Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 159

When Grant was appointed head of all 860,000 Union troops in 1864, he devised a plan to attack all Confederate forces simultaneously: the Army of the Potomac would attack Lee without let-up; Sherman would slash through Georgia to the sea; Banks would attack through Mobile joining with Sherman in the Deep South. Lincoln had finally found his man, someone to execute strategy he knew could not fail. Happily he observed, ‘those not skinning can hold a leg.’