General Sherman fixed it at the lowest estimate; say, ten thousand.

The force at Bowling Green, commanded by General.

A.S.Johnston, supported by Hardee, Buckner, and others, was variously estimated at from eighteen to thirty thousand.

General Sherman estimated this force at the lowest figures given to it by his information--eighteen thousand.
He explained that, for purposes of defense, these two forces ought, owing to the facility with which troops might be transported from one to the other, by the net-work of railroads in Middle and West Tennessee, to be considered almost as one.

General Sherman remarked, also, on the facility with which reinforcements could be transported by railroad to Bowling Green, from the other rebellions States.
The third organized body of rebel troops was in Eastern Kentucky, under General Zollicoffer, estimated, according to the most reliable information, at six thousand men.