply was, at least to themselves, satisfactorily solved.