HOOD'S CAMPAIGN
In the meanwhile Hood had moved northward from in front of Atlanta. His
hope had been to draw Sherman in pursuit and induce him to leave the
Confederate city. When Sherman shunned the bait and stayed in Atlanta
arranging for his march to the sea, Hood set out to assail Thomas at
Chattanooga.
It was an absurdly impracticable campaign, which could not possibly
result in anything of advantage to the Confederates except the
incidental slaughter of a good many thousands of Federal soldiers with
no consequent improvement of Confederate prospects.
Hood had with him about 40,000 men, or nearly that. They were as good
men as any in the South, and their organization and discipline were
perfect. But they were led upon a wild-goose chase by an incapable
commander whose leadership gave them opportunities of heroism, indeed,
but doomed them on the other hand to hopeless enterprise and wholly
profitless slaughter.
Hood first met his enemy under Schofield, at Duck river, forty miles
or so south of Nashville. He quickly and easily flanked the position
and compelled Schofield to retreat to Franklin, eighteen miles south
of Nashville. There, during the afternoon of November thirtieth, Hood
delivered a tremendous assault. He carried the front line easily and
rushed onward to assail the second. Again he succeeded in a struggle
that extended itself far into the night.
At midnight Schofield was driven from his works and retreated to
Nashville. Thither Hood followed him with that impetuosity that
characterized the indiscretion of the new Confederate commander.
Then followed a long pause--Hood could not in any wise tempt Thomas
into field battle and Thomas was too strongly entrenched for even Hood,
with all his daring indiscretion, to attack him in his works.
It was not until the fifteenth of December that Thomas struck. When
he did so it was with tremendous force and determination. He crushed
Hood's entrenched left flank and forced him back to a new line of
entrenchments in the rear.
On the next day Thomas renewed the attack with his entire army, and
succeeded in completely destroying Hood's resisting power and driving
his force into broken and disastrous retreat. Thus ended Hood's
ill-judged but audacious campaign.
In the meanwhile Sherman had reached Savannah and his plan of campaign
was completely successful at both its ends. The Confederacy was again
split in two, and there remained in the gulf states no Confederate
army capable of offering anything like effective resistance to any
operations that Federal armies might have undertaken. Had he been so
minded Thomas might have launched a column against Mobile or Wilmington
or Charleston with the practical certainty that it would nowhere
encounter an opposition which it need seriously consider.
All that now remained of Confederate strength lay in Lee's little army
around Petersburg and Richmond, and in such fragments of armies as
General Joseph E. Johnston was presently to gather together with the
retreating garrison of Savannah and what remained of Hood's army as a
nucleus.
The time was drawing near when Grant was to deliver his final blow and
at last make an end of the war.