William Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid

‘ [78] the truth of the statement that Bragg was in full retreat. It has not seemed possible for me to successfully withdraw my forces from the presence of Jones, if he should be beaten back or captured. Yet, upon the receipt of your dispatch, if it were possible to get our force from there down to General Rosecrans within three or four days I should make the attempt, and shall, at the risk of being too late, order every available man in that direction. I am sure that I am disposed to give him every possible assistance. I sincerely hope that he will be able at least to check the enemy for seven or eight days, within which time I shall be able to make considerable diversion in his favor. I hope that my action will meet with the approval of the Department.’

Thus it was that Burnside failed Rosecrans.

These dispatches throw a new light upon the difficulties with which General Rosecrans contended; and as this record was open to General Sherman, it would have been just to make it prominent in connection with his severe strictures. But there is another part of the record, with which even his memory must have been charged, that, had he written with fairness, would have been produced. Though no reader of the Memoirs would suspect it, General Sherman himself, when ordered from Vicksburg to Rosecrans' relief, was more than a month late with his troops. In fact, according to the notification sent Rosecrans by Halleck of the time named at Memphis for Sherman's arrival at Chattanooga, he was seven weeks behind, his command having reached only Memphis from Vicksburg at that date. At this point General Sherman in person was delayed by severe family affliction, but this did not retard the forward movement of his troops. While his book does not indicate that he was behind time, much stress is laid upon the statement that he was ordered to repair the railroad as he advanced, and no prominence is given to the fact that a most rapid advance, as well as a repair of the railroads, was repeatedly insisted upon. But it was not until General Grant himself had reached Chattanooga, and sent back word to Sherman to ‘drop all work on the Memphis and Charleston railroad, cross the Tennessee, and hurry eastward with all possible dispatch till you meet further orders from me,’ that any signs of haste were developed in