Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 2.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

Meanwhile, Grant's march in pursuit of Pemberton caused serious alarms to Mr. Davis and his advisers. They did not agree as to the means to be used for assisting Pemberton. Johnston, rightly believing, as we think, that the greatest danger to the Confederacy would be the defeat of Bragg, was opposed to any attempt to weaken his army, and had asked, as we have before said, that a portion of the army of Arkansas, which unfortunately was not under his command, should be sent to the relief of Pemberton. Mr. Davis thought otherwise. Holmes, at Little Rock, received, instead of formal instructions, a simple recommendation to detach a part of his forces eastward, and the President, interfering in person, took from Bragg's command Stevenson's division and one of McCown's brigades, amounting to about nine thousand men, who were despatched to Vicksburg. These troops did not reach Pemberton for more than three weeks, when Grant had already resumed his march toward Memphis; and it may be affirmed, without exaggeration, that if these troops, instead of moving in this manner, had been on the battle-field of Murfreesborough, the issue of that contest would have been very different from what it was. The news of their departure, which was soon communicated to Rosecrans, contributed, no doubt, to induce the latter general to undertake shortly after the campaign of which we shall presently give a narrative.

The first care of the Confederates was to conceal their weakness, to menace Grant if possible and to prevent Rosecrans at all hazards from sending him reinforcements; in short, in the event of his invading Middle Tennessee, the campaign, although strictly defensive, was nevertheless to be preluded by cavalry raids. It was necessary to strike at the communication of the army of the Ohio, so as to paralyze it if victorious, and harass its retreat if vanquished. Forrest and Morgan placed themselves once more in the saddle. The former was to operate at first as near Nashville as possible, and thence to proceed into Western Tennessee to destroy the railroads by which supplies were obtained for the army, at the head of which Grant had just left Corinth, to penetrate into the South. In the mean while, Bragg, for the third