General Buell, in Kentucky, was to occupy Eastern Tennessee and "cut off all railway communication between Eastern Virginia and the Mississippi," but was ordered to remain on the defensive until the proper time to move his army "by rapid marches, by the Cumberland Gap, to Knoxville." General Halleck, in Missouri, was to extend his lines no farther southward than Rolla, the terminus of railway communication with St. Louis

concentrating his main forces for operations on the Mississippi River. Evidently, McClellan was intending no important movement at the West before spring.

The Confederate lines in Kentucky extended from Columbus in Halleck's department (which included all of that State west of the Cumberland River), through Bowling Green in Buell's, to the head of steam navigation on the Cumberland, near Somerset. Buell in person remained at his headquarters in Louisville, his advance being at Munfordsville. On the last of December the President telegraphed to Halleck, informing him of McClellan's illness, and inquiring: “Are General Buell and yourself in concert?" The answer was that he had "never received a word from General Buell." Yet both, in parts of their lines, were confronted by the same Confederate army. If he should advance on Bowling Green, Buell said in reply to an inquiry from Lincoln, there was nothing to prevent Bowling Green being reinforced from Columbus, unless a military force was brought to bear on the latter place.

On New Year's Day the President wrote to Halleck:

General McClellan is not dangerously ill, as I hope, but would better not be disturbed with business. I am very anxious that, in case of General Buell's moving toward

Nashville, the enemy shall not be greatly reinforced, and I think there is danger he will be from Columbus. It seems to me that a real or feigned attack upon Columbus from up the river at the same time would either prevent this or compensate for it by throwing Columbus into our hands. I wrote General Buell a letter similar to this, meaning that he and you shall communicate and act in concert, unless it' be your judgment and his that there is no necessity for it. You and he will understand much better than I how to do it. Please do not lose time in this matter.

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Complying with the President's wishes, Buell and Halleck opened telegraphic communication with each other, but there was no hearty accord between them. Halleck disapproved Buell's plan of advancing on Bowling Green, and could not well spare him " any help from Missouri." Buell wanted gunboats and soldiers sent up the Tennessee and the Cumberland, to attack the center of the line from Columbus to Bowling Green, on which "the great power of the rebellion in the West' was arrayed, and said "whatever is done should be done speedily—within a few days."

On the 6th, Lincoln wrote to the Kentucky General regarding his proposed advance:

Your dispatch of yesterday has been received, and it disappoints and distresses me. I have shown it to General McClellan, who says he will write you to-day. I am not competent to criticise your views, and therefore what I offer is merely in justification of myself. Of the two, I would rather have a point on the railroad south of Cumberland Gap than Nashville-first, because it cuts a great artery of communication, which Nashville does not; and secondly, because it is in the midst of a loyal people who would rally around it, while Nashville is not. Again, I can not see why the movement on East Tennessee would not be a diversion in your favor rather than a disadvantage, assuming that a movement toward Nashville is the main object. But my

distress is that our friends in East Tennessee are being hanged and driven to despair, and even now I fear are thinking of taking rebel arms for the sake of personal protection. In this we lose the most valuable stake we have in the South. My dispatch, to which yours is an answer, was sent with the knowledge of Senator Johnson and Representative Maynard, of East Tennessee, and they will be upon me to know the answer, which I can not safely show them. They would despair, possibly resign, to go and save their families somehow or die with them. I do not intend this to be an order in any sense, but merely, as intimated before, to show you the grounds of my anxiety.

On the next day he telegraphed to Buell: "Please name as early a day as you safely can, on or before which you can be ready to move southward in concert with Major-General Halleck. Delay is ruining us, and it is indispensable for me to have something definite."

Halleck on the 6th ordered General Grant-at Cairo, in command of the Paducah district" to make a demonstration in force on Mayfield and in the direction of Murray," in which Captain Foote of the Navy was to assist by gunboat reconnoissances up the Tennessee and the Cumberland. The object stated was. by simultaneously threatening both Columbus and the Confederate works at Dover on the Cumberland and near Murray on the Tennessee, to prevent reinforcements being sent from that quarter to Bowling Green. A battle was to be avoided. On the same day he wrote a letter to the President stating that no troops could then be spared from Missouri, and that he knew nothing of Buell's intended operations. He further said: "If it be intended that his (Buell's) column shall move on Bowling Green while another moves from Cairo or Paducah on Columbus or Camp Beauregard, it will

be a repetition of the same strategic error which produced the disaster of Bull Run."

In a letter to Buell on the 13th (of which a copy was sent to Halleck), Lincoln said:

Your dispatch of yesterday is received, in which you say, "I received your letter and General McClellan's, and will at once devote my efforts to your views and his." In the midst of my many cares I have not seen, nor asked to see, General McClellan's letter to you. For my own views, I have not offered, and do not now offer them as orders; and while I am glad to have them respectfully considered, I would blame you to follow them contrary to your own clear judgment, unless I should put them in the form of orders. As to General McClellan's views, you understand your duty in regard to them better than I do.

With this preliminary I state my general idea of this war to be, that we have the greater numbers and the enemy has the greater facility of concentrating forces upon points of collision; that we must fail unless we can find some way of making our advantage an overmatch for his; and that this can only be done by menacing him with superior forces at different points at the same time, so that we can safely attack one or both if he makes no change; and if he weakens one to strengthen the other, forbear to attack the strengthened one, but seize and hold the weakened one, gaining so much.

To illustrate: Suppose last summer when Winchester ran away to reinforce Manassas, we had forborne to attack Manassas, but had seized and held Winchester. I mention this to illustrate and not to criticise. I did not lose confidence in McDowell, and I think less harshly of Patterson than some others seem to. . . . Applying the principle to your case, my idea is that Halleck shall menace Columbus and "down river" generally, while you menace Bowling Green and East Tennessee. If the enemy shall concentrate at Bowling Green, do not retire from his front, yet do not fight him there either, but seize Columbus and East Tennessee, one or both, left exposed by the concentration at Bowling Green. It is a matter of no small anxiety to me,

and which I am sure you will not overlook, that the East Tennessee line is so long and over so bad a road.

At the end of the second week, this correspondence, urgent on the President's side, seems still near its starting-point. But one positive result had been gained the "demonstration" ordered by Halleck that will prove to be of a value beyond computation.

Meanwhile the Confederates at Mill Springs on the Upper Cumberland - where General Crittenden had superseded Zollicoffer, who was defending the direct approaches to East Tennessee-crossed over to the Kentucky side. Buell, on the 29th of December, ordered General Thomas to drive out the invaders. One of Thomas's brigades being prevented by floods from joining the rest of the division, Crittenden ordered an advance near midnight on the 18th of January, hoping to crush the two brigades at Logan's Cross Roads, ten miles away. The movement, led by Crittenden in person, with Zollicoffer as second, was promptly executed, and before sunrise the two armies were within striking distance of each other. The Confederates made a furious onset, seeking to turn the Union left, but were repulsed after a half-hour's contest. Zollicoffer was killed. Then by a dashing bayonet charge on Crittenden's left, his entire line was broken and scattered. The Confederates lost 158 killed, many wounded and prisoners, and two of their guns. On the Union side 39 were killed and 125 wounded.

In spite of rain and mud, General Thomas made vigorous pursuit, bringing up his forces in front of the enemy's works on the river bank before dark. The Confederates fled during the night, destroying their