Arizona republican., 1891-12-17

and Grant planted the victorious army of Gettysburg on the south of James river and staid there with Richmond all but in his grasp. Yet there were some bold spirits who held that the god of battles might see to it that the weaker side should have one more chance, with fair play and no favor, and one of those was Gen. J. B. Hood, that flashing, daring Texan, who saucily made faces around the corner at Sherman after the latter had hustled him out of Atlanta by giving him the toe of the boot, as it were
 Hood candidly admitted to himself and his superiors that he couldn't cope with Sherman in open battle, but he hoped by skillful maneuvers to draw him away from his long line of communication between At lanta and Nashville and worry him into an abandonment of all that the Union army had gained south of Tennessee river. With this project in view he turned and doubled on the track northward again toward Chat tanooga At various points he threatened or attacked Sherman's line of communica- tion, notably at Allatoona pass where brave Corse "held the fort" and he soon had the satisfaction of finding Sherman's army all broken up in the haste to cover the vital points in its rear, only one corps remaining in Atlanta.
 After two weeks of a game of "fox and geese" Hood found himself in the presence of large body of Sherman's troops in the mountains of northwestern Georgia and determined to offer battle, but when he canvassed his own soldiers he found that the spirit of fighting had vanished Re- peated disaster and retreat had filled the hearts of his battle scared veterans with the prevailing hopelessness. In this crisis nothing would fit so well as the motto, Be . bold, be bold, and evermore be boldp and of boldness Hood had an apparently ex- haustless supply. He resolved to give Sher- man the slip once more and march rapidly to Nashville, Louisville and Cincinnati, strike terror to the north, win the smiles of France, who only waited good excuse for aiding the Confederacy, and bring up at last on Grants rear in northern Virginia, after crossing Ohio and the Blue Ridge. Was ever the dream of a daring military adventurer wilder than thati But what was to hinderi Sherman, distance and the scattered Union troops to be met with on the wayi As for the last two obstacles Hoods soldiers were equal to the march, and equal also he believed to any impro- vised force that could be raked up to i'm pede him In all the west. Sherman, him. self, he believed, would turn to and go back south, and that is just what he did do
 Grant and sherman had discussed plan after Atlanta fell for drawing Hood away from his rich base of supplies in Alabama by marching a Union army through Georgia to the gulf or to the sea Both agreed then that in such event Hood would certainly follow. He was in front of Sherman at the time this conclusion was reached. But when he abandoned his camps, stripped for the race, about the middle of October, and struck out westward, leavi ag Sherman fin northern Georgia, he was to all intents and purposes loose in Tennessee, for Sher- man had nothing in the field to prevent the Confederates crossing from Alabama anywhere they chose. Nevertheless, Sher- man clung to the theory that if he marched the main portion of his army to the sea