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enemy's line of communication between
Cleveland and
Dalton.
This move will be made on Monday morning. I expect
Sherman will reach
Huntsville to-day.
I have repeated orders to him to hurry forward with the Fifteenth Army Corps.
It will be noted that the point of attack thus assigned to
General Thomas, before the arrival of
Sherman, was that afterward committed to
Sherman's troops, and which in spite of splendid fighting they failed to carry.
Thus
General Grant not only believed
Thomas' men fully competent to do what was afterward assigned to
Sherman, but felt so certain of their success that he ordered the movement before
Sherman was even within supporting distance.
General Grant subsequently explained to
Halleck why the attack ordered was not made:
I ordered an attack here two weeks ago, but it was impossible to move artillery.
Now
Thomas'
chief of artillery says he has to borrow teams from
Sherman to move a part of his artillery to where it is to be used.
Sherman has used almost superhuman efforts to get up even at this time, and his force is really the only one that I can move.
Thomas can take about one gun to each battery, and can go as far with his infantry as his men can carry rations to keep them and bring them back.
I have never felt such restlessness before as I have at the fixed and immovable condition of the Army of the Cumberland.
The
Quartermaster-General states that the loss of animals here will exceed ten thousand.
Those left are scarcely able to carry themselves.
And in his formal report of these operations he thus refers to the same matter:
‘After a thorough reconnoitering of the ground however, it was deemed utterly impracticable to make the movement until Sherman could get up, because of the inadequacy of our force and the condition of the animals then at Chattanooga; and I was forced to leave Burnside for the present to contend against superior forces of the enemy, until the arrival of Sherman with his men and means of transportation.’
Sherman's troops were delayed by the heavy roads and broken bridges, so that the orders for a general attack, first
