y to strike
that he felt certain of success. As a result, the ends in view were
attained. The cavalry flanking circuits made possible the driving of the
enemy from his extended position. The pursuit by a thoroughly equipped
cavalry force made possible and secured the virtual destruction of Hood's
army.

The next campaign, urged by Wilson and approved by Thomas, had for its
objective the destruction of the military storehouses and manufactories,
and the fatal crippling of the Confederacy. How complete was the success
of this second campaign the outlines already presented sufficiently
attest.

In summarizing this attempt to again direct attention to this wonderful
cavalry campaign, it may be permissible to repeat the form in which I have
heretofore set it forth in a volume (the concluding chapters of Colonel
Donn Piatt's "Life of Thomas") covering the ground of this article at much
greater length:

It should be remembered forever in the annals of war that Thomas insisted
upon waiting to remount a portion of the (cavalry) corps before he would
consent to deliver battle, and that when he did march forth against the
veteran and almost invincible infantry of Hood, strongly intrenched in his
front, it was the cavalry corps which broke through his left, and wheeling
grandly in the same direction, captured twenty-seven guns from their
redoubts on the first day, and which, continuing its movement on the
second day, enveloped and took in reverse the left and left center of the
Confederate intrenchments, and so shook their entire line as to make it a
walkover for the infantry which Thomas finally hurled against them. It was
the harrassing pursuit of Hood by the cavalry corps which, notwithstanding
the rains and sleet of midwinter and the swollen rivers, broke up and
scattered the host which had so confidently invaded Middle Tennessee only
a month before. Pausing on the banks of the Tennessee till the rough edge
of winter had passed, to gather in the distant detachments, to procure
remounts, clothing, and equipments, and to weld the growing force into a
compact and irresistible army corps of horsemen, the cavalry commander,
with the full concurrence of Thomas, the beau ideal of American soldiers,
began his final and most glorious campaign. No historian or military
critic can read the story of the operations which followed without coming
to the conclusion that they were characterized by the most remarkable
series of successes ever