
Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant	Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman

City Point, Virginia, September 26, 1864 ---- 10 A. M.
Major-General SHERMAN, Atlanta:

It will be better to drive Forrest out of Middle Tennessee as a first step, and do any thing else you may feel your force sufficient for. When a movement is made on any part of the sea-coast, I will advise you. If Hood goes to the Alabama line, will it not be impossible for him to subsist his army?

U.S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.

Sherman's Reply.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
IN THE FIELD, Atlanta, Georgia, September 26, 1864

GENERAL: I have your dispatch of to-day. I have already sent one division (Newton's) to Chattanooga, and another (Corse's) to Rome. Our armies are much reduced, and if I send back anymore, I will not be able to threaten Georgia much. There are men enough to the rear to whip Forrest, but they are necessarily scattered to defend the roads. Can you expedite the sending to Nashville of the recruits that are in Indiana and Ohio? They could occupy the forts. Hood is now on the West Point road, twenty-four miles south of this, and draws his supplies by that road. Jefferson Davis is there to-day, and superhuman efforts will be made to break my road. Forrest is now lieutenant-general and commands all the enemy's cavalry.

W. T. Sherman, Major-General.