dear General,—Your letter of the 12th, with inclosure, was received before my departure from Paris. But I had no time to do more than read your letter before leaving, so brought the whole here to examine and approve, or otherwise. I have made marginal notes in pencil of all I have to say. I do not think there is anything to strike out, nor anything to add except what you can get from the notes referred to. You may recollect that when I visited Sheridan at Charleston I had a plan of battle with me to give him. But I found him so ready to move—plan and all— that I gave him no order whatever except the authority to move. He is entitled to all the credit of his great victory, and it established him in the confidence of the President and Secretary of War as a commander to be trusted with the fullest discretion in the management of all the troops under him. Before that, while they highly appreciated him as a commander to execute, they felt a little nervous about giving him too much discretion.
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to the theater where he was to become so renowned, and to the chief with whose fame his own was to be forever associated.
From that time I can testify to the confidence, the chivalrous admiration, the commendation which Grant bestowed on his cavalry commander.
In the Wilderness campaign the young general (he was only thirty-two), was constantly given the most difficult and dangerous tasks.
When he was sent off on a distant expedition his formal orders went through Meade, but Grant always saw him in person and added verbal instructions, explaining his views, defining his aim, but leaving all details of execution to the subordinate.
They easily understood each other, they had so much in common.
When Early advanced upon Washington Grant selected Sheridan to oppose him, against the wish of the Government, which thought him too young and inexperienced for the position.
But the avalanche of success crushed out all criticism of the choice.
In 1878 Grant wrote me on this subject from the Hague:
S. S. Scranton and Co., Hartford, 1887.
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