Union hands, with the Mississippi a Union stream from source to
sea, and with Sherman firmly set in the northwest flank of
Georgia, Hood made the last grand sortie from the beleaguered
South. It was a desperate adventure to go north against the
Federal troops in Tennessee, with Kentucky and the line of the
Ohio as his ultimate objective, when Lincoln had been returned to
power, when Grant was surely wearing down Lee in Virginia, and
when Sherman's preponderance of force was not only assured in
Georgia but in Tennessee as well. Moreover, Thomas, the "Rock of
Chickamauga," had been sent back to counter Hood from Grant's and
Sherman's old headquarters at Nashville on the Cumberland. And
Thomas was soon to have the usual double numbers; for all the
Western depots sent him their trained recruits, till, by the end
of November, his total was over seventy thousand. Hood's forty
thousand could not be increased or even stopped from dwindling.
Yet he pushed on, with the consent of Beauregard, who now held
the general command of all the troops opposed to Sherman.

The next moves were even more peculiar than the first. For while
Hood hoped to close the breach in Georgia by drawing Sherman
back, and Sherman expected that when he went on to widen the
breach he would draw Hood back, what really happened was that
each advanced on his own new line in opposite directions, Hood
north through Tennessee, Sherman southeast through Georgia. So
firm was the grip of the Union on all the navigable waters that
Hood could only cross the Tennessee somewhere along the shoals.
He chose a place near Florence, Alabama, got safely over and
encamped. There, for the moment, we shall leave him and follow
Sherman to the sea.