his action was based on a cool
calculation, made from his intimate knowledge of Hood's character, who
had been deficient in mathematics as a cadet, and could make no accurate
computation of the time required to overcome difficulties; that Hood,
marching by a muddy country road, would arrive in front of Spring Hill
tired, sleepy, and so much later than he had calculated, that he would
defer all action until next morning. Between "shortly after daylight,"
when he started from Duck river, and 3 o'clock, when he had crossed
Rutherford's creek. Hood had ridden about ten miles--too short a
distance to tire him out, and too early in the day to become sleepy. He
then sent forward Cheatham's corps with plenty of time before night came
for Cheatham to have made a secure lodgement on the pike, or to have run
over Wagner's division, the way it was strung out, if Cleburne's attack
had been promptly followed up with anything like the vigor with which he
had jumped on Bradley's brigade. Hood's arrival in front of Spring Hill
that afternoon was clearly a contingency unlooked for by Schofield, for
it caught our army in a situation to leave no reasonable hope of escape
without dire disaster, and Schofield himself, as will appear, was
thoroughly frightened by the situation. That his after-version of the
saving merit of his cool calculation was fully accepted by the
Administration is proved by the promotion he was given, when, in fact,
his bad miscalculation was responsible for getting the army into a trap
from which it escaped through the failure of the enemy to shut the door.
Of the miracle of that escape much remains to be told. When Wagner was
coming to Spring Hill the 26th Ohio was detached from the column to
guard a country road entering the pike more than a mile southwest of
Spring Hill. Captain Kelly, of the 26th, informed me that the regiment
was driven off that evening by a line of battle so long as to extend far
beyond either flank of the 26th. That was Bate's division, and after
driving off the 26th there was nothing whatever to prevent Bate from
sweeping down the pike towards Columbia. If he had diligently obeyed
that order he would have progressed so far before Cheatham's recall
order reached him that he would have met Ruger coming to Spring Hill,
and then the cat would have been out of the bag. Bate declined to obey
Cheatham's first order because it conflicted with the order direct from
Hood, under which he was acting, and Che