or any quality which much impressed them.  Their reports to their homes in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, from which they mostly came, increased the feeling against him which was arising in those States, and his relations with the Governors of Ohio and Indiana, who were busy in sending him recruits and whose States were threatened with invasion, seem, wherever the fault may have lain, to have been unfortunate.  Buell’s most powerful friend had been McClellan, and by an irrational but unavoidable process of thought the real dilatoriness of McClellan became an argument for blaming Buell as well.  Halleck defended him loyally, but this by now probably seemed to Lincoln the apology of one irresolute man for another.  Stanton, whose efficiency in the business of the War Department gave him great weight, had become eager for the removal of Buell.  Lincoln expected that as soon as Buell could cover Louisville he would take the offensive promptly.  His army appears to have exceeded in numbers, though not very much, the combined forces of Bragg and Kirby Smith, and except as to cavalry it was probably as good in quality.  If energetically used by Halleck some months before, the Western armies should have been strong enough to accomplish great results; and if the attempt had been made at first to raise much larger armies, it seems likely that the difficulties of training and organisation and command would have increased out of proportion to any gain.  Buell remained some days at Louisville itself, receiving reinforcements which were considerable, but consisted mainly of raw recruits.  While he was there orders arrived from Lincoln removing him and appointing his second in command, the Virginian Thomas, in his place.  This was a wise choice; Thomas was one of the four Northern generals who won abiding distinction in the Civil War.  But Thomas felt the injustice which was done to Buell, and he refused the command in a letter magnanimously defending him.  The fact was that Lincoln had rescinded his orders before they were received, for he had issued them under the belief that Buell was remaining on the defensive, but learnt immediately that an offensive movement was in progress, and had no intention of changing commanders under those circumstances.

On October 8 a battle, which began in an accidental minor conflict, took place between Buell with 58,000 men and Bragg with considerably less than half that number of tried veterans.  Buell made little use of his superior numbers, for which the fault may have lain with the corps commander who first became engaged and who did not report at once to him; the part of Buell’s army which bore the brunt of the fighting suffered heavy losses, which made a painful impression in the North, and the public outcry against him, which had begun as soon as Kentucky was invaded by the Confederates, now increased.  After the battle Bragg fell back and effected a junction with Kirby Smith.  Their joint forces were not very far inferior to Buell’s