THE APPROACH OF VICTORY
1. The War to the End of 1863.
The events of the Eastern theatre of war have been
followed into the early summer of 1863, when Lee was
for the second time about to invade the North.
The Western theatre of war has been left unnoticed
since the end of May, 1862. From that time to
the end of the year no definite progress was made
here by either side, but here also the perplexities
of the military administration were considerable;
and in Lincoln’s life it must be noted that
in these months the strain of anxiety about the Eastern
army and about the policy of emancipation was accompanied
by acute doubt in regard to the conduct of war in
the West.
When Halleck had been summoned from the West, Lincoln
had again a general by his side in Washington to exercise
command under him of all the armies. Halleck
was a man of some intellectual distinction who might
be expected to take a broad view of the war as a whole;
this and his freedom from petty feelings, as to which
Lincoln’s known opinion of him can be corroborated,
doubtless made him useful as an adviser; nor for a
considerable time was there any man with apparently
better qualifications for his position. But
Lincoln soon found, as has been seen, that Halleck
lacked energy of will, and cannot have been long in
discovering that his judgment was not very good.
The President had thus to make the best use he could
of expert advice upon which he would not have been
justified in relying very fully.
When Halleck arrived at Corinth at the end of May,
1862, the whole of Western and Middle Tennessee was
for the time clear of the enemy, and he turned his
attention at once to the long delayed project of rescuing
the Unionists in Eastern Tennessee, which was occupied
by a Confederate army under General Kirby Smith.
His object was to seize Chattanooga, which lay about
150 miles to the east of him, and invade Eastern Tennessee
by way of the valley of the Tennessee River, which
cuts through the mountains behind Chattanooga.
With this in view he would doubtless have been wise
if he had first continued his advance with his whole
force against the Confederate army under Beauregard,
which after evacuating Corinth had fallen back to
rest and recruit in a far healthier situation 50 miles
further south. Beauregard would have been obliged
either to fight him with inferior numbers or to shut
himself up in the fortress of Vicksburg. As
it was, Halleck spent the month of June merely in
repairing the railway line which runs from Corinth
in the direction of Chattanooga. When he was
called to Washington he left Grant, who for several
months past had been kept idle as his second in command,
in independent command of a force which was to remain
near the Mississippi confronting Beauregard, but he
restricted him to a merely defensive part by ordering
him to keep a part of his army ready to send to Buell
