t had withstood every device of the enemy.

And so the fall wore into winter; and the news from General Hood's
lines only added to the gloom. After the truce of ten days, following
the fall of Atlanta, Hood had moved around and gotten almost in
Sherman's rear. For a moment there was great exultation, for it was
believed he would destroy the enemy's communications and then attack
him, or force an attack on ground of his own choosing. Great was the
astonishment and great the disappointment, when Hood moved rapidly to
Dalton and thence into Alabama, leaving the whole country south of
Virginia entirely open, defenseless, and at Sherman's mercy.

And, as usual, in moments of general distress, Mr. Davis was blamed for
the move. He had, it was said, removed Joe Johnston at the very moment
his patient sagacity was to bear its fruits; he had been in Hood's camp
and had of course planned this campaign--a wilder and more disastrous
one than the detachment of Longstreet, for Knoxville. Whosesoever may
have been the plan, and whatever may have been its ultimate object, it
failed utterly in diverting Sherman from the swoop for which he had so
long hovered. For, while the small bulwark of Georgia was removed--and
sent in Quixotic joust against distant windmills--the threatening
force, relieved from all restraint, and fearing no want of supplies in
her fertile fields, pressed down, "Marching thro' Georgia."

Meantime Hood, with no more serious opposition than an occasional
skirmish, crossed the Tennessee at Florence, about the middle of
November. The enemy fell back before him, toward Nashville, until it
seemed as if his intent was to draw Hood further and further away from
the _real_ point of action--Sherman's advance. On the 30th of November,
however, Thomas made a stand at Franklin; and then resulted a terrific
battle, in which the Confederates held the field, with the loss of
one-third of the army. Six of our generals lay amid their gallant dead
on that unhappy field; seven more were disabled by wounds, and one was
a prisoner. The enemy's loss was stated at far less than ours; and he
retired into Nashville, to which place our army laid siege on the 1st
of December.

Weakened by the long march and more by the terrible losses of Franklin;
ill-supplied and half-fed, Hood's army was compelled to rely upon the
enemy's want of supplies driving him out. On the 15th of December he
attacked our whole line, so furiously as to break it at