General: I have delayed writing to you for several days in hopes of getting some favorable news from the South-west.
The news received to-day, however, is unfavorable, it being stated that
Price is making a stand near
Springfield, and that all our available forces will be required to dislodge and drive him out.
My last advices from
Columbus represent that the enemy has about twenty-two thousand men there.
I have only about fifteen thousand at
Cairo,
Fort Holt, and
Paducah, and after leaving guards at these places I could not send into the field over ten or eleven thousand.
Moreover, many of these are very imperfectly armed.
Under these circumstances, it would be madness for me to attempt any serious operation against
Camp Beauregard or
Columbus.
Probably, in the course of a few weeks, I will be able to send additional troops to
Cairo and
Paducah to cooperate with you, but at present it is impossible; and it seems to me that, if you deem such cooperation necessary to your success, your movement on
Bowling Green should be delayed.
I know nothing of the plan of campaign, never having received any information on the subject; but it strikes me that to operate from
Louisville and
Paducah, or
Cairo, against an enemy at
Bowling Green, is a plain case of exterior lines, like that of
McDowell and
Patterson, which, unless
each of the exterior columns is superior to the enemy, leads to disaster ninety-nine times in a hundred.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
