encamped in Mississippi were confronted by an
army too powerful for them to attack.

Early autumn witnessed the enforced retirement of Buell's army to the line
of the Ohio River, while the Confederates reaped the harvests in Kentucky
and Middle Tennessee.

The tenth of October found Grant embarked upon his march southward to
Vicksburg, driving Pemberton before him. Sherman arranging for
co-operation by water, the Army of the Cumberland encamped near Nashville,
with Bragg's twice defeated army in its front, and Hindman's beaten troops
flying before the victorious divisions of Herron and Blunt from the battle
field of Prairie Grove.

East Tennessee being left comparatively free from molestation by the
abandonment of pursuit through Cumberland Gap, General Kirby Smith was at
liberty to reinforce points more strongly threatened. He had no sooner
succeeded in collecting his stragglers and reorganizing his army,
reinforcing it by several new regiments, than, in compliance with orders
from the Confederate War Department, he dispatched Stevenson's division to
the relief of Pemberton at Grenada, and McCown, with his division, to
report to Bragg at Murfreesboro.

Orders for a forward movement were issued by General Rosecrans on
Wednesday, the twenty-fourth of December, and on Christmas morning the
camps were alive with preparation. The day was spent in writing to loved
ones far away among the snow-covered hills of the great Northwest. Tattoo
found men discussing the chances of coming battle. Here and there was a
soldier giving the last finishing touch to the gleaming gun-barrel. The
surgeon, in his tent, sat before a table on which in glittering display
lay the implements of his craft. The long, keen knife, the saw, the probe,
were each in turn subjected to close inspection and carefully adjusted in
the case. Field officers paid a last visit to their faithful chargers and
exhorted grooms to feed early and not to forget to bring along an extra
feed lest perchance the following night would find the troops far in
advance of the wagons. Quartermasters, that hard-worked and
little-appreciated class of officers, toiling through the long night with
their loaded wagon trains getting into position for an orderly march;
commissaries, upon whose vigilance all depended, carrying out orders for
three days' rations in haversacks and five days' more in wagons. A busy
day was followed by a busy night. The clatter of horses' hoofs upon the
tu