“I will magnify thee, O Lord; for thou hast set me up, and not made my foes to triumph over me.” CHAPTER XIV. GRANT AT CHATTANOOGA--PERIL OF BURNSIDE--THEIR CO-OPERATION--LONGSTREET AT LOUDON--BURNSIDE RETREATS AND IS PURSUED--BATTLE OF CAMPBELL’S STATION--MILITARY CONDITIONS AT KNOXVILLE--ESCAPE OF LEADING UNIONISTS. “Once this soft turf, this rivulet’s sands, Were trampled by a hurrying crowd, And fiery hearts and armed hands Encountered in the battle cloud. Ah! never shall the land forget How gushed the life-blood of her brave:-- Gushed, warm with hope and courage yet, Upon the soil they sought to save.” WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. The departure of Longstreet from Bragg against Burnside, taking with him twenty thousand men, or more, including 5,000 cavalry under Wheeler occurred on the 4th of November. It was very soon known at the United States headquarters at Chattanooga and at the White House in Washington. Grant was eagerly desirous to extend relief to Burnside, but it was not in his power. That end would have been gained by inflicting a defeat upon Bragg, against whom he could not move until joined by Sherman, who was then on his way with reinforcements from Memphis to Chattanooga. Before Longstreet started on his expedition, dispatches were constantly coming to Grant from the alarmed authorities at Washington, urging him to “do something for Burnside’s relief;” calling attention to the importance of holding East Tennessee, saying that the President was much concerned for the protection of the loyal people in that section, &c., &c. To this statement in Grant’s Personal Memoirs, he adds: “We had not at Chattanooga animals to pull a single piece of artillery, much less a supply train. Reinforcements could not help Burnside, because he had neither supplies nor ammunition sufficient for them: hardly, indeed, bread and meat for the men he had. There was no relief possible for him, except by repelling the enemy from Missionary Ridge and about Chattanooga.”