The railroad raid to Georgia, in the spring of 1862, has always been
considered to rank high among the striking and novel incidents of the
civil war. At that time General O.M. Mitchel, under whose authority it
was organized, commanded Union forces in middle Tennessee, consisting of
a division of Buell's army. The Confederates were concentrating at
Corinth, Mississippi, and Grant and Buell were advancing by different
routes toward that point. Mitchel's orders required him to protect
Nashville and the country around, but allowed him great latitude in the
disposition of his division, which, with detachments and garrisons,
numbered nearly seventeen thousand men. His attention had long been
strongly turned toward the liberation of east Tennessee, which he knew
that President Lincoln also earnestly desired, and which would, if
achieved, strike a most damaging blow at the resources of the rebellion.
A Union army once in possession of east Tennessee would have the
inestimable advantage, found nowhere else in the South, of operating in
the midst of a friendly population, and having at hand abundant supplies
of all kinds. Mitchel had no reason to believe that Corinth would
detain the Union armies much longer than Fort Donelson had done, and was
satisfied that as soon as that position had been captured the next
movement would be eastward toward Chattanooga, thus throwing his own
division in advance. He determined, therefore, to press into the heart
of the enemy's country as far as possible, occupying strategical points
before they were adequately defended and assured of speedy and powerful
reinforcement. To this end his measures were vigorous and well chosen.

On the 8th of April, 1862,--the day after the battle of Pittsburg
Landing, of which, however, Mitchel had received no intelligence,--he
marched swiftly southward from Shelbyville, and seized Huntsville in