Sunday, August 21, 2016

Governor Andrew Johnson (Tennessee) wants General Thomas to command (not Sherman).

Governor Andrew Johnson wants President Abraham Lincoln to Put General George H. Thomas in charge of the Department of the Cumberland.


Letter from Andrew Johnson, Governor of Tennessee, to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. March 21, 1864.


[BEGIN QUOTE]:
Louisville, Ky., March 21, 1864.
(Received 6 p. m.)
His Excellency President Lincoln:
      The Department of the Cumberland ought to be placed under the command of Major-General Thomas, receiving his instructions and orders directly from Washington.
      I feel satisfied from what I know and hear that placing the command of the department under General Sherman, over Thomas, will produce disappointment in the public mind and impair the public service.
      General Thomas has the confidence of the army and the people, and will discharge his duty, as he has from the commencement of the rebellion. He will, in my opinion, if permitted, be one of the great generals of the war, if not the greatest. I will be in Nashville to-morrow and will dispatch you again.
ANDREW JOHNSON,
Governor of Tennessee.
[END QUOTE]

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, Etc.--Union), 105.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/114/

Related: Among other things, Sherman called off a scheduled raid into East Tennessee in November 1861, leaving loyal East Tennesseans without support.

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