[154] * * * I will keep the enemy about Mobile uneasy, and will act against the city and river the moment I can gather a sufficient force.Ed. R. Canby, Major-General.
headquarters Military division of the Mississippi. In the field, Atlanta, Georgia, September 10, 1864.Dispatch of the 27th received. I got to Atlanta by a couple of good moves. You succeeded at Fort Morgan sooner than I expected. We must have the Alabama River now, and also the Appalachicola at the old arsenal, and up to Columbus. My line is so long now that it is impossible to protect it against cavalry raids; but if we can get Montgomery and Columbus, Georgia, as bases in connection with Atlanta, we have Georgia and Alabama at our feet. You ought to have more men, and it is a burning shame that at this epoch we should need men, for the North is full of them.
General Canby, New Orleans.They can raise a political convention any time of fifty to one hundred thousand men, and yet they pretend they can not give us what we want. But keep at it, and I only want to express my idea that I would not bother with the city of Mobile, which will simply absorb a garrison for you, but would use the Tensas channel and notify General Gardner, of the rebel army, to maintain good order, etc., in the now useless streets of Mobile.
I will be ready to sally forth again in October, but ought to have some assurance that, in case of necessity, I can swing into Appalachicola or Montgomery, and find friends.
W. T. Sherman, Major-General commanding.
Your dispatch of the 10th has just been received. The plans you suggested have been under consideration, and preparations are now in progress.I think I can give you the assurance that you will find friends in Mobile, if the trouble in Arkansas River should be soon ended, how far east of that will depend upon the reenforcements that can be spared for this command?
Ed. R. Canby, Major-General.
Beauregard has left Georgia altogether and shifted across to the neighborhood of Florence, Alabama, threatening to invade Tennessee. We are all ready for him there, and I have still an army with which to go on. If you hear I have destroyed Atlanta and marched south, be prepared with boats to send me supplies from Ponchartrain, and have the navy look out for my fires and rocket signals along the east side of Mobile Bay, as high up as Old Blakely.W. T. Sherman, Major-General.
