The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-06-19
Operations Around cha,taro e

| EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Gen.
Green Il. Raum is mistaken when br
states that the Army of the Tennessee
saw service in more States than any Other.
army. as the Army of the Cumberland
was in all the States named by the Gen
eral. and Ohio besides: so we will go him
| one better. do not mean to say that all
of the Army of the Cumberland was in all
the States named. but some part of it saw
| service in all the States claimed by Gen
Raum. and Ohio as we'll
| am surprised that man as well post
ed as Gen. Raum should still give to Gen.
Grant the honor of planning the Browns
| Ferry expedition. Gen Grant claims the
| honor. and so did Gen w. Il. Smith: but
the facts are that the plan was conceived
by Gen. Rosecrans. and was under way
when he was relieved.
| quote from q letter written by Cen
Rosecrans published in the North Ameri-
can Review for December, 1885. This let
ter was written in reply to letter of Gen
Grants and published in the Century.
Rosecrans says: ''The plan was talked
over with Gen. Thomas and Gen. H. L.
COultGn, and a cory Of the SIX tch was sent
to Gen. Hooker, who was told to hurry up
his transportation as rapidly as possible,
so that. crossing the Tennessee River, he
| would be able to subsist his troops direct
| ly from Bridgeport. On the 18th of De-
tober Gen. w. +. Smith accompanied me
in 4 ride along this route and the Tennes-
see near Browns Ferry We returned
about sunset, when found the telegram
! awaiting me which relieved me from com
mand." etc.
THE Century article by Gen. Grant
says: That night oct 30 1 Gen. GranD
| issued the orders for opening the route to
Bridgeport. All the preliminaries for
these orders had been detailed to him by
me at Stevenson No intelligent reader
can fail to see that the intention of the
writer Of the Century articles is to have it
pass for history that it was his PLAN This
fraud, this lie, has been floating before the
public for 20 odd years; but it is explicitly
nailed to the pillOry by the opening para
graph of Gen. ThOmas's official report
wherein he says: In pursuance of the
plan Of Gem Rosecrans. the execution of
| which had beens deferred until HoOker's
| transportation could be SET ETC."
Besides this. committee appointed to
| investigate this plan, as reported in The
National Tribune some months since. de-
| cided unanimously in favor of Cen Rose.
Grams. Why is it that, in the face of all
this evidence, peOpi. VIII continue to give
| the credit to the wrong man?
| The statement that Gen. Rosecrans in
tended to surrender Chattanooga has no
| foundation in fact. l do not believe such
|
or officer in Chattanooga, and much less
by Gen. Rosecrans. l quote again from
the letter referred to: "The author of the
Century article says that he telegraphed
to Gen. Thomas to hold Chattanooga at
| all hazards l well remember the sur
prise and indignation with which Thomas
and l viewed it. We regarded it as an
aspersiOn on the Army of the Cumberland
and its commanders, founded either in ig-
norance or malice. We had as little idea
Of abandoning Chattanooga as anybody in
the world"
Gen. Raum says that w. F. Smith es-
tablished a saw-mill The fact of it is
that Col. Stanley, of the 18th Ohio, repair
ed the saw-mill and had nearly lumber
enough out for two pontOOn bridges before
w. +. Smith arrived on the scene.
The facts are that the capture of Chat
tanooga was the grandest piece Of strategy
Of the war. The per cent. Of losses at
Chickamauga was the greatest Of any
battle Of the war, and the results obtained
surpassed those Of any other campaign Of
the .war.-J0EL WRIaHT, LIST Sergeant,
Co. D. 65th Ohio, Coupeville, Wash.