You may, therefore, expect to meet in arms thousands of unexchanged prisoners released by you and others on parole, not to serve again till duly exchanged.
Although the enemy by this disgraceful means has been able to concentrate in Georgia and Alabama a much larger force than we anticipated, your armies will be abundantly able to defeat him.
Your difficulty will not be in the want of men, but in the means of supplying them at this season of the year.

A single-track railroad can supply an army of sixty or seventy thousand men, with the usual number of cavalry and artillery; but beyond that number, or with a large mounted force, the difficulty of supply is very great.
I do not know the present condition of the road from Nashville to Decatur, but, if practicable to repair it, the use of that triangle will be of great assistance to you.

I hope, also, that the recent rise of water in the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers will enable you to employ water transportation to Nashville, Eastport, or Florence.
If you reoccupy the passes of Lookout Mountain, which should never have been given up, you will be able to use the railroad and river from Bridgeport to Chattanooga.

This seems to me a matter of vital importance, and should receive your early attention.
I submit this summary in the hope that it will assist you in fully understanding the objects of the campaign, and the means of attaining these objects.

Probably the Secretary of War, in his interviews with you at Louisville, has gone over the same ground.
Whatever measures you may deem proper to adopt under existing circumstances, you will receive all possible assistance from the authorities at Washington.