...g only the slenderest depot guards, and calling into the field every other effective soldier in Tennessee and Kentucky, had for the defence of his whole line 31,000 men. Speaking of the movement upon Donelson , the biographer says: To meet it, General Johnston sent a force, which he estimated moderately at 17,000 men, reserving for himself only 14,000 men to perform the more delicate task of retiring befor...