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| Wood's Headquarters.2 |
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garrison of Nashville.
Wood's line was in advance of all others, crossing the Granny White and Hillsboroa pikes; and his Headquarters were at the elegant residence of Mrs. Ackling, between those highways, a short distance from the city.1
Thomas was now superior to Hood in the number and character of his infantry, but was yet so deficient in cavalry, that he withheld his intended
blow against his adversary for about a fortnight, that he might strengthen that arm of the service, and be well provided with means for transportation.
He expected to drive Hood, and he desired ample means for following and destroying his fugitive army.
His delay was misunderstood and misinterpreted at Washington, and even at the Headquarters of the army.
At each there was amazement and perplexity, because of Hood's audacious penetration of Tennessee to its very heart, while the fate, and even the position, of Sherman in Georgia was a hidden fact and problem.
Grant finally started from City Point for Nashville, to seek a solution of the riddle that puzzled him; but at Washington City he was met by electrographs from the West that convinced him that Thomas was “the right man in the right place,” and he returned to his quarters satisfied that all was well in Tennessee.
Hood pressed up in full strength to invest Nashville, and on the morning of the 4th of December had formed his line, with his salient on Montgomery Hill, not more than six hundred yards from Wood's, at Thomas's center.
His main line occupied the high ground on the southeast side of Brown's Creek, with his right resting on the Nolensville pike, and his left behind Richland Creek, retiring on the Hillsboroa pike, with cavalry on both flanks, extending to the river.
1 General Thomas's army, before Nashville, was composed of the Fourth Corps, commanded by General T. J. Wood, with Generals N. Kimball, W. L. Elliott, and S. Beatty as division commanders; the Twenty-third Corps, General J. M. Schofield, with Generals D. M. Couch and J. D. Cox as division commanders; detachment of the Army of the Tennessee, under General A. J. Smith, with Generals J. McArthur, K. Garrard, and J. B. Moore as division commanders; a provisional detachment under General J. B. Steedman, with Generals C. Cruft and J. F. Miller as assistants. The negro brigade was commanded by Colonel Thompson, the garrison of Nashville by General J. F. Miller, and the quartermaster's division by General J. L. Donaldson. The cavalry corps was under the command of General J. H. Wilson, assisted by Generals J. T. Croxton, Edward Hatch, R. W. Johnson, and J. T. Knipe.
2 this is from a sketch made by the writer, at sunset, early in May, 1866, when the beautiful grounds around the mansion, which had been disfigured during the war, were restored, in a great degree, to their former appearance.
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