Chapter 43:
- General Hood desires General Beauregard to visit the Army of Tennessee. -- despatches Concefning General Cheatham. -- General Beauregard's Inabil— ity to go to General Hood's assistance. -- the disaster at Nashville. -- General Beauregard's great anxiety. -- he is again urged to go to the West. -- he telegraphs the War Department for authority to place General Taylor in command of the Army of Tennessee, if necessary. -- the War Department approves. -- General Beauregard starts for Corinth. -- his instructions to General Hardee. -- Reaches Macon on the 6th of January. -- Confers with General Cobb. -- suggests advisability of Restoring General J. E. Johnston to his former command. -- despatch from General Hood stating that the Army had recrossed the Tennessee River. -- he again calls on General Beauregard. -- urges one hundred days Furlough for the Trans -- Mississippi troops. -- the idea disapproved by the War Department and by General Beauregard. -- troops from the Army of Tennessee sent to the assistance of General Hardee. -- General S. D. Lee's Corps, under Stevenson, goes First. -- shattered condition of the Army. -- General Hood asks to be relieved of his command. -- Lieut.-General Taylor appointed in his Stead. -- General Hood's farewell circular to his troops. -- General Taylor assumes command. -- General Beauregard visits Mobile January 21st. -- he Inspects all the works. -- leaves for Augusta. -- the enemy believed to be advancing on that City. -- General Beauregard gives his attention to all the threatened points of his vast Department.
Just before the battle of Nashville, which began on the 15th of December, and ended on the 16th, General Hood expressed the wish that General Beauregard should visit the Army of Tennessee, if he could.1 This was proof sufficient that matters were not going on satisfactorily in that quarter, for at no previous time had General Hood evinced the least desire to have General Beauregard with him or his army. A few days before the following telegram, in cipher, had also been forwarded to General Beauregard, but it was not received until on or about the 15th at Charleston:
