It is necessary now to turn from the Eastern field of operations to the Middle and Western parts of the country, where, however, the control exercised by Mr. Lincoln was far less constant than at the East.  After the series of successes which culminated at Corinth, the Federal good fortune rested as if to recuperate for a while.  A large part of the powerful army there gathered was carried away by Buell, and was soon given occupation by General Bragg.  For Jefferson Davis had long chosen to fancy that Kentucky was held in an unwilling subjection to the Union, and from this thralldom he now designed to relieve her, and to make the Ohio River the frontier of Secession.  Accordingly cavalry raids in considerable force were made, Cincinnati was threatened, and General Bragg, with a powerful army, started northward from Gainesville.  At the same time the Federals left Murfreesboro’, and the two armies raced for Louisville.  Bragg, with a handsome start, should have won, but on September 29, 1862, Buell entered the city ahead.  The winning of the goal, however, was not the end.  Two hostile armies, which had come so far and got so close together, were bound to have a fight.  This took place at Perryville, October 8, with the result that on the next day Bragg began a rapid retreat.  He had brought 20,000 stand of arms for the Kentuckians who were to flock to his camp; but they had not flocked, and the theory of Kentuckian disloyalty was no longer tenable.

So soon as Bragg was out of Kentucky, Halleck, probably at the instigation of the President, recurred to the project of a campaign in Eastern Tennessee.  Buell said that it was not feasible, and since by this opinion he placed himself at odds with the authorities at Washington, he asked to be relieved from his command.  At the close of October, Major-General William S. Rosecrans succeeded him.  But the new commander would not, any more than his predecessor, fall in with Halleck’s schemes, and what Cist contemptuously describes as “Halleck’s brilliant paper campaign into East Tennessee” did not take place.

General Rosecrans took command of the army at Bowling Green, November 2, 1862.  Bragg fell back to Murfreesboro’, in Tennessee, and the city of Nashville, now in Federal possession, became the gage of battle.  On December 26 Rosecrans moved out from that city towards Murfreesboro’, and on January 2, 1863, the battle of Stone’s River took place.  It was desperately contested, and the losses were heavy.  At the close of the day the advantage rested with the Confederates; but it was inconsiderable, and both sides considered the battle only begun.  On the next day, however, Bragg found such dangerous demoralization among his troops that he decided to withdraw.  Although he always persisted in describing himself as the victor in the engagement, yet he now left his wounded in the hospitals, and fell back to Shelbyville.  In these positions, not far apart, the two armies lay for a long while watching each other; there were a few raids and small encounters, but substantially, during the first six months of 1863, quietude reigned in the region which they dominated.