"Now behold these men together, Grant and Sherman! Grant of medium size, of short neck, square shoulders, well proportioned head, and firmly knit frame. His heavy brow and large eye, changeable surely, but always masked by his strong self-control, accorded him quiet dignity and becoming respect. His smile, which never failed him up to the last sickness, lighted his face, bespoke humor and good-fellowship, and to Sherman the utmost friendliness. Sherman appeared tall beside him; his forehead high, his hair light and sandy, his eye keen and piercing, and his frame though not so compact as Grant's, supple and expressive of health and energy. Grant inspired you in his wholeness like a fertile prairie, Sherman like a hill-country abounding in choice knolls and mountain heights. His buoyant coming put one at ease. His deep pleasant voice riveted attention, and his fast flowing conversation rewarded your silence. "There at Nashville they met, and Grant turned over to Sherman the Western armies. Grant hastened back to Washington, Sherman went with him as far as Cincinnati. In a sentence, Sherman has summed up their prolonged council of war: Amidst constant interruptions of a business and social nature we reached the satisfactory conclusion that as soon as the season would permit, all the armies of the Union would assume the 'bold offensive' by 'concentric lines' on the common enemy, and would finish up the job in a single campaign if possible. The main objectives were Lee's Army behind the Rapidan in Virginia, and Joseph E. Johnston's Army at Dalton, Georgia." "Johnston's army was our work, in a nut-shell. Substantially, take a bold offensive--Beat Johnston--Get into the interior--Inflict damage, and keep our enemy so busy that he cannot reinforce elsewhere. "To catch glimpses of how the work so ordered was undertaken, there are other pictures. General Sherman had some original ways of rapid transit. A special car took him, the 25th of March, to General G. M. Dodge, a Corps Commander, then at Pulaski, Tennessee. Next he joined McPherson at Huntsville, Alabama. The two latter were very soon with Thomas at Chattanooga; and were after that speedily with Schofield a hundred miles eastward without rail-cars at Knoxville. Schofield turned back with them, so that shortly after, at Chattanooga, in the left hand room of a one story house, now owned by Mr. J. T. Williams, took place before the end of March another memorable war-meeting. "One figure there was that of General Schofield. He was to bring into the field about fourteen thousand men. He was in form more like Grant than Sherman. He combined intellectual vigor with marked judiciousness. Another figure was McPherson. He had to furnish some twenty-five thousand soldiers. He was equal to Sherman in quickness of thought, but, like all engineers, more wary in his execution.