dorsed by Mr. Lincoln, have been shown me, but were not in such a form as to amount to an order for me to facilitate their execution. "As to Treasury trade-agents, and agents to take charge of confiscated and abandoned property, whose salaries depend on their fees, I can only say that, as a general rule, they are mischievous and disturbing elements to a military government, and it is almost impossible for us to study the law and regulations so as to understand fully their powers and duties. I rather think the quartermaster's department of the army could better fulfil all their duties, and accomplish all that is aimed at by the law. Yet, on this subject, I will leave Generals Foster and Grover to do the best they can." CHAPTER XXVI. NORTHWARD. HOOD's army being effectually broken up, Tennessee and Kentucky being secure, and no considerable force occupying the Atlantic slope except Lee's army, held at Petersburg by Lieutenant-General Grant, the next move for Sherman was obviously Northward. His proposal for the march through Georgia had looked forward another step to this contingency. At Savannah, he was accordingly met by instructions from the lieutenant-general to embark his army on transports and hasten to the James River to participate in the final combination for the destruction of the main army of the rebellion. Upon Sherman's earnest representations of the difficulty of moving sixty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry, with their due proportion of artillery, so great a distance by water; of the great length of time that would be consumed in the operation; of the comparative immunity the enemy would enjoy in his intermediate combinations; and finally, on his assurance that he could place his army at the desired point sooner, in better condition, and with more injury to the enemy by marching overland; General Grant consented to this modification and gave the necessary orders to Sherman to act upon it, and to the other commanders concerned to co-operate with him in the manner we shall presently perceive. All the details were left entirely to Sherman. A division of Emory's nineteenth corps, under Brevet MajorGeneral Cuvier Grover, was drawn from Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah, and sent to Savannah as a garrison, and General Grover was appointed to the command of the city. This |