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

[417] on steamers to assist in capturing the invaders, while Lieutenant-Commander Forrest was patroling that stream in Northern Alabama, with several gun-boats, to intercept them should they fly southward. Generals Rousseau, Steedman, Morgan, Washburne and Croxton, were now (under the direction of General Thomas, who had arrived at Nashville on the 3d of October) joined in the grand hunt for Forrest. The latter, looking out from Columbia, saw his peril, and met it as usual. Paroling the thousand prisoners he had captured, he destroyed five miles of the railroad southward from the Duck River, and then pushing across the country by way of Mount Pleasant and Lawrenceburg, he escaped over the Tennessee

Oct. 6, 1864.

at Bainbridge, with very little loss.

Thomas's Headquarters,1

While these operations were going on in Tennessee and Northern Alabama, the movements of Hood against Sherman's communications northward of the Chattahoochee, already considered,² were begun. To watch and meet Hood's troops, as his plans might be developed, Thomas ordered Croxton's cavalry brigade to patrol the line of the Tennessee River, from Decatur to Eastport. Morgan's division was moved from Athens to Chattanooga, and Rousseau's troops were concentrated at the latter place. Steedman's division was moved from Decatur to Bridgeport.

We have already considered the movements of Sherman and Hood, until) late in October, when the latter went over the Sand Mountains, westward, and threatened Decatur, and the former gave up the pursuit of his antagonist in the beautiful Chatooga Valley.³ At that point of time and circumstance, we will resume the narrative of the movements of Hood.

Decatur was an important place in connection with military movements at that time. The railway from Nashville on the north there crossed the Tennessee River, and met the one extending westward to Memphis, and eastward to Chattanooga. There General Granger was stationed with a considerable force, when Hood approached on the 26th of October, sat down before it, established a line of rifle-pits within five hundred yards of the National lines, cast up intrenchments, and threatened an assault. Two days afterward, some of Granger's troops made a sortie, gained the rear of the left of Hood's rifle-pits, drove out the occupants and captured two hundred men. On the same day a regiment of negro troops, led by Colonel Morgan, captured one of Hood's batteries and spiked the guns; and on the following day,

Oct. 29.

the third of the siege (which was only a feint to cover preparations for a more important movement), it was abandoned, and Hood went westward to Tuscumbia. That important movement