General Halleck, "at his own request," was relieved from command as general-in-chief, and assigned to duty in Washington as chief of staff of the army. Sherman was appointed to the military division of the Mississippi,--the position made vacant by the elevation of Grant,--and McPherson was placed in command of the army and the department of the Tennessee, thus stepping into Sherman's place. Halleck was "let down" as gently as possible, the order that promulgated these changes including the president's approbation and thanks for the zealous manner in which the late general-in-chief had performed his duties. In this programme of appointments, of course, the lieutenant general had been consulted; indeed, so far as the force in the field were concerned, they were his assignments. Sherman and McPherson were placed where they could be felt; they were Grant's most intimate friends, made so by their zeal and devotion to the cause which he loved above every other consideration. Six days after he had assumed the command of the armies of the nation, Grant arrived in Washington with his wife and his oldest son. He was the central figure in the gigantic drama of the American Rebellion. The eyes of the nation were fixed upon him, not alone of the loyal portion, but the jeers and the taunts of the South indicated that the rebels themselves had an interest in the movements of the hero who had wrested from them the dominion of the western portion of the Confederacy. Friend and foe on the other side of the broad ocean regarded him with almost breathless attention, for now the name of Grant flashed over the wires of another continent. His fame was as broad as the world itself. Well might the lieutenant general have shrunk from the stupendous task imposed upon him by the acceptance of his lofty position. He had undertaken a duty which none had assumed but to fail--most miserably to fail. The prospect before him would have been appalling to an ordinary mind. Standing on the highest pinnacle of fame as a soldier, as Sherman said, "Your reputation as a general is now far above that of any man living," he stepped into the most difficult position that ever a man filled. He was exposed to all the perils of political influence, to all the darts of envy and malice behind him, as well as to all the combinations of a skilful and desperate foe before him. It required no little moral courage, after the failure of McClellan and Halleck, after the almost uniform disasters which had beset the Eastern armies, to undertake the hazardous task of bringing victory out of the elements around him.