Chapter XI
- The correspondence with General Thomas previous to the battle of Franklin -- the Untenable position at Pulaski -- available troops which were not sent to the front -- correspondence with General Thomas -- instructions usually received too late -- advantage of delaying the retreat from Duck River -- no serious danger at Spring Hill -- General Thomas hoping that Hood might be delayed for three days at Franklin.
I will now add to the foregoing sketch what seems to me necessary to a full understanding of the operations preceding and immediately following the battle of Franklin, referring briefly, as necessary to an exact understanding of some things that occurred, to the relation in which I stood to General Thomas. He was my senior by thirteen years as a graduate of the Military Academy, where I had known him well as my highly respected instructor. He had won high distinction in Mexico, and had been twice brevetted for gallant services in that war. He had seen far more service in the field than I had, and in much larger commands, though almost always under the immediate command of a superior— Buell, Rosecrans, and Sherman. Even in the Atlanta campaign, then recently ended, his command was nearly five times as large as mine. In 1864 he had already become a brigadier-general in the regular army, having risen to that rank by regular stages, while I was only a captain thirty-three years of age. It will also be necessary
