ile, so that I
was obliged to settle down and see myself put again on the defensive as
I had been a year before in west Tennessee. It would have been an easy
thing to capture Mobile at the time I proposed to go there. Having that
as a base of operations, troops could have been thrown into the interior
to operate against General Bragg's army. This would necessarily have
compelled Bragg to detach in order to meet this fire in his rear. If he
had not done this the troops from Mobile could have inflicted
inestimable damage upon much of the country from which his army and
Lee's were yet receiving their supplies. I was so much impressed with
this idea that I renewed my request later in July and again about the
1st of August, and proposed sending all the troops necessary, asking
only the assistance of the navy to protect the debarkation of troops at
or near Mobile. I also asked for a leave of absence to visit New
Orleans, particularly if my suggestion to move against Mobile should be
approved. Both requests were refused. So far as my experience with
General Halleck went it was very much easier for him to refuse a favor
than to grant one. But I did not regard this as a favor. It was simply
in line of duty, though out of my department.

The General-in-chief having decided against me, the depletion of an
army, which had won a succession of great victories, commenced, as had
been the case the year before after the fall of Corinth when the army
was sent where it would do the least good. By orders, I sent to Banks a
force of 4,000 men; returned the 9th corps to Kentucky and, when
transportation had been collected, started a division of 5,000 men to
Schofield in Missouri where Price was raiding the State. I also
detached a brigade under Ransom to Natchez, to garrison that place
permanently. This latter move was quite fortunate as to the time when
Ransom arrived there. The enemy happened to have a large number, about
5,000 head, of beef cattle there on the way from Texas to feed the
Eastern armies, and also a large amount of munitions of war which had
probably come through Texas from the Rio Grande and which were on the
way to Lee's and other armies in the East.

The troops that were left with me around Vicksburg were very busily and
unpleasantly employed in making expeditions against guerilla bands and
small detachments of cavalry which infested the interior, and in
destroying mills, bridges and rolling stock on the rail