I hope they will be ready to start by the 7th, and that Bragg will not have started back by that time.
In this letter I do not intend to give you any thing like directions for future action, but will state a general idea I have, and will get your views after you have established yourself on the sea-coast.

With your veteran army I hope to get control of the only two through routes from east to west possessed by the enemy before the fall of Atlanta.

The condition will be filled by holding Savannah and Augusta, or by holding any other port to the east of Savannah and Branchville.

If Wilmington falls, a force from there can cooperate with you.
Thomas has got back into the defenses of Nashville, with Hood close upon him.

Decatur has been abandoned, and so have all the roads, except the main one leading to Chattanooga.