His instructions required him to repair the road in his rear in order to
bring up supplies. The distance was about three hundred and thirty
miles through a hostile country. His entire command could not have
maintained the road if it had been completed. The bridges had all been
destroyed by the enemy, and much other damage done. A hostile community
lived along the road; guerilla bands infested the country, and more or
less of the cavalry of the enemy was still in the West. Often Sherman's
work was destroyed as soon as completed, and he only a short distance
away.

The Memphis and Charleston Railroad strikes the Tennessee River at
Eastport, Mississippi. Knowing the difficulty Sherman would have to
supply himself from Memphis, I had previously ordered supplies sent from
St. Louis on small steamers, to be convoyed by the navy, to meet him at
Eastport. These he got. I now ordered him to discontinue his work of
repairing roads and to move on with his whole force to Stevenson,
Alabama, without delay. This order was borne to Sherman by a messenger,
who paddled down the Tennessee in a canoe and floated over Muscle
Shoals; it was delivered at Iuka on the 27th. In this Sherman was
notified that the rebels were moving a force towards Cleveland, East
Tennessee, and might be going to Nashville, in which event his troops
were in the best position to beat them there. Sherman, with his
characteristic promptness, abandoned the work he was engaged upon and
pushed on at once. On the 1st of November he crossed the Tennessee at
Eastport, and that day was in Florence, Alabama, with the head of
column, while his troops were still crossing at Eastport, with Blair
bringing up the rear.

Sherman's force made an additional army, with cavalry, artillery, and
trains, all to be supplied by the single track road from Nashville. All