nt of his army, and the necessary preparations to assume
the offensive. Hood's army was too much shattered and crippled to
make any serious movement for some days, during which it was easy
for Thomas to prepare for battle all his troops except the cavalry,
of which latter, however, it required a longer time to complete
the remount. Indeed, Thomas could have given battle the second or
third day after Franklin with more than a fair prospect of success.

Considering the feeling of nervous anxiety which prevailed in
Washington and throughout the country at the time, possibly he
ought to have assumed the offensive on the 2d or 3d of December.
But that state of anxiety was at first unknown at Nashville, even
to General Thomas, and was never fully appreciated or understood.
No one at Nashville, so far as I am aware, shared that feeling.
We knew, or thought we knew, that Hood could do nothing, unless it
were to retreat, before we would be prepared to meet him, and that
every day's delay strengthened us far more that it possibly could
him. His operations, which were closely watched every day, indicated
no intention to retreat; hence all at Nashville awaited with
confidence the period of complete preparation which was to give us
the decisive victory.

THOMAS TO ATTACK HOOD OR RELINQUISH THE COMMAND

The anxiety felt elsewhere, especially by General Grant, was probably
due to some doubt of the wisdom of Sherman's plan of going off with
his main army before disposing of Hood, contrary to Grant's first
advice; to the discovery of Sherman's error in supposing he had
left Thomas in complete condition to cope with Hood; to some
misapprehension as to the degree in which the situation in Tennessee
had been changed by the battle of Franklin; as well as to lack of
confidence in General Thomas on account of his well-known deliberation
of thought and action.

Little was known of this state of anxiety by me, or, I believe, by
the corps commanders, until December 9, when General Thomas, calling
us together at his headquarters, informed us that he was ordered
to attack Hood at once or surrender his command (not saying to
whom), and asked our advice as to what he ought to do. One of the
officers present asked General Thomas to show us the order, which
he declined to do. This confirmed the belief which I had at first
formed that the successor named by General Grant could be no other
than myself--a belief form