ed from the fact that I was, next to
General Thomas, the highest officer in rank on the ground where
immediate action was demanded, and from my knowledge of General
Grant's confidence, which belief has since been fully justified by
the record. This, as I conceived, imposed upon me the duty of
responding at once to General Thomas's request for advice, without
waiting for the junior members of the council, according to the
usual military custom. Hence I immediately replied: "General
Thomas, I will sustain you in your determination not to fight until
you are fully ready." All the other commanders then promptly
expressed their concurrence.

I do not know whether or not my declaration of purpose to sustain
General Thomas was made known to General Grant, or to any one in
Washington, either then or afterward. I have never made any inquiry
on that subject. Of course such information must have been conveyed
confidentially and indirectly, if at all, and hence would probably
not appear in the official records, though despatches and letters
marked "confidential" are sometimes published as official. I have
only conjectured that some knowledge of my opinion and decision
may, perhaps, have influenced General Grant's final determination
to go to Nashville himself. If some officer must go there to fight
a battle, Grant could get there about as soon as any other he could
well select. The records now published seem to verify the belief
then (December 9, 1864) existing in my mind, that I had only to
withhold my support from General Thomas in his determination to
delay, and the chief command would have fallen to my fortune, where
I believed brilliant victory was as nearly certain as anything in
war can be. But I never had the remotest idea of superseding
General Thomas. As I explained to General Sherman, I volunteered
to go back to Tennessee, not to supersede Thomas, but to help him.
I knew him and his subordinates well, as I did also the antagonist,
my West Point classmate, whom they would have to meet. I appreciated
Thomas's high qualities, his distinguished services, and, above
all, the profound affection and confidence of his troops--an element
of strength in a commander far greater than is generally understood,
even by military men, some of whom appear to be altogether ignorant
of its value as a factor in war. A doubt of our complete success
under his leadership, after our troops were united, never entered
my mind, much