For weeks before General Rosecrans had moved forward he had tried to impress upon the authorities at Washington the importance of giving him strong support. Promising offers to raise veteran mounted troops from several Eastern governors were laid before the War Department and refused with insulting warmth. Two weeks later came the order from Halleck to move at once and keep moving, which is treated of at length in a former letter.
This gross ignorance at Washington of the gigantic difficulties of the situation was equaled, if not surpassed, by a telegram of September 11, the very day that Bragg's re-enforced army was moving against Rosecrans' center and organizing for an attack on his left, and while Rosecrans and Thomas and McCook were straining every nerve in a life and death effort to concentrate their army. Said Halleck, by telegraph of this date:
"After holding the mountain passes on the west and Dalton, or some point on the railroad, to prevent the return of Bragg's army, it will be decided whether your army shall move further South into Georgia and Alabama. It is reported here that a part of Bragg's army is re-enforcing Lee. It is important that the truth of this should be ascertained as early as possible."
This showed that Halleck shared the general and ignorant belief that Rosecrans had occupied Chattanooga in a military sense.
At this time Longstreet's advance had been gone a week from under Halleck's eyes near Washington, and two divisions of Johnston's troops from Mississippi, and Buckner, from East Tennessee, had already joined Bragg, and others were on the way.
The failure to give Rosecrans effective flanking supports was inexcusable. The only explanation for it is found in the irritation and dislike which his straightforward and independent dealings had aroused in Washington, and a failure to understand the natural obstacles of the position and the contemplated advance. Meade was in a state of enforced inactivity before Lee. Grant's army was doing nothing to occupy Johnston in Mississippi, and there was no such Union activity in front of Mobile and Charleston as prevented troops being spared to Bragg from those points. And so, while the Washington authorities were finding fault with Rosecrans while he was pushing some of the most brilliant and effectual moves of the war, and were not even lifting a finger to encourage or even to protect him, the Richmond government was neglecting no means to strengthen Bragg to the extent of its powers. As a result, in one week from the date of Halleck's telegram inquiring whether Bragg was re-enforcing Lee, Longstreet and Johnston and Walker and Buckner had reached Bragg from the extremes of the Confederacy, and he had moved to attack Rosecrans with 70,000 men.
In this criminal neglect of Rosecrans the authorities were without excuse. No friend of Stanton's or Halleck's have even yet attempted to explain, much less defend it. These and other high officers, at one time or another, arraigned General Rosecrans as solely responsible for what they chose to designate as the disaster and defeat of Chickamauga. It was the shortest way for some of them to divert attention from the terrible neglect and responsibility which rested on their heads. But even if the favorable chances for the concentration of Confederate forces against Rosecrans had escaped unwilling observation at Washington, the authorities there were without excuse, since the case was very pointedly placed before them in an editorial of the Cincinnati Commercial, which excited so much attention that the editor was officially notified that such articles were highly indiscreet. This was as early as September 1. In view of what occurred a few weeks later, and of the evidence it gives of ample warning, it is interesting to reproduce this editorial of Mr. Halstead, printed on the date named, under a title, a "Point of Danger." Said the editor:
"Jeff Davis and his generals are as well informed as we are of the presence of a considerable part of the army of the Potomac in New York City to enforce the draft, and that consequently an advance on Richmond need not be apprehended for some weeks. They have also heard of the presence of Admiral Farragut in New York, and infer from the circumstance that there is no immediate danger of an attack on Mobile. They know the situation at Charleston, and are not mistaken in the opinion that the advance upon that city must be slow, by process of engineering, digging, and heavy cannonading. They do not need large bodies of troops to make the defense; negro laborers, engineer officers and gunners being all that are required. General Grant's army, as is well known, is, for the most part, resting from its labors in undisputed possession of an enormous territory. The real aggressive movement of the Federal forces is upon the rebel center; that is to say, East Tennessee, and it is extremely unlikely that the rebels are deficient in information as to the strength and intentions of Generals Rosecrans and Burnside.
"The important question is whether they will improve the opportunity by concentrating upon their center. The reports that General Joe Johnston has joined his forces to those recently under Bragg, and has thus gathered a force almost if not quite equal numerically to those in the hands of General Rosecrans, have in addition the immense advantages of the occupation of mountain passes, and that are to be found in pursuing a defensive system of warfare. General Lee is reported to have sent troops to East Tennessee, and it is probable that he has done so, as, thanks to the New York riots, he has some divisions temporarily to spare from Virginia. If the rebels do give up East Tennessee and Northern Georgia without a struggle, that is to say, if Generals Rosecrans and Burnside complete the operations in which they are engaged without meeting serious resistance, it may be taken as conclusive evidence of the exhaustion of the rebellion."
Several subsequent editorials enforced these ideas, and were even so definite as to point out Johnston, Longstreet, and Buckner as the commands which were likely to re-enforce Bragg.