William Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid

[21] information, under strong obligations to correctly present all matters of which he wrote, he was thus peculiarly bound to treat General Buell with common fairness. But in the above extract he wholly ignores the fact that after he left Kentucky, General Buell had organized and made efficient the Army of the Ohio, which, from that time forward, under Buell, Rosecrans, and Thomas, held high rank among the armies of the Union. A portion of it under General Buell's directions and the immediate command of General Thomas, had broken the Confederate right at Mill Springs, killed the commander of its army, captured its fortified camp, with all its artillery, several thousand stand of small arms, transportation, and stores, and there achieved a victory which at the time was regarded by the nation as a most important one. It was the Western Bull Run for the Confederacy. General Thomas, in his report upon the battle, thus speaks of the captures:

On reaching the intrenchments we found that the enemy had abandoned every thing and retired during the night. Twelve pieces of artillery, with their caissons packed with ammunition, one battery wagon and two forges, a large amount of small arms, mostly the old flint-lock muskets, and ammunition for the same, one hundred and fifty or sixty wagons, and upward of one thousand of horses and mules, a large amount of commissary stores, intrenching tools, and camp and garrison equipage, fell into our hands. A correct Zzz***t of all the captured property will be forwarded as soon as it can be made Zzz*** and the property secured.

The steam and ferry-boats having been burned by the enemy on their retreat, it was found impossible to cross the river and pursue them; besides, their command was completely demoralized, and retreated with great haste and in all directions, making their capture in any numbers quite doubtful if pursued.

Besides this, General Buell had contributed a considerable ***rce to aid General Grant in the movement on Fort Donelson, and Bowling Green was evacuted in the face of an advance upon it by General Buell, and before Fort Donelson had fallen.

But whether any ‘substantial progress’ had been made by