Chattanooga, Jan. 24, 1864.
. . . The excitement in the vicinity of Knoxville that
seemed to be allayed is just renewed. A despatch from General Foster says
Longstreet is pressing heavily on that place; that he has received considerable
reinforcements, but not enough, he apprehends, to warrant him in again
besieging it; that through the cowardice of the drovers a drove of three
hundred cattle had already been captured by the enemy and that he feared the
loss also of a drove of two hundred hogs, but had sent out active parties to
try to save it, and that he is drawing his forces into Knoxville and looking to
the security of his communications with Chattanooga. Now this all sounds, to
say the least, badly. With a force equal in numbers to Longstreet's, instead of
falling back he should have taken up a strong position and given Longstreet
battle. If successful it would have been the end of Longstreet in East
Tennessee, and if unsuccessful he could still have fallen back with safety to
within the defences of Knoxville and there have awaited a siege if it had been
the disposition of the enemy to make it. The talk about the cowardice of
drovers as the cause of the loss of the cattle is not a sufficient answer for
their loss. With an army so destitute and dependent for supplies from afar, it
was clearly his duty to have had the drove under the protection of a strong,
armed escort, thus insuring it against attack from the enemy. Situated as we
are here, it will be with the greatest difficulty we can relieve him. The great
number of the troops that have reenlisted (and gone home on furlough) have so
reduced the army here as to leave barely a sufficiency for local purposes. It
is really provoking when an army of sufficient force is from some unexplained
cause unable to help itself and another has to be ordered to succor it.
Somebody is to blame certain; time will show who. Had General Grant's order
been carried out this cloud, so threatening disaster in East Tennessee, would
never have gathered.
We leave here about 6 o'clock P. M. for Nashville. It may be
that I will have to go by Huntsville with orders and instructions for General
Logan. If so it will be several days before I reach Nashville. . . . General Grant has had a severe attack of
sick headache since our arrival here, but is now over it. He is himself in all
respects. He laughs at my writing you daily, wonders how you manage to read my
writing, and says he don't think I will hold out so constant and frequent a
correspondent as I have begun. . . .
SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins,
p. 390-1
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