Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 04.djvu/193

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December 25th, 1861.

To His Excellency

Governor of Tennessee:

The present situation of affairs is such that I deem it necessary to call the attention of your Excellency to it in connection with the movements which the enemy meditate towards Tennessee.

My information continues to convince me that a heavy concentration of force on this line has been made to invade Tennessee on the route to Nashville. The troops of Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky have been withdrawn and ordered upon the line in my front. These regiments, with large reinforcements from Ohio, Indiana and other Northwestern States, have been assembled, and the estimates from the most reliable sources show that General Buell has about 75,000 men, probably more, at his disposition while the effective force here at my command does not exceed 17,000 men. In order to render these equal to the duty of preserving our frontier and protecting Nashville, I have used every precaution, and feel sanguine that by the dispositions of the last few months, they can be made to hold in check double their number. Bowling Green, naturally strong, has been well entrenched; Columbus Fort, with its garrison and troops on that front guarding the Mississippi, renders the Lower Valley comparatively secure; and General Zollicoffer, on the Cumberland, protects East Tennessee from invasion and possibly revolt, which would destroy our communications between the Mississippi and Atlantic States and inflict great injury.

These dispositions will foil the designs of the enemy on East Tennessee and defeat or retard his design to descend the Mississippi this winter. The vulnerable point is by the line from Louisville towards Nashville, and the Northern Generals are evidently aware