anks in his movement
up Red River, and saved that Army from defeat; of this there is no doubt.
After that, it was sent after Forrest, and it was the only command that I
know of that caught and whipped him. The left wing overtook General
Forrest at Town Creek, in 1863, in its march to Decatur in the rear of
Bragg's Army, but he did not stay long enough for us to get a good fight
out of him.

From the campaign after Forrest, General Smith's command was sent to the
Department of the Missouri to drive out Price. There I found them, in
December, 1864, when I took command of that Department, in a deplorable
condition,--without clothing, shoes, or camp equipage. Under an order from
General Grant, I sent them to Nashville, with all the force in my
department, some twenty thousand men all told, to help General Thomas, and
I sent them everything they needed to clothe and equip them. You all
remember how you were frozen in on the Mississippi, and had to take the
cars. One of the pleasantest recollections of my life is that I received
a letter from General Smith, thanking me for appreciating their condition,
and having in Nashville when they arrived, everything they needed. He said
that it was the first time they had been treated decently, and they were
thankful they had fallen into the hands of some one who appreciated them.

At the Battle of Nashville it was General Smith, with the right wing of
the Sixteenth Corps, and the troops of the Department of the Missouri,
that turned the left flank of Hood's Army, and was practically in his rear
when stopped; and I have heard many officers who were there say that if he
had been let alone he would have captured or destroyed that wing of the
Army. Thus ended the eventful career of the right wing, and its fortunes
were cast with the Army of the Cumberland in its chase after Hood.

The left wing was organized from the troops I commanded in the District of
Corinth, and had in it the old Second Division of the Army of the
Tennessee that Grant organized at Cairo, that fought at Belmont, Henry and
Donelson, Shiloh, and the two Corinths. It had on its banners, "First at
Donelson." I took command right after the Battle of Corinth, where it had
been censured by Rosecrans and praised by Grant for the part it took in
the Battle of Corinth. General Grant held us at Corinth as a protection to
his communications while the campaign against Vicksburg was going on. In a
letter to me he said he had left u