it is difficult to see how General Sherman can escape a still more disastrous fate than that which threatened his predecessor.

He has advanced nearly one hundred and fifty miles from his base of operations, over a mountainous country; and he has no option but to retreat by the same line as he advanced.

This is the first instance of a Federal general having ventured far from water communications.

That Sherman has hitherto done so with success is a proof of both courage and ability, but he will need both these qualities in a far greater degree if he is forced to retreat[1224]." And W.H.Russell, in the _Gazette_, included Grant in the approaching disaster: "The world has never seen anything in war so slow and fatuous as Grant's recent movements, except it be those of Sherman.
Each is wriggling about like a snake in the presence of an ichneumon.

They both work round and round, now on one flank and then on the other, and on each move meet the unwinking eye of the enemy, ready for his spring and bite.