since become familiar. He even went so far as to argue that on
the whole the South had gained rather than lost; that the control
of the river was of no real value to the North; that the loss of
Vicksburg "has on our side liberated for general operations in
the field a large army, while it requires the enemy to maintain
cooped up, inactive, in positions insalubrious to their soldiers,
considerable detachments of their forces."

Seddon attempted to reverse the facts, to show that the
importance of the Mississippi in commerce was a Northern not a
Southern concern. He threw light upon the tactics of the time by
his description of the future action of Confederate sharpshooters
who were to terrorize such commercial crews as might attempt to
navigate the river; he also told how light batteries might move
swiftly along the banks and, at points commanding the channel,
rain on the passing steamer unheralded destruction. He was silent
upon the really serious matter, the patrol of the river by
Federal gunboats which rendered commerce with the
Trans-Mississippi all but impossible.

This report, dated the 26th of November, gives a roseate view of
the war in Tennessee and enlarges upon that dreadful battle of
Chickamauga which "ranks as one of the grandest victories of the
war." But even as the report was signed, Bragg was in full
retreat after his great disaster at Chattanooga. On the 30th of
November the Administration at Richmond received from him a
dispatch that closed with these words: "I deem it due to the
cause and to myself to ask for relief from command and an
investigation into the causes of the defeat." In the middle of
December, Joseph E. Johnston was appointed to succeed him.