The statements which I now return seem to exonerate you from this great point of blame, your taking the wrong road, or different road from the one directed from Crump's Landing to Pittsburg Landing. All your subsequent military career showed you active and ready in the execution of every order you received. Your promptness in moving from Baltimore to Monocacy, Maryland, in 1864, and meeting the enemy in force far superior to your own, when Washington was threatened, is a case particularly in point, where you could scarcely have hoped for a victory; but you delayed the enemy, and enabled me to get troops from City Point, Virginia, in time to save the city. That act I regarded as most praiseworthy. I refer you to my report of 1865, touching your course there. In view of the assaults made upon you now, I think it due to you, that you should publish what your own Staff and other subordinate officers have to say in exoneration of your course. Yours Truly, U.S. GRANT, GENERAL. To MAJOR GENERAL L. WALLACE, CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana. * * * * * FITCHBURG IN 1885. BY ATHERTON P. MASON, M.D. In the January number of this magazine appeared an excellent and comprehensive historical sketch of Fitchburg. It is proposed in this article to portray as briefly as possible, and by the aid of engravings, the present condition and resources of our city. Old Rollstone and its opposite neighbor, Pearl Hill, have witnessed the transformation of a rude, inhospitable wilderness into a beautiful and busy city. We of the present day, proud of our heritage, are striving to improve it by all means within our power. Fitchburg owes her growth and prosperity pre-eminently to those energetic and plucky men who founded and fostered the great industries which now constitute her life and soul. Alvah Crocker, Salmon W. Putnam, Eugene T. Miles, and Walter Heywood, have left behind them great and lasting proofs of their toil and perseverance. Of Rodney Wallace, who is now in the midst of a useful and benevolent life among us, another will speak more fully and fittingly in other pages of this magazine; nor would we neglect to give due credit to the energetic men who are now either carrying on business established by their predecessors, or founding new industries which enhance the resources and good name of Fitchburg. [Illustration: UNION PASSENGER DEPOT] The little river (the north branch of the Nashua) which runs through the township, and which is formed by the confluence of several large brooks in the westerly part of the town, first invited the manufacturer to locate on its banks. Its water-power is still used, but steam is now the chief motor that propels the machinery, looms and spindles that daily pour forth products which go to the markets, not of this country alone, but of the world.