ain an enfilading fire
upon the heavy body of troops massed in front of Negley and Palmer. The
center and left, using Negley's right as a pivote, were to swing around
through Murfreesboro and take the force confronting McCook in rear,
driving it into the country towards Salem. The successful execution of
General Rosecrans' design depended not more upon the spirit and gallantry
of the assaulting column than upon the courage and obstinacy with which
the position held by the Right Wing was maintained. Having explained this
fact to General McCook, the commanding general asked him if, with a full
knowledge of the ground over which he had fought, he could hold his
position three hours--again alluding to his dissatisfaction with the
direction which his line had assumed, but, as before, leaving that to the
corps commander--"I think I can," said McCook, and the conference ended.

General Braxton Bragg, a graduate of West Point, a master in military
science, a commander whose endurance and hard fighting qualities in the
field were more conspicuous than his generalship in the management of
campaign, was in command of the Confederate army at Murfreesboro. He had
taken up the execution of the plan of battle where it had dropped from the
dying hand of Albert Sydney Johnston, and was advancing to carry it out at
Shiloh, when his brigades were recalled by Beauregard, sick in an
ambulance three miles in the rear. He had, by a brilliant flank movement
of three hundred miles through a mountainous region, gained Buell's rear
in Kentucky, only to emerge from the farthest corner of the State without
a decisive battle. Recriminations had grown out of this campaign which
threatened to sap the influence of the commanding general. General Polk
had been threatened with court-martial, and Hardee expressed the opinion
that if Bragg persisted in bringing charges, Polk could, if he would, "rip
up the Kentucky campaign--tear Bragg to tatters." These compliments,
however, passed only between prominent officers; the army was in good
state of discipline, although out of an aggregate 85,372 only 47,930 were
carried on the rolls as effectives, and 30,000 were absent, with and
without leave.

Bragg had in his army about the same proportion of raw troops to veterans
as were found in that in his front, and both armies were equally well
armed. Men who had tested each other's metal at Pea Ridge, Shiloh, and
Perryville, and in innumerable skirmishes, were again