Today in History:

585 Series I Volume XXIII-II Serial 35 - Tullahoma Campaign Part II

Page 585 Chapter XXXV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.

DISTRICT OF INDIANA AND MICHIGAN.

Brigadier General ORLANDO B. WILLCOX.

63rd Indiana, 2nd Battalion, Captain Henry Tindall.

71st Indiana, Lieutenant Colonel Courtland C. Matson.

1st Michigan Sharpshooters, Colonel Charles V. DeLand.

3rd Indiana Cavalry, Companies L and M, Captain Oliver M. Powers.

1st Indiana Artillery (recruits), Captain Isaac C. hendricks.

23rd Indiana Battery, Captain James H. Myers.

12th Michigan Battery, Captain Edward G. Hillier.

Exchanged and paroled men, Captain David W. Hamilton.

NEWPORT BARRACKS, KY., AND DEPORT PRISONERS OF WAR.

Newport Barracks, Ky.

Field staff and band and permanent party and recruits, Lieutenant Colonel Seth Eastman.

Sandusky, Ohio.

Hoffman's (Ohio) battalion, Major William S. Pierson.

PRIVATE.] HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND,

Winchester, August 1, 1863.

[General H. W. HALLECK]

GENERAL: I thank you for your notes of the 24th and 25th instant [ultimo], and for your support and confidence hitherto. These letters relieve my mind from a growing apprehension that the injustice which I have experienced from the War Department was extending to you. But as my ambition is something like your own-to discharge my duty to God and our country-I say to you frankly that whenever the Government can replace me by a commander in whom they have more confidence, they ought to do so, and take the responsibility of the result. Meanwhile let me call your attention to the conditions of the problem before this army:

1st. Our base at Louisville is 264 miles distant from our present position

2nd. We are 83 miles from our principal depot-Nashville.

3rd. We must transport all our subsistence, our clothing, camp and garrison equipage, wagons, animals, ammunition, and most of our forage over these distance by rail.

4th. We have before us 60 or 70 miles of barren mountain country, destitute of forage and subsistence, traversed by a few difficult roads, over which to advance.

5th. We have to cross the difficult defile of the Tennessee, a river from 600 to 1,000 yards wide, in the face of powerful enemy, and maneuver or fight him from an entrenched position, in a mountainous country with several lines of retreat; the nearest points of this position being from 26 to 45 miles from our railroad, over mountains.

6th. To advance in the face of these obstacles is not the only nor even the most important point in the problem. We must so advance as never to recede. The citizens say, and not without justice, "Whip our armies, and then, when we no longer fear their return to power, we will show you that we are satisfied to be in the Union; but until you do that, we are not safe from proscription."

7th. Not only so, but this must be done in view of the possibility of Joe Johnston joining Bragg.


Page 585 Chapter XXXV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.