Grenville Dodge

Destroyed a million and a half bushels of corn, besides large quantities of oats, rye, and fodder, and five hundred thousand pounds of bacon.

If he could have started from Bear Creek the day I arrived there, then my movements would have been so quick and strong that the enemy could not have got their forces together.

I have no doubt but that Colonel Streight would have succeeded had he been properly equipped and joined me at the time agreed upon.

Having accomplished fully the object of the expedition, and driving the enemy, which was 5,500 strong, to Decatur, and having been on half rations for a week, I fell back to Tuscumbia, in order to communicate with transports, to obtain…

However, we all arrived safely at Corinth, where I established the great contraband camp and guarded it by two companies of Negro soldiers that I uniformed, armed, and equipped without any authority, and which came near giving me trouble.

My troops destroyed all the supplies in the whole Valley of the Tennessee, burnt the railroad stations, and destroyed the railroad so that it was never rebuilt until after the war.

He was active, clearheaded, determined, and of excellent judgment, and his many fights with Forrest showed him full of resources; but his two-days' halt at Moulton, the heavy rains, and the condition of his stock, were fatal to him.

I shall take such a force as to render certain the success of the expedition, and propose to take command in person.

To accomplish this I shall move light, taking nothing but ammunition and provisions, and march twenty miles per day, with infantry and artillery.

I read between the lines and learned what was expected of me.

It would seem that Secretary Stanton purposely wished to place a reflection on General Grant, for he must have known that he was responsible for the Army and for all of its movements.

It is well that no one knew the condition of affairs; that no one was aware of the ignorance of the group of statesmen at Washington who were supposed to be responsible for our nation and its preservation.

Dissensions among themselves and hardly ever agreeing on any important question, brings to view the great responsibility of the President and the fact that in all the important matters he was dependent upon his own judgment.

No person can read Secretary Wells's diary of the daily doings at Washington of the Cabinet during President Lincoln's administration and see how little appreciation and support he got from his Cabinet.

It is no wonder that with such ignorance in the Cabinet as to the condition of the country, that the administration at Washington was so incompetent in the Civil War.

I shall be glad at any and all times to furnish you any information in my possession that you may desire, and I assure you I shall bend all my energies to the accomplishment of the great object in view and so much desired--a lasting and…

This display of force alone will alarm and terrify them; will show them that we are in earnest, have the power, and intend at all hazards to make them behave themselves.

I have now seven different columns of troops penetrating their country in all directions, while at the same time I am holding the overland routes.

The theory that we cannot punish these Indians effectually, and that we must make or accept any kind of a peace in order to hold our overland routes, is not sustained by the facts, is singularly erroneous, and I cannot agree to it by any…

For months prior to that affair the Indians had been attacking our trains, posts, and ranches; had robbed the emigrants and murdered any party they considered too weak to defend themselves.

In this way I have no doubt these Indians can be kept in their own country, their outrages stopped, and our overland routes kept safe.

My plan, however, would be to keep these Indians under the care of officers of the army, stationed in their country; that what is given them be given by these officers, and that all citizens, agents and traders should, while among them, be…

When peace is made with them, if civilian agents and citizens are sent among them, send those who you know to be of undoubted integrity.

No one desires more than I do to effect a permanent peace with these Indians, and such is the desire of every officer under me, all of whom agree in the method suggested for bringing it about.

We must first punish them until we make them fear us and respect our power, and then we must ourselves live strictly up to the treaties made.