No question. My point was simply to use it as an example of how something is just accepted and then becomes "fact". Catton located the earliest source he could find but it's unvarnished hearsay. Given all the Shiloh controversy about Buell-Grant, who was responsible for the ultimate Union victory, etc that began almost immediately after the battle, a careful researcher's first question would by why this quote never appeared from Sherman in his memoirs or his correspondence, or from anyone Sherman spoke to, while he was alive. Instead, it shows up a couple of years after Sherman's death and refers to an alleged interview in the late 1870's with a newspaper reporter, but last I knew that interview was never found. It sounds like something Grant may have said but it also sounds like something a script writer would have come up with in a movie about the "unshakeable" Grant.
Another good point. You need to know where to look in the first place. And not every repository is that well-organized. Doing this right is hard work.
I helped lead a staff ride of logistics soldiers from FT Campbell Ky. I used the jaw dropping earthworks at Fortress Rosecrans as my backdrop. My theme was despite all the blah-blah-blah about Morgan & CSA raiders they had heard on their previous stop, the QM's & logicians had triumphed. The dandies with feathers in their hats were failures. Your post confirms that conclusion.
A Morgan realist @Rhea Cole rh
One of my favorite breakfast places is across East Main Street from where Morgan & his men serenaded Matty Ready with a rousing rendition of ' Ride Boys, Ride! ' at dawn. He had returned to Murfreesboro from a raid at four in the morning.
If a John Morgan gets loose in Kentucky, never no mind, a steamboat per day loaded at Bridgeport and steaming to Knoxville can provide whatever the US Army cannot buy locally.
Buel took over the preexisting construction of the Nashville & Northwestern 70 mile route to Johnsonville on the Tennessee River. Even when low water kept the steamboats away from Nashville, the N&NWRR kept supplies moving. The 13th USCT & others successfully fought partisan attacks 24/7. Johnsonville Tennessee State Park is worth a visit.
Bringing the