Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/539

 186s] The Confederates invade Kentucky. 507 enemy to oppose his progress, he reached that city and occupied it at the end of July, while Buell was still advancing slowly through middle Tennessee. By the end of August, 1862, Bragg had gathered an army of 30,000 men, crossed the Tennessee, and after several feints, started on a rapid march northward to invade Kentucky a movement dictated largely by the expectation, to which the Confederates clung with vain tenacity, that that State, as soon as it could be relieved from Federal domination, would unite its fortunes with the South. Buell, though on the alert, did not immediately ascertain his antagonist's intention, but perceived the full import of the movement when he also learned that the enemy had thrown a column of 12,000 through Cumberland Gap, into eastern Kentucky, threatening Cincinnati. Of the two armies, Bragg's was a rather shorter distance from Louisville ; and during September there ensued an exciting race between the two armies to reach that city. It is conceded that the Confederates would have arrived first, but for the fact that Bragg had to effect a junction with Kirby Smith, who had come through Cumberland Gap; and that further delay was caused by an absurd ceremonial at Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, on October 4, when a provisional Confederate governor for that State was inaugurated. His official honours were of short duration. The reading of his inaugural address was interrupted by the booming of cannon and the rush of his hearers to take their places in the ranks. Four days later, on October 8, 1862, a battle occurred between the armies of Buell and Bragg at Perryville, which, though indecisive, had the effect of inducing the Confederate general to retreat. BuelTs slow eastward march, and the retirement to Louisville to which Bragg had driven him, were not wholly redeemed by his indecisive success at Perryville, especially as he acknowledged in a letter to Halleck that he could not bring his men to equal the enemy in marching and fighting. On October 24, 1862, Buell was somewhat unjustly superseded by General Rosecrans, who had a few weeks before gained under Grant the defensive victory at Corinth. Rosecrans, however, proved during the next three months as unable to perform impossibilities as Buell had been. Bragg, posted at Murfreesborough, held Rosecrans in check at Nashville, where the latter was occupied in gathering supplies and accumulating cavalry to stop the continual and daring raids of the Confederate riders. Without supplies and with his communications threatened, he could not move. This discouraging state of affairs lasted until Christmas, 1862, when suddenly Rosecrans, seeing his opportunity, marched against Bragg, and joined battle with him at Murfreesborough on the night of December 30. An almost identical plan had been adopted by both commanders. Each army was to stand fast with its own right, and throw the whole weight of its left on the antagonist's right. A fierce battle raged during the whole of December 31, and at nightfall Bragg telegraphed en. xv.