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

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[206] passing between Crook and McCook, he returns on the 13th to the banks of the Tennessee on the south of Athens. General Lee, who had not yet been able to take the field, was near Muscle Shoals at the moment when Wheeler came so precipitately to seek this fording-place, and he naturally renounced the design of crossing the river alone. It was too late: the Confederate generals had illy calculated their movements and missed the opportunity of isolating Rosecrans. The Federal cavalry had need to recruit, and, there being no longer any fear of a fresh incursion by the enemy, the cavalry remained within reach of the railway guarded by Hooker's small army. On the 15th of October, Crook was established at Winchester and McCook at Bridgeport.

In another quarter Davidson has brought back to the positions occupied fifteen days before by Forrest the three brigades that have been entrusted to him. Their ranks are considerably thinned, and the effective force of this corps, which was so formidable a few weeks ago, has dwindled below that of a division. Besides, this corps has lost its commander. Forrest, smitten by Bragg, as we have said, with a virtual disgrace, was called to Mississippi by Johnston, who knew how to appreciate his rare military qualities. He was preceded by Ector's and McNair's brigades. These troops were replaced with Stevenson's division, which had been so imprudently taken away from Bragg before the battle of Murfreesborough. Bragg sends him to the banks of the Hiawassee to resume against Burnside the operations which Wheeler's expedition has suddenly interrupted. He occupies Charleston on the 19th of October, and we shall leave him there for the present.

Johnston has not the means seriously to impede Sherman's movements. A portion of his troops, scattered over a vast territory, observe the movements of McPherson, who has advanced his lines as far as Canton, Mississippi. General Lee, quartered at Tuscumbia, is too far away to meet the Fifteenth Federal corps. Chalmers, who with a few regiments has remained in the neighborhood of Grenada, endeavors to check its march. On the 11th of October he moves rapidly to the northward to cut the Memphis and Corinth Railroad: he hopes to surprise one of the trains carrying the Federal troops, and to stop the movement by destroying the road. For his objective point he selected the station