198 The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War

have won a decisive victory, and the whole courseof the war in the West would have been changedmost disastrously for the Union cause. So muchgood was already achieved for the Federals in con-sequence of Grant’s assuming the offensive, slowand hampered as his movements had been.

But Bragg did more for Pemberton than merelyto send him reinforcements. On the 11th of De-cember he sent the brilliant trooper , General Nathan Forrest , with 2500 cavalry, across thestate of Tennessee to cut Grant’s communicationswith Columbus. Grant was warned of this move-ment by a telegram from Kosecrans, but Forrest’sForrest ’s blows were difficult to parry, and Grantraid. had then no cavalry commanders equal

to such a task. In one of the most effective raidsof the war, Forrest destroyed sixty miles of rail-road, besides cutting the telegraph lines so effec-tually that from the 19th to the 80th of DecemberGrant was quite isolated from the rest of theworld.

At the same time Pemberton ordered a raid onhis own account. Van Dorn, with all the cavalryin the army, some 3500 in number, rode aroundinto Grant’s rear and made a dash at HollySprings, where a great mass of supplies, valued at•fl,500,000, had been accumulated for the use ofthe Union army. The place was commanded by a