[240] Quitman and Prentiss and Walker and many others noted in Southern life were of Northern birth. Many who had thus come, profoundly convinced of the right of the Southern cause, entered her armies and became distinguished. In 1862 the Army of Tennessee, having felt the first great shock of battle at Shiloh, the sons of the South were again ready to strike a blow in defense of their homes and firesides. The sons of the North, too, distinguished for their valor in that most desperate battle of the war, knew what it was to meet the Southern soldiery along the line of fire. The Army of Tennessee was in a state of fine discipline. Its chief did not equal in his genius for battle the fiery spirit and undaunted courage of its disciplined soldiers. We do not mean to detract from General Bragg. He loved the South. He was perhaps the best disciplinarian that ever controlled an army during the struggle. He could strike a first blow with great force. His strategy in forcing the Federal armies from Tennessee and adjacent States into Kentucky was simply masterly. Buell, who led the Federal forces, and who would not overstate the character of the Confederates, on the 4th of November, 1862, uses this language of the Confederate army:
It was composed of veteran troops, well armed and thoroughly inured to hardships. Every circumstance of its march and the concurrent testimony of all who came within reach of its line attest that it was under perfect discipline.In one respect perhaps he overstates. Many were armed with the old muskets; and the cartridge was the ball with three shots. Their destructive force, however, was felt at Shiloh, and also at Perryville, for at night on that field many were completely equipped with the modern rifles captured that day. The Federal army, on the other hand, was magnificently equipped. Each had just recovered from the conflict at Shiloh, in which at the close of the first day the Federal forces were heavily re-enforced by Buell's army, and the latter were flushed with a victory, if one it might be called. After a short stay at Tupelo, a short period of drilling and discipline at Chattanooga, in the latter part of August, 1862, the Southern army started on the campaign into Kentucky— Bragg, with 20,000, passing Sequatchie valley, Sparta, Greensboro, thence into Kentucky, by way of Munfordville to the scene of severe conflict, of which we are about to speak, and Kirby Smith, with some 15,000, going from Knoxville across the Cumberland Mountains,
