Ulysses S. Grant to November 6, 1862, November 6, 1862
La Grange, Tenn., November 6, 1862.
Maj. Gen. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, Commanding District of Memphis, Memphis, Tenn. :
A dispatch just received from General Halleck promises me re-enforce. ments to the number of 20,000 men,t to be sent immediately, and suggests sending them to you. I have asked to have sixteen regiments of infantry and all of the artillery and cavalry that may come to be sent that way. The remainder I want sent here to fill the present organization, at present reduced by taking out railroad guards.
I am also instructed to detail one commissioned officer from each Ohio regiment to report to the adjutant-general of the State, to take charge of drafted men to fill up their respective regiments. You may regard this as an order for making the detail from your command.
The expectation of these re-enforcements will cause a delay in my movements, and will render a demonstration from Memphis unnecessary for the present, unless our reconnaissance should demonstrate that the enemy are evacuating Holly Springs. I will not move from here under a week or ten days, and will try and communicate with you in the mean time.
I have already been re-enforced to such an extent that I feel no doubt of the result if I should advance now, but as so many are coming it is more prudent perhaps to avail myself of our whole strength.
I am also informed by General Halleck that a large force of our troops are moving north from New Orleans. Also that the Helena force is being augmented, and if not practicable to go to Little Rock they will be instructed to cross the Mississippi and march on Grenada. Of course I can make nothing but independent moves with this command, being governed in that by information received from day to day, until I am fully informed of where and how all these other forces are moving, so as to make the whole co-operate.
If you have not yet moved out, under the instructions sent by way of Columbus, it will not be necessary to do so now. If you have moved you can go back to Memphis and await re-enforcements and instructions.
Send me any information you may have received from Holly Springs within the last week. There is no doubt but that Villepigue has left
* Portion of letter omitted above appears in Series I, Vol. XIII, p. 780. – tBee Part I, p. 467 chere with his command, either for Mobile, Meridian, or Vicksburg. A small force has also been sent to occupy points on the river where the enemy hold both banks, or we hold neither, to prevent desertions. The enemy at Holly Springs is now estimated at 30,000 men, in rather a disorganized condition. I cannot move from here with a force sufficient to handle that number without gloves. I am,
very respectfully, your obedient servant,
NOVEMBER 6, 1862.
Major-General GRANT:
Lawler has but two regiments in his brigade, the Thirty-first having gone with General Logan. Only one regiment, the One hundred
and ninth, has reached Bolivar; the One hundred and nineteeenth will
come down to-day, assigned by your former order to Bolivar; if they go
to Bolivar I must relieve the Twentieth with one of Lawler’s regiments.
Shall I stop that regiment here and relieve the Eighth with it, so as to