_War Department_.
The following telegram received at Washington 9 a.m. March 31, 1864,
from Culpeper Court-House, 11.30 p.m., dated March 30, 1864:
"Major-General W.T. SHERMAN,
"_Nashville_:
"General F.P. Blair will be assigned to the Seventeenth (17th) Corps,
and not the Fifteenth (15th). Assign General Joseph Hooker, subject to
the approval of the President, to any other corps command you may have,
and break up the anomaly of one general commanding two (2) corps.
"U.S. GRANT
"_Lieutenant-General, Commanding_."
From a long dispatch of April 2, 1864, from General Sherman to General
Grant, presenting his plan for disposing the forces under his command,
the following extracts, being the only parts pertinent to the subject
now under consideration, are taken:
After a full consultation with all my army commanders, I have settled
down to the following conclusions, to which I would like to have the
President's consent before I make the orders:
* * * * *
Third. General McPherson. * * * His [three] corps to be commanded by
Major-Generals Logan, Blair, and Dodge. * * *
OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH,
_War Department_.
The following telegram received at Washington 3 p.m. April 10, 1864,
from Culpeper Court-House, Va., 10 p.m., dated April 9, 1864:
"Major-General H.W. HALLECK,
"_Chief of Staff_:
"Will you please ascertain if General F.P. Blair is to be sent to
General Sherman. If not, an army-corps commander will have to be named
for the Fifteenth Corps.
"U.S. GRANT, _Lieutenant-General_."
WASHINGTON, _April 20, 1864_.
The PRESIDENT:
You will do me a great favor by giving the order assigning me to the
command of the Seventeenth Army Corps immediately, as I desire to leave
Washington the next Saturday to join the command. I also request the
assignment of Captain Andrew J. Alexander, of Third Regiment United
States Cavalry, as adjutant-general of the Seventeenth Corps, with the
rank of lieutenant-colonel. The present adjutant, or rather the former
adjutant, Colonel Clark, has, I understand, been retained by General
McPherson as adjutant-general of the department, and the place of
adjutant-general of the corps is necessarily vacant.
I also request the appointment of George A. Maguire, formerly captain
Thirty-first Missouri Volunteer Infantry, as major and aid-de-camp, and
Lieutenant Logan Tompkins, Twenty-first Missouri Volunteer Infantry, as
captain and aid-de-camp on my staff.
Respectfully,