hich Hood's advance from Florence had rendered of no further
consequence at that time. But the 7000 men available at Chattanooga
ought unquestionably to have been sent to Columbia, or at least
moved up to Nashville or Franklin, where they could "join the main
force," as suggested in my despatch of November 24 to Thomas,( 6)
instead of being left in Chattanooga "to threaten enemy in rear."( 7)
As suggested in my despatch of November 24, R. S. Granger's force
and others along the railroad south of Duck River, as well as
Steedman's, might have joined the main force at Columbia, if orders
had been given in time, thus increasing the army in the field by
fully 10,000 men.

If R. S. Granger's force had been left at Decatur, it would have
drawn off from Hood's invading army at least an equal force to
guard his bridges at Florence, or else would have destroyed those
bridges and cut off his retreat after the battle of Nashville.
This was practically what had been suggested by Sherman in his
instructions to Thomas. But the withdrawal of Granger's troops
and their detention at Murfreesboro', instead of sending them to
"join the main force," served no good purpose at the time, and
prevented their use in the capture of Hood's defeated and retreating
troops. The failure to make this timely concentration was the one
great fault in Thomas's action, instead of his delay in attacking
at Nashville, for which he was so much criticized. But Hood's
repulse at Franklin had made this previous mistake a matter of past
history, and hence it was lost sight of in view of the imminent
danger afterward supposed to exist at Nashville, just as the
brilliant victory at Nashville was accepted as demonstrating the
wisdom of all that had gone before, even including Sherman's division
of his army between himself and Thomas before his march to the sea.
Such is the logic of contemporaneous military history!

In my long conversations with General Grant on the steamer _Rhode
Island_ in January, 1865, I explained to him fully the error into
which he had been led in respect to Thomas's action or non-action
at Nashville in December, and he seemed to be perfectly satisfied
on that point. But he did not ask me anything about what had
occurred before the battle of Franklin, and hence I did not tell
him anything.

In connection with the action of General Thomas previous to the
battle of Franklin, the following instructions from General Sherman
on October 31