As before described, General Hood had three full corps of infantry--S.

D.
Lee's, A.P.

Stewart's, and Cheatham's, at Florence, Alabama--with Forrest's corps of cavalry, numbering in the aggregate about forty-five thousand men.

General Thomas was in Nashville, Tennessee, quietly engaged in reorganizing his army out of the somewhat broken forces at his disposal.

He had posted his only two regular corps, the Fourth and Twenty-third, under the general command of Major-General J.M.Schofield, at Pulaski, directly in front of Florence, with the three brigades of cavalry (Hatch, Croxton, and Capron), commanded by Major-General Wilson, watching closely for Hood's initiative.
This force aggregated about thirty thousand men, was therefore inferior to the enemy; and General Schofield was instructed, in case the enemy made a general advance, to fall back slowly toward Nashville, fighting, till he should be reenforced by General Thomas in person.