Besides, these same facilities and their
accompaniments render Southern society a really vital and sensitive
thing, so that a wound in some vital part, as Vicksburg or Chattanooga,
is felt to the remotest ends of Secessia. It will not require
extermination of all the members; a few mere such wounds, and the
rebellious creature will have to yield.
The Tennessee River enabled us to drive the enemy out of Western
Tennessee and Northern Mississippi and Alabama. By means of the
Mississippi River we have cut away a considerable limb of the
'confederacy,' and we believe it can never be restored. Nashville has
become a depot of supplies for the army of the Cumberland, because of
the Cumberland River and the railroad to the Ohio River.
When we advanced from Murfreesboro', on the 24th of June last, the rains
fell almost incessantly, and the roads became at length really
impassable. We were at Tullahoma and beyond it, on short rations. Had
there been no means of transportation other than the army wagon and the
common road, it is doubtful whether, under the circumstances, General
Rosecrans could have held his advanced position so easily won. When some
of the teams could not draw empty wagons back to Murfreesboro', it is
not likely that such means of transportation would have been sufficient
for the subsistence of our army in and around Tullahoma.
Pages:
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91