and other dainties for his table were tendered him, he thanked the
givers but suggested that they were needed for the sick and wounded
in the hospitals, where they would be gratefully received.

"...I should certainly have endeavored to throw the enemy north
of the Potomac," he wrote his wife, "but thousands of our men were
barefooted, thousands with fragments of shoes, and all without
overcoats, blankets or warm clothing. I could not bear to expose
them to certain suffering.... I am glad you have some socks for
the army. Send them to me.... Tell the girls to send all they
can. I wish they could make some shoes, too."

Even the hardships of the dumb animals moved him to a ready sympathy,
and he was constantly planning to spare them in every possible way.

"Our horses and mules suffer most," he wrote one of his daughters.
"They have to bear the cold and rain, tug through the mud and suffer
all the time with hunger."

And again on another occasion he wrote his wife:

"This morning the whole country is covered with a mantle of snow,
fully a foot deep.... Our poor horses were enveloped. We have dug
them out...but it will be terrible.... I fear our short rations
for man and horse will have to be curtailed."

The whole army realized the great-hearted nature of its Chief,
and its confidence in his thought and care is well illustrated by
a letter which a private addressed to him, asking him if he knew
upon what short rations the men were living. If he did, the writer