till all this is realized, save the peace which would result from the base and cowardly submital to Jeff. Davis' terms. I would use negroes as surplus, but not spare a single white man, no one. Any white man who don't or won't fight now should be killed, banished, or denationalized, and then we would discriminate among the noisy patriots and see who really should vote. If the negroes fight and the whites don't, of course the negroes will govern. They won't ask you or me for the privilege, but will simply take it, and probably reserve the relation hitherto existing, and they would do right. If, however, the Government has determined to push the policy to the end, it is both my duty and pleasure to assist, and in that event I should like to have Colonel Bowman, now commanding the District of Wilmington, Del., to organize and equip such as may fall into the custody of the army I command.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Gaylesville, Ala., October 25, 1864.

His Excellency Thomas E. BRAMLETTE,

Governor of Kentucky, Frankfort, Ky.:

DEAR SIR: I have just received your kind and generous letter of October 6, and acknowledge the great pleasure it gives me personally. Having failed in my first efforts to turn the tide of war from Kentucky's fair fields, I feel the more satisfaction at a success at this late period. Let us all go on and vindicate our manhood, and so fortify our Government that we may all live in peace and security, indulging each our separate opinions on religion, politics, literature, and the other topics on which honest men have always differed and always will. For these controversies the senate is a better arena than the battle-field, and Clay and Webster and Calhoun better champions than the ugly cannon and musket that now alone discourse reason. I feel more pleasure in demonstrating this great truth than in earning personal fame, but when the latter is a means to the former I must admit a consciousness of a pride that the trust devolves on one who feels an increasing faith that the destiny of our common country is onward and upward, and not back and downward toward anarchy and ruin.

With great respect, your friend and servant,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. CAVALRY CORPS, MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Gaylesville, Ala., October 25, 1864.

Major W. R. PRICE,

Asst. Insp. General, Cavalry Bureau, Washington, D. C.:

MAJOR: General Sherman says that Beauregard has under his command, mounted and equipped, in the Military DIVISION of the West, 26,000 cavalry. From the best information I can get his estimate is correct, and these forces under Forrest and Wheeler are now endeavoring to concentrate in Northern Alabama, not far from here, for the purpose of operating upon our communications in Tennessee. To meet this we have 6,000 men mounted in the field, 3,000 on the way from