was very imperfect. There was no bridge over the Tombigby at
Demopolis, and a steam ferry was employed. East of Demopolis, the line
passed through the cane-brake country, a land of fatness. The army of
Lee, starving in the trenches before Richmond and Petersburg, could have
been liberally supplied from this district but for lack of
transportation.

Here it may be asserted that we suffered less from inferiority of
numbers than from want of mechanical resources. Most of the mechanics
employed in the South were Northern men, and returned to their section
at the outbreak of war. The loss of New Orleans, our only large city,
aggravated this trouble, and we had no means of repairing the long lines
of railway, nor the plant. Even when unbroken by raids, wear and tear
rendered them inefficient at an early period of the struggle. This had a
more direct influence on the sudden downfall of the Confederacy than is
generally supposed.

Selma, a place of some five thousand people, is on the north bank of the
Alabama River, by which it has steam communication with Mobile and
Montgomery, forty miles above on the opposite bank. In addition to the
railway from Meridian, there was a line running to the northeast in the
direction of Dalton, Georgia, the existing terminus of which was at Blue
Mountain, a hundred and odd miles from Selma; and, to inspect the line,
I went to Blue Mountain. This, the southern limit of the Alleghanies,
which here sink into the great plain of the gulf, was distant from the
Atlanta and Chattanooga Railway, Sherman's only line of communication,
sixty miles. A force operating from Blue Mountain would approach this
line at a right angle, and, drawing its supplies from the fertile
country near Selma, would cover its own communications while threatening
those of an enemy from Atlanta to Chattanooga. On this account the road
might be of importance.

Returning to Selma, I stopped at Talladega, on the east bank of the
Coosa River, the largest affluent of the Alabama, and navigable by small
steamers to Rome, Georgia. Here I met Brigadier Daniel Adams, in local
command, and learned much of the condition of the surrounding region.
After passing Chattanooga the Tennessee River makes a great bend to the
South, inclosing a part of Alabama between itself and the Tennessee
State line; and in this district was a small Confederate force under
Brigadier Roddy, which was enabled to maintain an exposed position by
knowledge of the