vailable active force into one army, so as to move against the enemy with the greatest possible force, no matter what the enemy might do. With the exception of those 7000 men belonging to Sherman's column, Thomas had for necessary garrisons and railroad guards essentially the same number of men as had been employed in that service all the preceding summer,—no more and no less,—and the necessity for that service had not been very much diminished, except at and about Decatur, Stevenson, and Tullahoma, which Hood's advance from Florence had rendered of no further consequence at that time.
But the 7000 men available at Chattanooga ought unquestionably to have been sent to Columbia, or at least moved up to Nashville or Franklin, where they could join the main force, as suggested in my despatch of November 24 to Thomas,
War Records, Vol.
XLV, part i, p. 1017. instead of being left at Chattanooga to threaten enemy in rear.
Thomas to Steedman, November 25: War Records, Vol.
XLV, par
f the Atlanta campaign, 162; reports to Sherman, 164; marches toward Savannah, 165; ordered to Tullahoma, 165; ordered to Johnsonville, 165, 166, 288-290; ordered to command at Pulaski, 165, 166; comle of Jonesboroa, 157, 158; courage, 158; ordered to reinforce Thomas, 158, 164, 317, 322 ; at Tullahoma, 164; ordered to Pulaski, 165; meeting with S. at Pulaski, 166 ; telegram from Thomas, Nov. 13and Franklin, 279; at Pulaski, 252; telegram from Thomas, Nov. 8, 1864, 284, 290; marches from Tullahoma to Pulaski, 288; ordered to tight Hood at Pulaski or Columbia, 290; at Athens, Tenn., 319
S190-199; 206-208, 225, 284, 285, 290, 307, 308, 315, 319-322, 325, 326, 330, 344; orders S. to Tullahoma and Pulaski, 165-167; orders S. to Nashville, 165; faults in his instructions to S., 166, 167;
Troy, N. Y., burial of Gen. Thomas at, 429
Tuileries, the, S.'s presentation at, 392
Tullahoma, Tenn., Stanley at, 164; S. ordered to, 165; necessity for railroad guards at, 197; S. ordered to