w Orleans, and
this intersected at Jackson, Mississippi, another road running east, and
which needed only a connecting link between Selma and Montgomery,
Alabama, to make it also a through route to the Atlantic States. To
destroy the junction at Humboldt would cut off railway connection with
Columbus. To destroy the junction at Corinth would cut off connection
with the east. A little eastwardly of Corinth, near Eastport, was a
considerable railroad bridge over Bear Creek. General Halleck's first
step, therefore, was to break these railway connections, and as General
A.S. Johnston was falling back southwardly, it became doubly important
to sever these connections for the purpose of preventing a conjunction
of the forces under Johnston and Beauregard. Lieutenant-Commander Phelps
had gone up to Florence, at the foot of Muscle Shoals, immediately after
the surrender of Fort Henry, without difficulty. An expedition up the
Tennessee, to send out strong, light parties, suggested itself as the
natural means of accomplishing the first step. General Halleck proposed
to accomplish this by his lieutenants before taking the field in person.

Halleck was sedate, deliberate, cautious. He had written a book on
strategy and logistics, and his attention appeared sometimes to be
distracted from the actual conditions under which the present military
operations were to be conducted by his retrospective reference to the
rules which he had announced. Grant, under his extremely quiet demeanor,
was full of restless activity. His purpose seemed to be to strike and
overcome the enemy without waiting; to use whatever seemed the best
means at hand; ready at all times to change for better means if they
could be found; but never to cease striking. Halleck was worried by
being jogged to new enterprises, but heartily supported them when once
begun. C.F. Smith had a brusque manner, but a warm heart. He was direct
and honest as a child. He seemed impetuous, but his outburst was a rush
of controlled power. He was a thorough soldier, an enthusiast in his
profession, the soul of honor, the type of discipline. His commanding
officer was to him embodied law; it would have been impossible for him
to conceive that his duty and subordination could in any way be affected
by the fact that his pupil in the Military Academy had become his
commander.

General Grant, being commander of the Military District of Western
Tennessee, with limits undefined, sent General C.