Van Horne,

"History of

the Army

of the Cum

Vol. II., p. 253.

СНАР. І. Hood within twenty-four hours of the victory at Franklin. General Grant felt and exhibited this impatience in a much stronger degree. He not only sent out daily messages urging immediate action, but betrayed an irritation which reads strangely in the light of Thomas's career. He carried this feeling much further than the civil authorities at Washington, though it is true that Mr. Stanton, in a strain of whimsical exaggeration, wrote to Grant on the 7th of December, "If he [Thomas] berland." Waits for Wilson to get ready, Gabriel will be blowing his last horn." Grant the next day telegraphed to Halleck, "If Thomas has not struck yet he ought to be ordered to hand over his command to Schofield." Halleck replied, showing that the Government at Washington, impatient as they felt for immediate action, cherished a higher regard for Thomas than that felt by the General-in-Chief. "If you wish General Thomas relieved," he said, "give the order. No one here will, I think, interfere. The responsibility, however, will be yours, as no one here, so far as I am informed, wishes General Thomas removed."

Ibid.

Halleck to
Grant,
Dec. 8,
Ibid.

This dispatch saved General Thomas his command for a few days longer; but Grant refused to be placated. Thomas telegraphed him on the 8th in extenuation of his not having attacked Hood that he could not concentrate his troops and get their transportation in order in shorter time. than it had been done. Halleck answered, expressing the deep dissatisfaction of Grant at Thomas's delay, and Grant, on the 9th, with growing indignation, requested Halleck to telegraph orders reIbid., p. 255. lieving Thomas at once and placing Schofield in

CHAP. I.

command. These orders were immediately written out, but before they were transmitted to Nashville Thomas reported in his usual manly and reasonable style, "I regret that General Grant should feel dissatisfaction at my delay in attacking the enemy. I feel conscious that I have done everything in my power to prepare, and that the troops could not have been gotten ready before this. And if he should order me to be relieved I will submit without a murmur. A terrible storm of freezing rain has come on since daylight, which will render an attack impossible till it breaks." On the receipt of this dispatch the authorities took the responsibility of delaying the order for Thomas's relief until Grant could be consulted, and he, the same evening, suspended the order until, as he said, "it is seen Ibid., p. 256. whether he will do anything."

The spell of bad weather announced by Thomas in this dispatch continued for six days. It made any movement of either army impracticable. The rain froze as it fell, covering road and field with a thick coating of ice, upon which it was impossible for men to march, and on which every effort to move cavalry resulted in serious casualties to men and horses. General Grant knew this; but his fear that Hood might elude Thomas and lead him in a race to the Ohio River became so overpowering that it clouded his better judgment, and his dispatches of censure and vehement command came raining in day by day upon Thomas, causing that most subordinate and conscientious of soldiers

1 He says in his "Memoirs," Vol. II., p. 380: "The rain was falling, and freezing as it fell, so

that the ground was covered with
a sheet of ice that made it very
difficult to move."

Van Horne, the Army

of the Cumberland." Vol. II.,

p. 255.