ad floated eight miles down the river and there were
joined by a similar body marching over land on the north side. This
formidable array was crossed over to the south side and moved in the
direction of our rear and our line of communication under cover of the
hills and mountain ridges. Jenkins' and McLaw's Divisions were ordered
to intercept them and drive them off. A night attack was ordered, but
by some misunderstanding or disobedience of orders, this movement
on the part of the Confederates miscarried, and was abandoned; not,
however, until General Bratton, of Jenkins' old Brigade, came up and
attacked the rear guard with such vigor that the enemy was glad enough
to get away, leaving their wounded and dead upon the field. No further
movements were made against the army until after our removal to East
Tennessee.

About the first of November orders were issued for the transfer of
Longstreet to begin, and on the 5th and 6th the greater part of his
army was embarked on hastily constructed trains at Tyner's Station,
some five or six miles out on the E.T. & K.R.R. The horses, artillery,
and wagon trains took the dirt road to Sweetwater, in the Sweetwater
Valley, one of the most fertile regions in East Tennessee.

Longstreet's command consisted of Kershaw's (South Carolina), Bryan's
and Wofford's (Georgia), and Humphreys' (Mississippi) Brigades, under
Major General McLaws; Anderson's (Georgia), Jenkins' (South Carolina),
Law's (Alabama), Robertson's (Arkansas and Texas), and Benning's
(Georgia) Brigades, under Brigadier General M. Jenkins, commanding
division; two batteries of artillery, under General Alexander; and
four brigades of cavalry, under Major General Wheeler.

General Hood had been so desperately wounded at Chickamauga, that
it was thought he could never return to the army; but he had won a
glorious name, the prestige of which the war department thought of too
much value to be lost, but to be used afterwards so disastrously in
the campaign through Middle Tennessee. General Hood was, no doubt,
an able, resolute, and indefatigable commander, although meteoric,
something on the order of Charles, the "Madman of the North;" but
his experience did not warrant the department in placing him in the
command of an expedition to undertake the impossible--the defeat of
an overwhelming army, behind breastworks, in the heart of its own
country.

The movement of Longstreet to East Tennessee and Hood through Middle
Tennesse