When General Rosecrans finally determined to advance, he was allowed to select his own lines and plans for carrying out the objects of the expedition.  He was directed, however, to report his movements daily, till he crossed the Tennessee, and to connect his left, so far as possible, with General Burnside’s right.  General Burnside was directed to move simultaneously, connecting his right, as far as possible, with General Rosecrans’s left so that, if the enemy concentrated upon either army, the other could move to its assistance.  When General Burnside reached Kingston and Knoxville, and found no considerable number of the enemy in East Tennessee, he was instructed to move down the river and cooperate with General Rosecrans.

These instructions were repeated some fifteen times, but were not carried out, General Burnside alleging as an excuse that he believed that Bragg was in retreat, and that General Rosecrans needed no reenforcements.  When the latter had gained possession of Chattanooga he was directed not to move on Rome as he proposed, but simply to hold the mountain-passes, so as to prevent the ingress of the rebels into East Tennessee.  That object accomplished, I considered the campaign as ended, at least for the present.  Future operations would depend upon the ascertained strength and; movements of the enemy.  In other words, the main objects of the campaign were the restoration of East Tennessee to the Union, and by holding the two extremities of the valley to secure it from rebel invasion.

The moment I received reliable information of the departure of Longstreet’s corps from the Army of the Potomac, I ordered forward to General Rosecrans every available man in the Department of the Ohio, and again urged General Burnside to move to his assistance.  I also telegraphed to Generals Hurlbut, Sherman, and yourself, to send forward all available troops in your department.  If these forces had been sent to General Rosecrans by Nashville, they could not have been supplied; I therefore directed them to move by Corinth and the Tennessee River.  The necessity of this has been proved by the fact that the reinforcements sent to him from the Army of the Potomac have not been able, for the want of railroad transportation, to reach General Rosecrans’s army in the field.

In regard to the relative strength of the opposing armies, it is believed that General Rosecrans when he first moved against Bragg had double, if not treble, his force.  General Burnside, also, had more than double the force of Buckner; and, even when Bragg and Buckner united, Rosecrans’s army was very greatly superior in number.  Even the eighteen thousand men sent from Virginia, under Longstreet, would not have given the enemy the superiority.  It is now ascertained that the greater part of the prisoners parolled by you at Vicksburg, and General Banks at Port Hudson, were illegally and improperly declared exchanged, and forced into the ranks to swell