Meantime the rebel General Forrest had made a bold circuit in Middle Tennessee, avoiding all fortified points, and breaking up the railroad at several places; but, as usual, he did his work so hastily and carelessly that our engineers soon repaired the damage—­then, retreating before General Rousseau, he left the State of Tennessee, crossing the river near Florence, Alabama, and got off unharmed.

On the 10th of October the enemy appeared south of the Etowah River at Rome, when I ordered all the armies to march to Kingston, rode myself to Cartersville with the Twenty-third Corps (General Cox), and telegraphed from there to General Thomas at Nashville: 

It looks to me as though Hood was bound for Tuscumbia.  He is now crossing the Coosa River below Rome, looking west.  Let me know if you can hold him with your forces now in Tennessee and the expected reenforeements, as, in that event, you know what I propose to do.

I will be at Kingston to-morrow.  I think Rome is strong enough to resist any attack, and the rivers are all high.  If he turns up by Summerville, I will get in behind him.

And on the same day to General Grant, at City Point: 

Hood is now crossing the Coosa, twelve miles below Rome, bound west.  If he passes over to the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, had I not better execute the plan of my letter sent you by Colonel Porter, and leave General Thomas, with the troops now in Tennessee, to defend the State?  He will have an ample force when the reenforcements ordered reach Nashville.

I found General John E. Smith at Cartersville, and on the 11th rode on to Kingston, where I had telegraphic communications in all directions.

From General Corse, at Rome, I learned that Hood’s army had disappeared, but in what direction he was still in doubt; and I was so strongly convinced of the wisdom of my proposition to change the whole tactics of the campaign, to leave Hood to General Thomas, and to march across Georgia for Savannah or Charleston, that I again telegraphed to General Grant: 

We cannot now remain on the defensive.  With twenty-five thousand infantry and the bold cavalry he has, Hood can constantly break my road.  I would infinitely prefer to make a wreck of the road and of the country from Chattanooga to Atlanta, including the latter city; send back all my wounded and unserviceable men, and with my effective army move through Georgia, smashing things to the sea.  Hood may turn into Tennessee and Kentucky, but I believe he will be forced to follow me.  Instead of being on the defensive, I will be on the offensive.  Instead of my guessing at what he means to do, he will have to guess at my plans.  The difference in war would be fully twenty-five per pent.  I can make Savannah, Charleston, or the month of the Chattahoochee (Appalachicola).  Answer quick, as I know we will not have the telegraph long.