rt Henry, immediately pushed up the Tennessee river and taken a
position on the Memphis and Charleston railroad, between Corinth,
Mississippi, and Decatur, Alabama, which might easily have been done
at that time with a small force, every rebel soldier in Western
Kentucky and Tennessee would have fled from every position to the
south of that railroad; and had Buell pursued the enemy in his retreat
from Nashville, without delay, into a commanding position in North
Alabama, on the railroad between Chattanooga and Decatur, the rebel
government at Richmond would have necessarily been obliged to retreat
to the cotton States. I am fully satisfied that the true policy of
General H----is to strengthen Grant's column by such force as will
enable him at once to seize the Memphis and Charleston railroad, as it
is the readiest means of reducing Island 10 and all the strongholds of
the enemy to Memphis."

Letter written from St. Louis, military headquarters for the
Southwest:

[27]ST. LOUIS, _May 2, 1862_.

"I think the war on the approaches to the Tennessee river has
ended. I think the enemy will retreat to the Grand Junction, some
sixty miles nearer Memphis; and when our forces approach him
there, he will go down the Central Mississippi railroad to
Jackson, and if there is another great battle in the West it will
be there. I think they will try to postpone anything serious
until after the pending battles in Virginia. If they make the
attempt now every leader would be taken in the event of defeat,
without fail, whilst if it is postponed until after the fate of
Virginia is decided the leaders can bring what troops they have
left and, joining them to what they have here, make one last
struggle for life, and if defeated they can escape across the
Mississippi into Arkansas, and through that into Texas and
Mexico. You may rest assured the _leaders_ will not be caught if
they can get away with life; and as to _property_, they have
_that_ secured already. The only way this plan can be frustrated
is to occupy Memphis and Vicksburg strongly, _particularly_ the
_latter_, and send one or more of our gunboats up the _Yazoo_
river _to watch every creek and inlet_, so that they may be
unable to get across the _swamps_ by _canoes_ and _skiffs_.

"I have heard that all the skiffs and canoes have been take