To avoid the necessity of having to give orders direct, I established my headquarters near his, unless there were reasons for locating them elsewhere.

This sometimes happened, and I had on occasions to give orders direct to the troops affected.

On the 11th I returned to Washington and, on the day after, orders were published by the War Department placing me in command of all the armies.
I had left Washington the night before to return to my old command in the West and to meet Sherman whom I had telegraphed to join me in Nashville.
Sherman assumed command of the military division of the Mississippi on the 18th of March, and we left Nashville together for Cincinnati.

I had Sherman accompany me that far on my way back to Washington so that we could talk over the matters about which I wanted to see him, without losing any more time from my new command than was necessary.

The first point which I wished to discuss was particularly about the co-operation of his command with mine when the spring campaign should commence.