To William T. Sherman1Jump to section
Major General Sherman War Department,
Atlanta, Ga. Washington, D.C., Sept. 27 1864.
You say Jeff. Davis is on a visit to Hood. I judge that Brown and Stephens are the objects of his visit. A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS, DNA WR RG 107, Presidential Telegrams, I, 181. See Lincoln to Sherman, September 17, supra. Sherman had telegraphed Halleck on September 26: ``I have re-enforced my line back as far as Chattanooga; but in Middle Tennessee we are weak. . . . I would like to have any regiments in Indiana or Ohio sent to Nashville. . . . Jeff. Davis is on a visit to [John B.] Hood at Palmetto.'' (OR, I, XXXIX, II, 479). On September 28, he replied to Lincoln:
``I have positive knowledge that Jeff Davis made a speech at Macon on the 22nd. . . . It was bitter against [Joseph E.] Johnston & Govr Brown. The militia is now on furlough. Brown is at Milledgeville trying to get a legislature to meet next month but he is afraid to act unless in concert with other Governors.
``Judge Wright of Rome has been here and Messrs [Joshua] Hill and [Thomas A.R.] Nelson former members of our Congress are also here now and will go to meet Wright at Rome and then go back to Madison and Milledgeville. Great efforts are being made to re-enforce Hood's army and to break up my Railroads, and I should have at once a good reserve force at Nashville. It would have a bad effect if I were to be forced to send back any material part of my army to guard roads so as to weaken me to an extent that I could not act offensively if the occasion calls for it.'' (DLC-RTL).