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508 Battle of Murfreesborough. [ises to Richmond that he had driven the Unionist forces from every position except their extreme left. During the whole of January 1, 1863, however, Bragg was greatly surprised that the army of Rosecrans did not retreat ; and still more so to find, on the morning of the 2nd, that it had taken up a threatening position. To dislodge it from this, he renewed the attack, but his effort ended in a disastrous repulse, and in the secret withdrawal of the Confederate army before midnight of the 3rd. The forces engaged were nearly equal, about 43,000 on each side ; the Federal loss was 13,249 ; the Confederate 10,266. The superior steadiness and condition of the Federal army and the courage and faith of its commander changed defeat to a victory, which left the Unionist armies in full possession of Kentucky and the greater part of Tennessee. The battle of Murfreesborough was decisive only to the extent that Rosecrans remained in undisturbed possession of the field, while the Confederate forces retreated to a strong position at Shelbyville, ten miles south. In this relative attitude they remained nearly six months, confronting each other, and gathering supplies. Excepting several con- siderable cavalry raids and counter-raids, no important military change occurred in middle Tennessee until Grant completed his investment of Vicksburg. Then Rosecrans moved again, and in a skilful nine days 1 campaign, ending the day before the Vicksburg surrender, pushed Bragg and his army into a retreat southward, across both the Cumberland mountains and the Tennessee river. The Confederates took up a strong position at Chattanooga on the south bank of the Tennessee, the strategical centre and military key to the heart of Georgia and the South; but their retirement gave the Unionist armies complete pos- session of middle Tennessee, and restored the military position to what it had been about one year earlier, at the time when Bragg started on his march of invasion towards Louisville. During the whole of Rosecrans' six months'* delay at Murfreesborough, the Administration was almost constantly urging him forward, and its eagerness for results became more pronounced at this culmination of recent successes. When therefore Rosecrans again halted in his march for six weeks longer, the patience of the President was well-nigh exhausted, and Halleck sent the general a peremptory order to advance. Meanwhile a Unionist force of 24,000 had been organised in eastern Kentucky under General Burnside, which, starting on August 16, and advancing without serious opposition, reached Knoxville in eastern Tennessee on September 4. It was received with demonstrations of heartfelt joy and gratitude by the loyal Unionists who were in a great majority in that region, and who had suffered severe persecution through the military domination of the Confederate forces during the previous portion of the war. About the middle of August, 1863, Rosecrans was ready to move