OR, A SOUTH-SIDE VIEW OF SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. BY THE AUTHOR OF "FIELD AND CAMP." CHAPTER IV. east, that flow into the Atlantic, from those of CAUSE OF THE FAILURE OF THE WESTERN the west, which find their way into the Gulf of CAMPAIGN. Mexico through that father of waters, the Mississippi. In these mountains the Ohio river also has its source, and flowing west, between the Confederate States of Virginia and Kentucky, and the Federal States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, empties into the Mississippi-thus affording, at almost every season of the year, an uninterrupted inland navigation from the Gulf of Mexico to the Before proceeding further, it will be necessary, for a clear understanding of the subject, to go back and take a brief view of the condition of affairs in what was known as the Military Department of the West, prior | to the investment of Atlanta. For this purpose we must revert to the commencement of the war, in 1861, and follow the army, at that time operating in Kentucky, in its grad-western portion of Pennsylvania, and withual retreat into Georgia. If the reader will turn to the map he will see that the States of the Confederacy are divided from those which at that time (1861) still held allegiance to the Federal Government, by the following great geographical barriers: On the East the Potomac, with its source in the mountains, and its outlet, through the Chesapeake, into the Atlantic, formed, as it may be called, the first section This is a noble stream, capable of floating on its broad bosom the united navies of the world, and being honored (?)—at least in the estimation of our Northern brethren-with having on its banks the Capital of a once free and glorious country-alas! free and glorious now no longer. Along the sources of this river, and crossing the continent in a southwestern direction, is a great chain of mountains, which divides the waters of the VOL. VI.-No. 1. 26 in a distance of less than two hundred miles of that great chain of lakes which, in part, forms the Northern boundary of the United States. That these rivers, with this great chain of mountains filling the intervening space between their sources, and thus presenting an uninterrupted line of natural obstruction, would attract the attention of the scientific soldier and engineer, must be apparent to the most superficial observer; and hence we find, at the very outset of the war, they were looked upon as offering, upon the whole, defensive features far superior to any other portion of the Confederacy. There is no truer axiom in war than that which declares, “An army, like a serpent, moves upon its belly." You may organize a million of men, if you please, drill them until their evolutions are without fault, arm them with the most perfect and destructive, (411) |