Nashville

333

and hold Nashville , and make it a base from whichto invade Kentucky . In the latter state he hopedto find many recruits and to threaten Cincinnati ,as Kirby Smith had done two years before. Aftera victorious campaign of this sort, he might takehis army eastward through some of the gaps in theCumberland Mountains and fall upon Grant atPetersburg. Then after defeating Grant, the com-bined armies of Lee and Hood might either turnand rend Sherman, in case of his being withinreach, or else might face to the north and marchwith irresistible majesty upon the city of Washing-ton. Such were the far-reaching thoughts whichHood entertained on two October nights in bivouacin a beautiful valley near Lafayette . 1

From that point Hood moved to Gadsden , inAlabama , while Sherman followed as far as Gayles-ville. Hood felt it necessary to leave his cavalry,commanded by Wheeler, in Georgia, to watch andharass Sherman ; and this force he expected toreplace by the cavalry of Forrest, who was then inthe western part of Tennessee . On the last dayof October Hood arrived at Tuscum- jj ool j» s fatalbia, where he expected to find abun- delay at Tus-dant supplies for his northward march Cl,nll)la 'upon Nashville . But the supplies had been woe-fully delayed, and the railroad from Corinth was1 See his own account in Battles and Leaders, iv. 426, 427.