"NED."
She read it over twice through eyes that grew dim with each foolish,
sweet extravagance. And then she went back and read for the third time
the line about John, threw herself across her bed and burst into tears.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE WHIRLWIND
The draft of half a million men was scarcely completed when Rosecrans'
Western army, advancing into Georgia, met with crushing defeat at
Chickamauga, "The River of Death." His shattered hosts were driven back
into Chattanooga with the loss of eighteen thousand men in a rout so
complete and stunning that Charles A. Dana, the Assistant Secretary of
War, telegraphed the President from the front that it was another "Bull
Run."
Rosecrans himself wired that he had met with a terrible disaster. The
White House sent him words of cheer. The Confederate Commander, General
Bragg, rapidly closed in and began to lay siege to Chattanooga, and the
defeated Federal army were put on short rations.
The President turned his eyes now from Meade and his army of the Potomac
which Lee's strategy had completely baffled and gave his first thought
to the armies of the West. He sent Sherman hurrying from the Mississippi
to Rosecrans' relief and Hooker from the East. In the place of Rosecrans
he promoted George H. Thomas, whose gallant stand had saved the army
from annihilation and won the title, "The Rock of Chickamauga.
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