Henry Adams, private secretary of the US Minister to the UK, to his brother, Charles.
London, December 9, 1864
Of course Sherman’s march is creating great excitement here. The newspapers, one after another, and about every other day, prove conclusively that he must lose his army and fall a victim to “clouds of confederate cavalry on his front, flank and rear “; to “swarms of patriotic guerillas behind every bush”; to failure of supplies which are all to be destroyed as he moves; to the obstruction of roads, and finally to the army in his front. I will say however that the latest advices of the alarm existing in the rebel kingdom have made their friends here far less confident than they were. My consolation is that by this time the result must have been arrived at, one way or the other; and as I have as much faith in Sherman as I have in any individual of ancient or modern history or mythology, I keep a very stiff courage up and wait confidently the result.
