Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

[469] that he should have lifted the Army of the Cumber land out of the sloughs and straits in which he found it struggling; he chafed at being confined by hostile mountains and impassable rivers; he was all unused to these defensive lines.

But Thomas's artillery must be furnished with horses; and Burnside, instead of moving offensively, was himself threatened with destruction. And, what was most tantalizing of all, the opportunity, which a confident enemy had offered to his watchful antagonist, could not be seized. Bragg had dared to detach an entire corps from his army, in the very face of Grant; and Grant, beholding this blunder, could not avail himself of the chance. This galled him; he was anxious indeed for Burnside, but still more anxious lest Sherman should not arrive in time to take advantage of Bragg's foolhardiness. Every day it seemed as if Sherman must arrive; every day he feared lest Longstreet might return. Pent up behind the mountains, like a lion in its cage, he watched the weakness of his prey, almost within his grasp; and yet, chained by necessities that would not let him strike, he could only wait till those necessities were past.

Yet Sherman was doing splendidly. There was no thought of censure for him. He had steamed four hundred miles, and was now marching four hundred more, along a hostile country. Fighting, skirmishing, bridging rivers, wading creeks, climbing mountains, building railroads, the army that had taken Vicksburg hurried to the relief of its old commander; ready to come at his call, anxious to fight again under his banners: while the Army of the Cumberland, conscious of its real courage and soldierly qualities, and aware that it had never yet been able to win all