Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/259

Rh tion of his army. The Confederate forces had now acquired an advantage which it appears was lost by the detaching of Longstreet on an expedition to drive Burnside from Knoxville; and perhaps also by the neglect of an opportunity for making a united bold advance into Tennessee. At the time that Bragg's forces were thus weakened by the absence of Longstreet and were held as besiegers of Chattanooga in the lines along Missionary ridge and Lookout mountain, Federal reinforcements drawn from Virginia and Tennessee in large numbers were hurried to the relief of Rosecrans. General Grant was also ordered to take command and Rosecrans was relieved.

About the middle of November the Federal army had been increased to 80,000 men, nearly doubling the force of Bragg, and inspired with confidence by the arrival of a new commander. Confiding in this force and appreciating the value of a quick blow while Longstreet was away, General Grant moved against Bragg, and on November 25th drove him from Lookout mountain and Missionary ridge to a new position near Dalton, in Georgia. This much accomplished, a large reinforcement was sent rapidly to Burnside, at Knoxville, causing Longstreet to withdraw toward Virginia.

The greater part of the armies in Virginia and Tennessee rested awhile in the midst of the severe winter. Sherman, however, with an army of 30,000 marched against Meridian, Miss., which he entered on February 16th and began his usual work of destruction with both infantry and cavalry. But he was harassed by Forrest, who had "the genius for cavalry fighting," and after his own cavalry force of 8,000 men had been punished so severely in a number of fights that they rode off to Memphis, Sherman retreated to Vicksburg. During the same month the invasion of Florida by