William Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid

And so, considering the bearings which the battle of Nashville had upon Sherman's campaign to the sea, his best friends may well be surprised to find his book stained by unjust reflections upon Thomas.

The following extracts from the Memoirs indicate the treatment which this branch of the subject receives:

As soon as the army had reached Savannah, and had opened communication with the fleet, I endeavored to ascertain what had transpired in Tennessee since our departure. * * * *

As before described, General Hood had three full corps of infantry—S. D. Lee's, A. P. Stewart's, and Cheatham's—at Florence, Alabama, with Forrest's corps of cavalry, numbering in the aggregate about forty-five thousand men. General Thomas was in Nashville, Tennessee, quietly engaged in reorganizing his army out of the somewhat broken forces at his disposal. He had posted his only two regular corps—the Fourth and Twenty-third—under the general command of Major-General J. M. Schofield, at Pulaski, directly in front of Florence, with the three brigades of cavalry (Hatch, Croxton, and Capron), commanded by Major-General Wilson, watching closely for Hood's initiative.

This force aggregated about thirty thousand men, was therefore inferior to the enemy; and General Schofield was instructed, in case the enemy made a general advance, to fall back slowly toward Nashville, fighting till he should be reenforced by General Thomas in person. * * * *

Meantime General Thomas had organized the employs of the quartermaster's department into a corps, commanded by the Chief-Quartermaster, General J. L. Donaldson, and placed them in the fortifications of Nashville, under the general direction of Major-General Z. B. Tower, now of the United States Engineers. He had also received the two veteran divisions of the Sixteenth Corps, under General A. J. Smith, long absent and long expected, and he had drawn from Chattanooga and Decatur (Alabama), the divisions of Steedman and of R. S. Granger.

‘These, with General Schofield's army, and about ten thousand good cavalry, under General J. H. Wilson, constituted a strong army, capable, not only of defending Nashville, but of beating Hood in the open field. Yet Thomas remained inside of Nashville, seemingly passive, until General Hood had closed upon him and had intrenched his position. * * * * At that time the weather was cold and sleety, the ground was covered with ice and snow, and both parties for a time rested on the defensive. Thus matters stood at Nashville, while we were closing down on Savannah, in the early part of December, 1864; and the country, as well as General Grant, was ’