Middle and Western parts of the country, where, however, the control
exercised by Mr. Lincoln was far less constant than at the East. After
the series of successes which culminated at Corinth, the Federal good
fortune rested as if to recuperate for a while. A large part of the
powerful army there gathered was carried away by Buell, and was soon
given occupation by General Bragg. For Jefferson Davis had long chosen
to fancy that Kentucky was held in an unwilling subjection to the Union,
and from this thralldom he now designed to relieve her, and to make the
Ohio River the frontier of Secession. Accordingly cavalry raids in
considerable force were made, Cincinnati was threatened, and General
Bragg, with a powerful army, started northward from Gainesville. At the
same time the Federals left Murfreesboro', and the two armies raced for
Louisville. Bragg, with a handsome start, should have won, but on
September 29, 1862, Buell entered the city ahead. The winning of the
goal, however, was not the end. Two hostile armies, which had come so
far and got so close together, were bound to have a fight. This took
place at Perryville, October 8, with the result that on the next day
Bragg began a rapid retreat. He had brought 20,000 stand of arms for the
Kentuckians who were to flock to his camp; but they had not flocked, and
the theory of Kentuckian disloyalty was no longer tenable.

So soon as Bragg was out of Kentucky, Halleck, probably at the
instigation of the President, recurred to the project of a campaign in
Eastern Tennessee. Buell said that it was not feasible, and since by
this opinion he placed himself at odds with the authorities at
Washington, he asked to be relieved from his command. At the close of
October, Major-General William S. Rosecrans succeeded him. But the new
commander would not, any more than his predecessor, fall in with
Halleck's schemes, and what Cist contemptuously describes as "Halleck's
brilliant paper campaign into East Tennessee" did not take place.