Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[131] Monroe, saying trains of cars had been heard running night and day for thirty-six hours on the Petersburg and Richmond railway, indicating the movement of troops; and the General-in-Chief was inclined to believe that a movement against Norfolk, similar to that in the spring,¹ was about to be made in favor of Lee, the Confederates hoping thereby to draw off some of the troops from Meade. But this suspicion was dispelled by another dispatch from General Foster the next day,

Sept. 14, 1863.

bearing a report that Longstreet's corps was passing southward into North Carolina. Then Halleck directed Meade to ascertain the truth or falsity of the latter report, when it was found to be true, as we have observed.² Meanwhile Halleck had ordered Burnside to move down and connect with Rosecrans, and directed General Hurlbut, at Memphis, to send all of his available force to Corinth and Tuscumbia, to operate against Bragg, should he attempt the anticipated flank movement, and, if necessary, to ask Grant or Sherman, at Vicksburg, for re-enforcements. He also telegraphed to the commander at Vicksburg to send all available forces to the line of the Tennessee River.³ Similar orders were sent to Schofield, in Missouri, and Pope, in the Northwestern Department; and the commanders in Ohio and Kentucky were ordered to make every exertion to secure Rosecrans's communications. It was determined that Bragg should not recross the Tennessee River, and that the redeemed commonwealths of Kentucky and Tennessee should not be again subjected to Confederate rule.

The Army of the Cumberland was now the center of absorbing interest to the Government and to the loyal people. Bragg's was of like interest to the Conspirators and their friends, and they spared no effort, fair or foul, to give him strength sufficient to drive Rosecrans back toward the Cumberland or capture his army. Buckner, as we have seen, was ordered to join him. Johnston sent him a strong brigade from Mississippi, under General Walker, and the thousands of prisoners paroled by Grant and Banks at Vicksburg⁴ and Port Hudson,⁵ who were falsely declared by the Confederate authorities to be exchanged, and were released from parole, were, in shameful violation of the terms of the surrender, and the usages of civilized nations, sent to Bragg to swell his ranks, while every man that it was possible to draw from Georgia and Alabama by a merciless conscription, was mustered into the service to guard bridges, depots, &c., so that every veteran might engage in battle. In this way Bragg was rapidly gathering a large force in front of Pigeon Mountain, near Lafayette, while Longstreet was making his way up from Atlanta,⁶ to swell the volume of the Confederate army to full eighty thousand men.

Deceived by Bragg's movements — uninformed of the fact that Lee had sent troops from Virginia to re-enforce him, impressed with the belief that he was retreating toward Rome, and ambitious of winning renown by capturing his foe, or driving him in confusion to the Gulf — Rosecrans, instead of concentrating his forces at Chattanooga, and achieving a great as well as