attle. So entirely was he convinced that strategy was the whole
art of war, that he was accustomed to speak of himself as the only
general of his army, thus subordinating the mere command and movement
of forces to the art of strategy. Judged by this standard, which is
acknowledged by all military men, Anna Ella Carroll, of Maryland,
holds foremost rank as a military genius. On the 12th of November,
1861, while still in St. Louis, Miss Carroll wrote to Hon. Edward
Bates at Washington (the member of the Cabinet who first suggested the
expedition down the Mississippi), that from information gained by her
she believed this plan would fail, and urged him, instead, to have the
expedition directed up the Tennessee River, as the true line of
attack. She also dispatched a similar letter to Hon. Thomas A. Scott,
at that time Assistant Secretary of War. On the 30th of this month
(November, 1861), Miss Carroll laid the following plan, accompanied by
explanatory maps, before the War Department:

The civil and military authorities seem to me to be laboring
under a great mistake in regard to the true key of the war in the
South-west. It is not the Mississippi, but the Tennessee River.
Now, all the military preparations made in the West indicate that
the Mississippi River is the point to which the authorities are
directing their attention. On that river many battles must be
fought and heavy risks incurred, before any impression can be
made on the enemy, all of which could be avoided by using the
Tennessee River. This river is navigable for medium-class boats
to the foot of Muscle Shoals in Alabama, and is open to
navigation all the year, while the distance is but two hundred
and fifty miles by the river from Paducah on the Ohio. The
Tennessee offers many advantages over the Mississippi. We should
avoid the almost impregnable batteries of the enemy, which can
not be taken without great danger and great risk of life to our
forces, from the fact that our forces, if crippled, would fall a
prey to the enemy by being swept by the current to him, and away
from the relief of our friends. But even should we succeed, still
we have only begun the war, for we shall then have to fight the
country from whence the enemy derives his supplies.

Now an advance up the Tennessee River would avoid this danger;
for, if our boats were crippled, they