Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

In the lull of operations incident to the position of his army at Tupelo, after the successful evacuation of Corinth, Gen. Beauregard had sought to recuperate his health by a short respite from duty. He turned over the command to Gen. Bragg, with instructions looking to the preparation of the army for the field at once on his return, which he anticipated would be in three weeks. But no sooner had President Davis heard of this step, than he telegraphed Gen. Bragg to assume permanent command-taking the opportunity to inflict upon Gen. Beauregard a mark of his displeasure, and in fact to encourage the curious report in Richmond that he had become insane, and was no longer fitted for a command.

Gen. Bragg's expedition was preceded by extended raids of Morgan and Forrest into Kentucky and Tennessee. The former, who had at first attracted attention as a captain of irregular cavalry, and was now a brigadier-general in the Confederate service, in the month of July, with a force numbering less than two entire regiments of cavalry, penetrated the State of Kentucky, passed through seventeen towns, destroyed millions of dollars worth of United States property, and returned to Tennessee with a loss in all his engagements of not more than ninety men in killed, wounded, and missing.

The campaign of Gen. Bragg was to take place amid intricate and formidable combinations of the enemy. In the country west of the Alleghany the Federal Government had prepared an extensive programme of operations. In the south, Gen. Butler occupied New Orleans, whilst Admirals Farragut and Porter guarded the Lower Mississippi, and bombarded Vicksburg. Commanding the Army of Tennessee, in the neighbourhood of Corinth, with his advance as far south as Holly Springs and his right at Memphis, was Gen. Grant, with Gens. Sherman, Rosecrans, and McClernand under his command. Further east was the Federal Gen. Mitchell, between Corinth and Chattanooga, opposed to a small force under Gen. Adams; whilst threatening Eastern Tennessee, was Buell's army, and occupying Cumberland Gap, was Gen. Morgan.

Early in August four divisions of Bragg's command were concentrated near Chattanooga, and awaited the arrival of the artillery, cavalry, and baggage train, which necessarily moved across the country by land. A conference was held here with Gen. Kirby Smith, commanding the Department of East Tennessee; and it was soon determined that all his force should be used to operate upon the enemy's left at Cumberland Gap, and he was requested to confer with Brig.-Gen. Humphrey Marshall, commanding in Southwestern Virginia, with whom he was already in correspondence, to secure his co-operation also in the movement.

After returning to Knoxville, Gen. Smith asked for further assistance