Your confidence in being able to march up and join this army pleases me, and I believe it can be done.

The effect of such a campaign will be to disorganize the South, and prevent the organization of new armies from their broken fragments.

Hood is now retreating, with his army broken and demoralized.

His loss in men has probably not been far from twenty thousand, besides deserters.

If time is given, the fragments may be collected together and many of the deserters reassembled.