Rossiter W. Raymond 



and, at need, effectively utilizing, any 

 facts he had encountered, however 

 casually. When asked, in his old age, 

 how he had dared to cut loose from 

 his base of supplies and risk his whole 

 army in the bold march from Atlanta 

 to the sea, Sherman replied that he 

 would not have dared it, in the ab- 

 sence of detailed maps and other in- 

 formation, but for the circumstance 

 that many years before, as a young 

 Lieutenant of the Engineer Corps, 

 serving in the South, he had studied 

 every stream, hill and road in that 

 region, and learned, never to forget, 

 the difficulties and resources of the 

 country ; so that in undertaking what 

 seemed to others a blind and hazard- 

 ous venture, he " knew what he was 

 about." We shall see that King's 

 great scientific exploration from the 

 Missouri to the Sierra was rendered 

 practicable, at the particular period 

 of its execution, by reason of the 

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