Gaylesville Cherokee Alabama United States

Hood has begun to focus his strategy.

He needs to prevent Thomas's army from reuniting with Sherman and overwhelming him, and he calculates that if he moved swiftly into Tennessee, he might be able to defeat Thomas before the Union forces could be reassembled.

After Thomas is eliminated, Hood plans to move into central Kentucky and replenish his army with recruits from there and Tennessee.

He hopes to accomplish all of this before Sherman can reach him.

His plan is that if Sherman follows him, Hood will fight him in Kentucky; from there he plans to move eastward through the Cumberland Gap to aid Robert E. Lee, who is besieged at Petersburg.

On October 21, Hood's plan receives the reluctant approval of General Beauregard, who is concerned about the daunting logistical challenges of an invasion.

Beauregard insists that Wheeler's cavalry be detached to monitor Sherman, and assigns Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry to Hood's advance.

Hood sets out toward Decatur, Alabama, with the intention of meeting up with Forrest in the vicinity of Florence, from where they will march north into Tennessee.

Hood had withdrawn from Resaca, on a six-day march to the west toward Gadsden, Alabama, reaching it on October 20.

He had hoped to engage Sherman in battle near LaFayette, Georgia, but his subordinate commanders had convinced him that their troops' morale was not ready to risk an attack.

He considers his campaign a success so far, having destroyed twenty-four miles of railroad, although this turns out to be a fleeting advantage to the South.

Sherman deploys as many as ten thousand men in reconstruction and by October 28 regular rail service resumes between Chattanooga and Atlanta.

Sherman pursues Hood only as far as Gaylesville, Alabama, over thirty miles short of Gadsden.