Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[27] road to Fairfield on Garrison Creek at the beginning of the elevated plains, and on the north and north-west the roads to Murfreesborough and Nashville. These roads—which, it is true, are not properly kept in repair—also connect Shelbyville with Manchester on the east, Winchester on the south-east, and Fayetteville on the south. The roads leading to the last two towns offer good passage-ways across Elk Ridge.

Bragg has established his depots and Headquarters at Tullahoma, an important station, but for good reasons he did not wish to gather the bulk of his army in the surrounding sterile region. He posted it at some distance from Duck River. Being in a position where it can easily be supplied with stores and provisions by the railway, the army has behind it first a fertile country which offers it some resources, and then the plateau, the approaches to which can easily be defended in case of a retreat to the Tennessee River. Hardee, on the right, occupies Wartrace and extends his lines as far as Fairfield; large detachments of infantry are watching the routes which lead to Murfreesborough; farther to the north the right is covered by General Pegram, with whom Morgan, on leaving Sparta, has left a part of his cavalry. Outside of these few roads troops would not look for a way across the Barrens. Hence Bragg, without uneasiness for his right, has applied himself to the taking of defensive measures for his left, which is easier of access. Polk's eighteen thousand men are ranged en échelon along the railway from Wartrace to Shelbyville: a line with intervals composed of a succession of redans crowns the heights of Horse Mountain and rests on the bank of Duck River near Shelbyville. Wheeler, the commander-in-chief of all the cavalry, has concentrated the greater part of his force on that side. The two small divisions commanded respectively by Wharton and Martin cover the approaches to Shelbyville on the Nashville and Murfreesborough roads, at Eagleville, Rover, Unionville, and Middleton, while Forrest remains at Spring Hill, thus defending the extreme left in the direction of Columbia. In the rear of his Army Bragg has established at Tullahoma a vast camp with intrenchments which protect his depots and constitute the centre of his entire system of defence.

Two macadamized roads traverse the plateau that covers the