Memoirs of General Sherman, vol 2 | Page 6

for the work before us.
Each has made a history of his own, and I need not here dwell on their
respective merits as men, or as commanders of armies, except that each
possessed special qualities of mind and of character which fitted them
in the highest degree for the work then in contemplation.
By the returns of April 10, 1864, it will be seen that the Army of the
Cumberland had on its muster-rolls-- Men. Present and
absent...................171,450 Present for duty..................... 88,883
The Army of the Tennessee-- Present and absent....................134,763
Present for duty...................... 64,957
The Army of the Ohio-- Present and absent ................... 46,052 Present
for duty ..................... 26,242
The department and army commanders had to maintain strong
garrisons in their respective departments, and also to guard their
respective lines of supply. I therefore, in my mind, aimed to prepare out
of these three armies, by the 1st of May, 1864, a compact army for
active operations in Georgia, of about the following numbers:
Army of the Cumberland................ 50,000 Army of the
Tennessee................. 35,000 Army of the Ohio ..................... 15,000

Total ............................... 100,000
and, to make these troops as mobile as possible, I made the strictest
possible orders in relation to wagons and all species of incumbrances
and impedimenta whatever. Each officer and soldier was required to
carry on his horse or person food and clothing enough for five days. To
each regiment was allowed but one wagon and one ambulance, and to
the officers of each company one pack horse or mule.
Each division and brigade was provided a fair proportion of wagons for
a supply train, and these were limited in their loads to carry food,
ammunition, and clothing. Tents were forbidden to all save the sick and
wounded, and one tent only was allowed to each headquarters for use
as an office. These orders were not absolutely enforced, though in
person I set the example, and did not have a tent, nor did any officer
about me have one; but we had wall tent-flies, without poles, and no
tent-furniture of any kind. We usually spread our flies over saplings, or
on fence-rails or posts improvised on the spot. Most of the general
officers, except Thomas, followed my example strictly; but he had a
regular headquarters-camp. I frequently called his attention to the
orders on this subject, rather jestingly than seriously. He would break
out against his officers for having such luxuries, but, needing a tent
himself, and being good-natured and slow to act, he never enforced my
orders perfectly. In addition to his regular wagon-train, he had a big
wagon which could be converted into an office, and this we used to call
"Thomas's circus." Several times during the campaign I found
quartermasters hid away in some comfortable nook to the rear, with
tents and mess-fixtures which were the envy of the passing soldiers;
and I frequently broke them up, and distributed the tents to the
surgeons of brigades. Yet my orders actually reduced the transportation,
so that I doubt if any army ever went forth to battle with fewer
impedimenta, and where the regular and necessary supplies of food,
ammunition, and clothing, were issued, as called for, so regularly and
so well.
My personal staff was then composed of Captain J. C. McCoy,
aide-de-camp; Captain L. M. Dayton, aide-de-camp; Captain J. C.
Audenried, aide-de-camp; Brigadier-General J. D. Webster, chief of
staff; Major R. M. Sawyer, assistant adjutant-general; Captain
Montgomery Rochester, assistant adjutant-general. These last three

were left at Nashville in charge of the office, and were empowered to
give orders in my name, communication being generally kept up by
telegraph.
Subsequently were added to my staff, and accompanied me in the field,
Brigadier-General W. F. Barry, chief of artillery; Colonel O. M. Poe,
chief of engineers; Colonel L. C. Easton, chief quartermaster; Colonel
Amos Beckwith, chief commissary; Captain Thos. G. Baylor, chief of
ordnance; Surgeon E. D. Kittoe, medical director; Brigadier-General J.
M. Corse, inspector-general; Lieutenant-Colonel C. Ewing,
inspector-general; and Lieutenant- Colonel Willard Warner,
inspector-general.
These officers constituted my staff proper at the beginning of the
campaign, which remained substantially the same till the close of the
war, with very few exceptions; viz.: Surgeon John Moore, United
States Army, relieved Surgeon Kittoe of the volunteers (about Atlanta)
as medical director; Major Henry Hitchcock joined as judge-advocate,
and Captain G. Ward Nichols reported as an extra aide-de-camp (after
the fall of Atlanta) at Gaylesville, just before we started for Savannah.
During the whole month of April the preparations for active war were
going on with extreme vigor, and my letter-book shows an active
correspondence with Generals Grant, Halleck, Thomas, McPherson,
and Schofield on thousands of matters of detail and arrangement, most
of which are embraced in my testimony before the Committee on the
Conduct of the War, vol.