[E.B. Washburn was member of Congress representing Galena. Pillow was
a Confederate general. He had served in the Mexican War, where Grant
had learned to know him.
Grant expresses in this letter the opinion that the war will be of
short duration. Many believed with him that the war would be over in
thirty days. He continued to think this until the battle of Shiloh. He
believed that there would have been no more battles in the West after
the capture of Fort Donelson if all the troops in that region had been
under a single commander who would have followed up that victory.]
Camp Yates, near Springfield,
May 6th, 1861.