gade was directed to move to some point in the neighborhood of Athens where he might be near his supplies and at the same time be able to watch the crossings of the Tennessee River between Decatur and Eastport; General Morgan's division was ordered to move by railroad without delay from Athens to Chattanooga; Steedman's command to move from Decatur to Bridgeport; and General Rousseau to return from below Florence and concentrate at Athens. The posts at Decatur, Huntsville, Stevenson, and intermediate points, were left with their ordinary garrisons, and the whole attention of the forces under the command of Thomas turned toward Hood's movements in northern Georgia. On the 14th, General Morgan arrived at Chattanooga and General Steedman at Bridgeport, where he also received orders to proceed to Chattanooga. Morgan's and Wagner's divisions were subsequently sent to rejoin their respective corps at Summerville, in northern Georgia.

Mount Pleasant, to press the enemy in the rear, and Croxton's brigade of cavalry set out from Farmington, and passing through Lewisburg, marched in a southwesterly direction toward Lawrenceburg. In the mean time General Washburne, with three thousand cavalry and fifteen hundred infantry, was moving up the Tennessee River to take part in the operations against Forrest. He was directed on the 4th to leave his infantry at Johnsonville and as soon as possible join his forces to those of General Rousseau at Pulaski. LieutenantCommander Forrest was also requested to send some gun-boats down the river to Florence, Alabama, and prevent the enemy from crossing in that vicinity. General Morgan's division having been delayed by high water did not reach Rodgersville till the evening of the 4th, and the same night Forrest passed through Lawrenceburg. Buford's command crossed the Tennessee River on the 3d. General Washburne reached Oct. Waynesboro on the 6th, and on 6. the same day General Morgan came up with the enemy's rear-guard at Shoal Creek Bridge, but not in time to prevent the main body of the enemy from effecting a safe crossing at Bainbridge. Thus both columns, though closely pursued, succeeded in getting back to the south side of the Tennessee River. General Morgan was then ordered to return to Athens, and General Rousseau to destroy the ferry-boats and other means of crossing, and retire to Florence. On the 11th, General Croxton's bri- On the 26th a large force of the en

After the movements of Hood and Sherman described in the previous chapter, which terminated in the retreat of the former to Gadsden, General Sherman, having made General Thomas fully acquainted with his plan of operations in Georgia, delegated to him the command of all troops and garrisons "not absolutely in the presence of the commander-in-chief," with instructions at the same time to pursue Hood, should he follow Sherman's columns, but Oct. in any event to hold Tennessee. 26.

Selma and Montgomery. Wood's division of the fourth corps reached Athens on the 31st of October, and the other two divisions rapidly followed. The twenty-third corps under General Schofield, awaiting at Resaca the orders of General Thomas, as soon as it was known that Hood had appeared in force along the south side of the Tennessee River, was directed to concentrate at Pulaski, and was now also on its way in the rear of the fourth corps. The enemy having on the 31st effected a lodgment for their infantry on the north side of the Tennessee River about three miles above Florence, and driven Croxton above Shoal Creek, General Stanley was directed also to concentrate the fourth corps at Pulaski.

emy's infantry appeared before Decatur, kee Station, transporting supplies from Alabama, and attacked the garrison, but without effect, and on the following day reinforcements amounting to two full regiments were sent from Chattanooga to that point, and General Granger, the officer in command there, was directed to hold the point at all hazards. The enemy then began to intrench their position around Decatur, drove in the Federal pickets at night, and established a line of rifle-pits within five hundred yards of the town. On the 28th, part of the garrison made a sortie, advancing under cover of the guns of the fort down the river bank and around to the rear of the enemy's pits, and took 120 prisoners. The same day a colored regiment under Colonel Morgan carried one of the enemy's batteries above the town and spiked the guns; and on the 29th the rebels withdrew from Decatur toward Courtland. The same day General Croxton, picketing the north bank of the river, reported that the enemy were crossing at the mouth of Cypress Creek, two miles below Florence, and General Hatch, with a division of cavalry, was immediately sent from Clifton to his assistance, with instructions to keep the enemy on the south side of the river, if possible, till the fourth corps, on its way from Georgia, should arrive.

It now became evident that Hood intended to invade Middle Tennessee. He had been for some time repairing the Mobile and Ohio Railroad for the purpose of supplying his army, and trains were running as far north as Corinth and thence eastward to Chero

In the mean time Forrest, with seventeen regiments of cavalry and nine pieces of artillery, had commenced moving northward from Corinth, and from Paris, Tennessee, and on the 28th of October appeared before Fort Hieman, an earthwork on the west bank of the Tennessee about seventy-five miles from Paducah, and captured there a gun-boat and three transports, having previously burned the steamer Empress. On the 2d of November he had succeeded in planting batteries both above and below Johnsonville, an important base of supplies, and the terminus of the Northwestern Railroad, thus completely blockading the river and preventing the escape in either direction of three gun-boats, eight transports, and about a dozen barges. The garrison consisted of about a thousand

men under the command of Colonel sufficiently numerous for its defence, and Thompson. The naval forces under with the rest of his force join the fourth Lieutenant King attacked the enemy's corps at Pulaski, assume command of batteries below Johnsonville, but were all the troops in that vicinity, and, repulsed after a severe contest, not, how-watching the movements of Hood, reever, before they had recaptured a tard his advance into Tennessee as much transport, with two twenty-pounder as possible; but not to risk a general Parrotts and a quantity of ammunition engagement till General A. J. Smith and stores on board, and compelled the should arrive from Missouri, and till enemy to destroy one of the captured General Wilson had remounted the cavNov. gun-boats. On the 4th the rebels alry regiments whose horses had been 4. opened fire on the town as well taken for the use of Kilpatrick's division as on the gun-boats and transports from in Georgia. batteries on the west bank. In the artillery contest which ensued the gunboats were soon disabled, and to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy they were set on fire, as well as the transports. But the flames spread to the buildings of the commissary and quartermaster departments, which together with a large amount of stores on the levee, were totally destroyed, involving a loss to the Government of not less than a million and a half of dollars, sustained principally by the quartermaster's department. On the morning of the 5th, after directing upon the garrison a furious cannonade of an hour's duration, the enemy withdrew, crossed to the east bank above the town, and marched off in the direction of Clifton. On the same day General Schofield, with the advance of the twenty-third corps, arrived at Nashville, and being sent immediately by railroad to Johnsonville, arrived there at night, but only to find that the enemy had already disappeared. General Schofield was then directed to leave a body of troops at Johnsonville

General Thomas now found himself confronted by that army of veteran troops which under General Johnston had made such persistent opposition to the advance of General Sherman's largely superior force from Dalton to the Chattahoochee, reinforced by twelve thousand well-equipped cavalry under Forrestperhaps the boldest and ablest, as well as the most unscrupulous of the rebel cavalry officers. This army, now under Hood, consisted of about forty-five thousand infantry and from twelve to fifteen thousand cavalry. The available force of General Thomas at this time was less than half that of Hood, comprising only about twelve thousand men under General Stanley, ten thousand under General Schofield, about four thousand cavalry under General Hatch, Croxton's brigade of twenty-five hundred men, and Capron's of twelve hundred, in all about thirty thousand men. mainder of his force was stationed along the railroad to keep open communications at Chattanooga, Decatur, Huntsville, Bridgeport, Stevenson, Murfrees

The re