12th, 1864: "It will be better to drive Forrest from Middle Tennessee as a first step." Same day General Sherman telegraphs General Webster at Nashville: "Call forward from Kentucky any troops that can be spared there, and hold all that come from the rear until Forrest is disposed of."
On the 28th he telegraphs General Webster: "I will send up the road to-night another division, and want you to call forward from the rear all you can get."
On the same day General Sherman telegraphs General Grant: "I send back to Stevenson and Decherd General Thomas to look to Tennessee, and have ordered a brigade of the Army of Tennessee to Eastport, and the cavalry across to that place from Memphis. . . . Forrest has got into Middle Tennessee, and will, I feel certain, get on my main road to-night."
General Thomas telegraphs to General Sherman from Nashville, October 3d, 1864: "Rousseau will continue after Forrest. . . . Major-General Washburn is coming up the Tennessee river with ten thousand cavalry and fifteen hundred infantry, and will move toward Athens for the purpose of striking Forrest's flank, or cutting off his communication with Bainbridge. General Morgan, as I telegraphed you last night, is moving from Athens on Bainbridge. So it seems to me there is a fair chance of hemming Forrest in and destroying his command. The river is not fordable, and if we seize his means of crossing at Bainbridge, he will be unable to cross anywhere else, and, I think, Rousseau ought certainly to destroy him." And it appears from the report of General Thomas, that Rousseau had four thousand cavalry.
AT JOHNSONVILLE.
With all these efforts made to capture him, Forrest again made his escape. As soon as he reached the south side of the Tennessee river in safety, he turned on his pursuers, laid an ambuscade of about three hundred men, under Colonel Kelly, for the enemy attempting to land at Eastport, captured seventy-five prisoners, three pieces of rifled field artillery, sixty horses; sunk one gun and two caissons in the river, and drove a large number of the enemy into the river, many of whom were killed or drowned. And then striking boldly for Johnsonville, Sherman's chief depot of supplies on the Tennessee river, captured one gunboat, two transports and one barge, heavily laden with supplies; destroyed three gunboats, thirteen transports, eighteen barges and buildings, quartermaster and commissary stores, to the value of eight million dollars, as estimated by Federal officers. General Sherman, whose soul had been greatly vexed by Forrest, writing to General Grant, November 6th, 1864, about the movements of Hood, says: "And that devil Forrest was down about Johnsonville making havoc among the gunboats and transports." Forrest's reputation was now world-wide; and in reading recently a description of the great Tamerlane, I was struck with the wonderful resemblance between their military careers.
