"I do not know," I said, "except that this end of the army has been routed. There is still heavy fighting on the left front, and our troops seem to be holding their ground there yet."
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GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. BORN IN 1816; DIED IN 1870.
From a photograph taken at Nashville in 1865, and now owned by William H. Lambert. General Thomas, a native of Virginia, graduated at West Point in 1840; served through the Seminole and Mexican wars and the Civil War, and remained in the army until his death. He distinguished himself especially in the battles of Mill Springs, Murfreesborough, Chickamauga, and Nashville. He commanded the Army of the Cumberland from the retirement of Rosecrans, October, 1863, to the close of the war.
"Will you give me any orders?" he asked.
"I have no authority to give orders," I replied; " but if I were in your situation, I should go to the left, where Thomas is."
Then I turned my horse, and making my way over Missionary Ridge, struck the Chattanooga valley and rode to Chattanooga, twelve or fifteen miles away. Everything on the route was in the greatest disorder. The whole road was filled with flying soldiers, and here and there were piled up pieces of artillery, caissons, and baggage wagons. When I reached Chattanooga, a little before four o'clock, I found Rosecrans there. In the helter-skelter to the rear, he had escaped by the Rossville road. He was expecting every moment that the enemy would arrive before the town, and was doing all he could to prepare to resist his entrance. Soon after I arrived, the two corps commanders, McCook and Crittenden, both came into Chattanooga.
The first thing I did on reaching the town was to telegraph to Mr. Stanton. I had not sent him any telegrams in the morning, for I had been in the field with Rosecrans, and part of the time at some distance from the Widow Glenn's, where the operators were at work. The boys kept at their post there until the Confederates swept them out of the house. When they had to run, they went instruments and tools in hand, and as soon as out of reach of the enemy set up shop on a stump. It was not long before they were driven out of this. They next attempted to establish an office on the Rossville road, but before they had succeeded in making connections, a battle was raging around them, and they had to retreat to Granger's headquarters at Rossville.
Having been swept bodily off the battlefield, and having made my way into Chattanooga through a panic-stricken rabble, the first telegram I sent to Mr. Stanton was naturally colored by what I had
