Was General Thomas Slow at Nashville?

In spite of the plainest statements of the situation, of the great disparity of forces, of the dictates of prudence to remain on the defensive until he could strike an effective blow, which he expected to deliver in a few days, Thomas was prodded and nagged from City Point and Washington as no officer in command of an army had been before, and treated day by day as if he needed tutelage. In the last dispatch of the series of clear explanations, -- which under other circumstances than the seething of that inside panic which a full appreciation of the complications that Sherman's march to the sea had caused would doubtless have been accepted, -- General Thomas was peremptorily ordered to "attack Hood at once without waiting for a remount of your cavalry. There is great danger in delay resulting in a campaign back to the Ohio." This was sent in reply to a telegram of Thomas showing that there was the greatest activity in getting the cavalry ready, and he hoped to have it remounted "in three days from this time." To this Thomas replied that he would make all dispositions and attack according to orders, adding, "though I believe it will be hazardous with the small force of cavalry now at my service." Orders to prepare for attack were immediately sent out, and dispositions for the attack began. Meantime a sleet storm came on which covered the country with a glaze of ice over which neither horses, men, nor artillery could move even on level ground, to say nothing of assaulting an enemy intrenched on the hills. The same day Halleck telegraphed: "If you wait till General Wilson mounts all his cavalry you will wait till doomsday, for the waste equals the supply." And General Grant telegraphed orders relieving Thomas. The latter telegraphed Halleck that he was conscious of having done everything possible to prepare the troops to attack, and if he was removed he would submit without a murmur.

The order of relief was suspended. The sleet storm continued. All of General Thomas's officers agreed that it was impracticable to attack. Some of them even found it impossible to ride to headquarters because of the ice, and in the midst of it came an order from Grant: "I am in hopes of receiving a dispatch from you to-day announcing you have moved. Delay no longer for weather or reinforcements."