John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[265] if our forces had remained on the ground, it is the opinion of General Thomas, as well as of many others less judicious and reserved than he, that the enemy must have retreated. But Thomas was not sure that he could get up supplies of ammunition in season, and retired accordingly.

Our loss in this battle was about fourteen thousand killed, wounded, and missing, and forty pieces of artillery. But we repulsed the enemy even after one-half our line of battle was dissolved, and saved Chattanooga. The conduct of McCook and Crittenden in leaving their commands is to be investigated by a court of inquiry, and the order relieving them from command and consolidating the two corps (now together about fifteen thousand strong) into one under Granger is now on its way here from Washington.

I should also tell you that General Rosecrans came to Chattanooga after the rout of the left, and consequently bore no part; in the glory of the afternoon's battle. He seems in consequence to have lost some of his great popularity with the soldiers, whose idol is now very naturally the man who saved them, and indeed saved us all, Thomas. For my own part, I confess I share their feeling. I know no other man whose composition and character are so much like those of Washington; he is at once an elegant gentleman and a heroic soldier.

But I shall let my pen run on in a protracted scrawl which you will find it very difficult to read, I fear. I must tell you that I am charmed with Porter, and that some of us are trying to make him, or have him made, a colonel. As for the general condition of this army, I must write you another time. There is much to say about it. But at the bottom it is essentially the same sort of an army as that of the Tennessee.

Some of your troops will now come this way, of course. I wish it were possible for you to come with them. This is a much more difficult country to campaign in than Louisiana and Mississippi. Here it is all mountain warfare, to be waged over high ridges with few passes and in narrow valleys. It is a most picturesque region, rich in minerals, but of little worth for agriculture.