ast Tennessee. Mr. Lincoln had never
lost his eagerness and zeal to give assistance to the loyal
mountaineers, and had arranged with Burnside a plan of co-operation
with Rosecrans by which the former should move from Lexington, Ky.,
upon Knoxville, whilst the latter marched from Murfreesboro, Tenn.,
upon Chattanooga. This was better than the impracticable plan of
1861, which aimed at the occupation of East Tennessee before
Chattanooga had been taken, and the task was at last accomplished by
the method now used. It was by no means the best or most economical
method, which would have been to have but one strong army till
Chattanooga were firmly in our hands, and then direct a subordinate
column upon the upper Holston valley. It was utterly impossible to
keep up a line of supply for an army in East Tennessee by the wagon
roads over the mountains. The railroad through Chattanooga was
indispensable for this purpose. But Mr. Lincoln had not fully
appreciated this, and was discontented that both Buell and Rosecrans
had in turn paid little attention, as it seemed, to his desire to
make the liberation of East Tennessee the primary and immediate aim
of their campaigns. He had therefore determined to show his own
faith in Burnside, and his approval of the man, by giving him a
small but active army in the field, and to carry out his cherished
purpose by having it march directly over the Cumberland Mountains,
whilst Rosecrans was allowed to carry out the plan on which the
commanders of the Cumberland army seemed, in the President's
opinion, too stubbornly bent.

Burnside's old corps, the Ninth, was taken from the Army of the
Potomac and sent to Kentucky, and a new corps, to be called the
Twenty-third, was soon authorized, to contain the Tennessee
regiments which had been in General Morgan's command, and two
divisions made up of new regiments organized in Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois under the last call for volunteers. To these were added
several Kentucky regiments of different ages in service. General
Parke, so long Burnside's chief of staff, was to command the Ninth
Corps, and Major-General George L. Hartsuff was assigned to the
Twenty-third. In a former chapter I have spoken of Hartsuff's
abilities as a staff officer in West Virginia. [Footnote: Chap, vi.,
_ante_.] His qualities as a general officer had not been tried. He
was wounded at the beginning of the engagement at Antietam, where he
commanded a brigade in Hooker's corps. [