We glean the following from a private letter from an officer:

"The charge of the army on Missionary Ridge astounded Bragg. Breckinridge's head-quarters were on the ridge, in full view of our troops. A lady who lives there related the following: 'Before you all came up here, I asked General Bragg, 'What are you going to do with me, general?' He says to me, 'Lord! madam, the Yankees will never dare to come up here.' 'And,' she added, with a blubber, 'it was not fifteen minutes until you were all around here.''

CHAPTER VII.

SHERMAN AND THE SIEGE OF KNOXVILLE, AND THE EXPEDITION THROUGH MISSISSIPPI.

PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY AFTER THE BATTLE OF MISSIONARY RIDGE- MARCH TO KNOXVILLE TO RELIEVE BURNSIDE-RETURNS ΤΟ CHATTANOOGA— AT MEMLETTER OF SHERMAN EXPEDITION THROUGH MISSISSIPPI-INCIDent.

PHIS

The greater part of the struggle was over, but other work yet remained to be done. The same night that witnessed our success found Sherman pursuing the flying columns of the enemy. Having sent out his skirmishers and finding that the enemy had given way, he sent a division after him to the dépôt, and at four o'clock A. M., followed with a part of Major-General Howard's Eleventh Corps.

While at the dépôt, General Sherman, with other officers, assisted in putting out a portion of the fire around the railroad platform, as the rebels before leaving had set fire to the dépôt. As the column moved forward, they came upon wagons, guns, caissons, forage, stores, pontoons, and all the ruins of a defeated army, and an abandoned camp.

They met with but little opposition until nearly dark on the 26th, when as they emerged out of some low swampy land, the enemy opened fire upon them with musketry and artillery from a low hill. A sharp fight ensued, lasting nearly an hour, when they drove the enemy from the field. Their killed and wounded were left in our hands.

The next day all three armies passed on to Graysville, Thomas and Hooker sharing with Sherman the marching and fighting. Sherman in the meantime detached Howard to move against the railroad between Dalton and Cleveland and destroy it, which was soon done and the communication thereby cut between Bragg and Longstreet. He continued his march to Ringgold, where he found Grant. The enemy had been driven from Tennessee, and Sherman was now ordered to move leisurely back to Chattanooga. He destroyed the railroad on the next day from half-way between Graysville and Ringgold to the State line, and with General Grant's consent, instead of returning to Chattanooga, he sent back all his artillery, wagons, and impediments, and made a circuit by the north as far as Hiawassee, resulting in the destruction of more railroad and the capture of more stores.

"This," says Sherman, "was to have been the limit of our journey. Officers and men had brought no baggage or provisions, and the weather was bitter

cold." But Grant had received an urgent appeal from General Burnside for relief, stating that his supplies could not last longer than the 3d of December, and nothing but the utmost energy would save Knoxville and its gallant commander. Grant had already ordered General Granger thither, but he had not as yet started, and the commanding general determined, notwithstanding the fact that two divisions of Sherman's forces had marched from Memphis and gone into battle immediately on their arrival at Chattanooga, to send him with his command. And General Sherman accordingly received command of all the troops designed for relieving Knoxville, including Granger's.

"Seven days before," writes Sherman, "we had left our camps on the other side of the Tennessee, with two days rations, without a change of clothing, stripped for the fight, with but a single blanket or coat per man, from myself to the private included. Of course, we then had no provisions, save what we gathered by the road, and were ill supplied for such a march. But we learned that twelve thousand of our fellow soldiers were beleaguered in the mountain town of Knoxville, eighty-four miles distant, that they needed relief, and must have it in three days. This was enough; and it had to be done."

Howard planked and repaired the railroad bridge that night, and at daybreak the army passed the Hiawassee and marched to Athens, fifteen miles. On the 2d of December the Union forces hurried towards London, twenty-six miles distant, the cavalry pushing ahead to save the pontoon-bridge across the Tennessee, held by Vaughn's brigade of the enemy. They moved with their usual rapidity, and succeeded in capturing every picket, but found Vaughn strongly posted in earth-works with artillery in position. They were obliged to wait till night, when Howard's infantry came up. The enemy retreated during the night, destroying the pontoons, running three locomotives and fortyeight cars into the Tennessee, and leaving for our army to capture a large quantity of provisions, four guns, and other property.

But one day of the three alloted Sherman's forces to reach Knoxville remained, and the bridge was gone. Sherman therefore sent word the same night to Colonel Long, commanding the cavalry brigade, that Burnside must know before the next night of his approach-ordered him to select his best material, to start at once for Knoxville, ford the Little Tennessee, and "at whatever cost of life or horse-flesh," to push into Knoxville. The road was the worst that could be imagined, and the distance to be traveled forty miles. They were