I do not see that the law restricts you to black recruits, but you are at liberty, I suppose, to collect white recruits also. It is waste of time and money to open rendezvous in Northwest Georgia, for I assure you I have not seen an able-bodied, men, black or white, fit for a soldier, who was not in this army or the one opposed to it. You speak of the impression going about that I am opposed to the organization of colored regiments. My opinions are usually very positive, and there is no reason why you should not know them. Though entertaining profound reverence for our Congress, I do doubt their wisdom in the passage of this law, first, because civilian agents about an army are a nuisance; second, the duty of citizens to fight for their country is too sacred a one to be peddled off by buying up the refuse of other States; third, it unjust to the soldiers and volunteers who are fighting, as those who compose this army are doing, to place them on a par with the class of recruits you are after; fourth, the negro is in a transition state, and is not the equal of the while man; fifth, he is liberated from his bondage by act od war, and the armies in the field are entitle to all his assistance in labor and fighting in addition to the proper quota of the States; sixth, this bidding and bartering for recruits, white and black, has delayed the re-enforcement of our armies at they time when such re-enforcements would have enabled us to make our successes permanent; seven, the law is an experiment which, pending war, is unwise and unsafe, and has delayed the universal draft which I firmly believe will become necessary to overcome the widespread resistance offered us, and I also believe the universal draft will be wise and beneficent, for, under the providence of God, it will separate the from the demonstrate what citizens will fight for their country and what will only talk. No one shall infer from this that I am not the friend of the negro as well as the which race. I contend that the treason and rebellion of the master freed the slave, and I and the armies I have commanded have conducted to safe points more negroes than those of any other general officer in the army, but I prefer some negroes as pioneers, teamsters, cooks, and servants; others gradually to experiment in the art of the soldier, beginning with the duties of local garrison, such as we had at Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Nashville, and Chattanooga. But I would not draw on the poor race for too large a proportion of its active, athletic young men, for some must remain to seek new homes and provide for the old and young, the feeble and helpless.

These are some of my peculiar notions, but I assure you they are shared by a large proportion of our fighting men.

You nay show this to the agents of the other States in the same business with yourself.

I am, &c.,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

(Copy to Generals Thomas, Schofield, Howard, and Webster.)

BEFORE ATLANTA, GA., July 30, 1864-9 p. m.

Major T. T. ECKERT:

Our line was extended nearly two miles down the Sandtown road to-day without meeting any resistance, and is now intrenched in the new position. The failure of enemy to attack while movement was in prog-