Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/243

Rh 7,000 fresh troops, not yet in hand, added to such commands as Sherman's, which he confesses in his official report was now of a "mixed character" without any of three of his four brigades present and such of the mass then huddled, demoralized and abject, under the river bank since 10 o'clock, as might have their "equilibrium" re-established. That this was the purpose General Sherman is sure, from a story then told him by General Grant of what had happened at Fort Donelson on the I5th of February; and, furthermore, he is very positive that he did not know Buell had already arrived. Now here the spirit rather than the letter of the renowned general's paper is to be weighed.

To be relevant to the question, he steps into the arena not to discuss but settle, he must mean this: that the offensive was to be taken by the Federal forces then west of the Tennessee, if Buell did not come to their assistance; further, when the order was given to him to that end, he did not know General Buell's forces were in such proximity as must insure their advent upon the field in large, substantial force to make the projected attack.

This must be the substance, "bolted to the bran," of what he utters, for it were not pertinent to the issue, nor frank to say merely that Buell was not there, when he knew that Buell must be in due season with the requisite troops.

We have great respect for the genius, the tenacity and the shining courage of General Sherman; we admit his well-won fame. We have a long personal knowledge of the man, but, nevertheless, we are constrained, in the interest of history, to point out facts, as "plain as way to parish church," that show he wrote hastily, inconsiderately.

Saturday night General Grant slept at Savannah, when both General Buell's and Nelson's Divisions had arrived. Before the general-in-chief left for the battlefield he ordered Nelson to march thither, which, by a forced march, was done in four hours, or which by an ordinary march might have been effected at most in six. General Sherman says he saw General Grant as early as 10 A. M. at a moment of sore distress. When General Buell reached Pittsburg Landing, not later than 3 o'clock, General Grant was at the landing, and the two commanders met there.

By 5 P. M., the hour Sherman alleges the order for the offensive was given, Nelson had been long enough in sight at the