r the whole trans-Alleghany region. Not dispirited
by the reverses in Virginia, the northern government remitted nothing
of its designs upon the West, but rather pushed them toward more rapid
completion. These designs were to hold the State of Kentucky by the
army under Buell, wrest from the South the possession of Tennessee and
Alabama--as a base for attack upon Georgia and cutting through to the
seaboard; and to push the army under Grant down through Mississippi to
the Gulf. These movements would not only weaken the Confederacy, by
diverting so many men, ill to be spared, to watch the various columns;
but would, moreover, wrest from it the great grain-producing and
cattle-grazing sections from which the armies were mainly fed.
Simultaneously with these a heavy force was to be massed under
McClernand in Ohio, to sweep down the Mississippi; while the weak show
of Confederate force in the states west of the river was to be crushed
before it could make head.

Such was the Federal programme; well conceived and backed by every
appliance of means, men and material. To meet it we had but a small
numerical force to defend an extensive and varied tract; and at the
Capital grave fears began to prevail that the overpowering numbers and
points of attack would crush the little armies we could muster there.

Nor was the feeling of the people rendered more easy by their
confidence in the general to whom the defense of this invaluable
section was entrusted. General Braxton Bragg--however causeless and
unjust their dictum may have been--had never been popular with the
southern masses. They regarded him as a bloodthirsty martinet, and
listened too credulously to all silly stories of his weakness and
severity that were current, in the army and out. Influenced rather by
prejudice than by any real knowledge of the man, they believed him
vain, arrogant and weak; denying him credit for whatever real
administrative ability that he possessed. The painful result of his
command was later emphasized by the pessimists, to justify their
incredulity as to his executive powers.

Besides, many people believed that General Bragg was a pet--if not a
creature of Mr. Davis; and that he was thrust into a position that
others deserved far more, when he succeeded Beauregard in command of
the army of the West.

The latter officer had, after the evacuation of Corinth, been compelled
to retire by ill health; and Bragg was soon sent to take his place,
with