John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[274] to believe him of sound mind. His imbecility appears to be contagious, and it is difficult for any one to get anything done;... and if the army is finally obliged to retreat, the probability is that it will fall back like a rabble, leaving its artillery, and protected only by the river behind it. If, on the other hand, we regain control of the river and keep it, subsistence and forage can be got here, and we may escape with no worse misfortune than the loss of twelve thousand animals.

This was the last of Dana's despatches for that period. It will be observed that they were written from hour to hour and gave an exact account of events as they appeared to him at the time. What is more, they had thoroughly aroused the government and caused it to put forth its best efforts to save Chattanooga and the army which had been shut up and beleaguered within its fortifications. In addition to these despatches Dana also wrote letters from time to time to the Secretary of War, but as they have not been published in the Official Records it is probable that they were considered as private and confidential. Dana himself kept no copies, and if the originals are in existence they will probably be found among the private papers and correspondence of Stanton.

In connection with this subject it may be well to call attention to the fact that long after the campaigns of Chickamauga and Chattanooga were closed, General Rosecrans and his friends set up the claim that the battle of Chickamauga was fought for the primary purpose of making good his hold on Chattanooga, which had been the principal objective of the campaign from the first, and that after his army had occupied that place and come so near being forced by starvation to retreat from it, he had formed a definite plan for shortening his supply line by opening the river and the Lookout Valley to Bridgeport. This view of the case is in no way supported by Dana's despatches. While they mention the fact that Rosecrans recognized the necessity