DEATH OF GEN. J. B. McPHERSON.JULY 22D, 1864.From Painting by J. E. Taylor.
DEATH OF GEN. J. B. McPHERSON.JULY 22D, 1864.
DEATH OF GEN. J. B. McPHERSON.
JULY 22D, 1864.
From Painting by J. E. Taylor.
The line held by Johnston at Kenesaw and Pine Top was a strong one. But it was twelve miles long, and he had scarcely enough men to hold it at all points. To attack him on the crest of Kenesaw Mountain would be a hopeless task. But Sherman thought he could break through his lines on the gentler southern slope. On June 11th the advance began. Hooker was at the right front and Howard at the left front, and they pressed forward with great vigor. During their cannonading, on June 14th, they inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy, killing General Polk. Next day the Rebels abandoned Pine Mountain and retired to Muddy Creek, holding the rugged range of hills betweenKenesaw and Lost Mountains. Again Sherman pressed the centre and turning to Johnston's flank on the 17th captured Lost Mountain and all the hills except Kenesaw. For three weeks thereafter the Union army vainly sought to dislodge Johnston from the heights of Kenesaw. It seemed an impossible task. The whole mountain was a fortress. There were miles of strong intrenchments. All the time the rain fell in torrents and the low lands were flooded. The roads were almost impassable. Sherman's soldiers at times worked knee deep in mud. But they kept on working.
The army was not content with besieging Kenesaw, but kept trying to work its way around that mountain. Disquieted by these events, the enemy sought to check them on June 22d, by a sharp attack upon Hooker at Kulp's farm, which was repulsed with heavy losses. Five days later, the 27th of June, Sherman ordered an attack to be made just South of the mountain, by Thomas, and a supporting movement by McPherson northward. They were both repulsed with heavy losses, and Sherman then decided to waste no more lives in direct attacks, but to turn the enemy's position, as he had done several times before. So on July 1st, McPherson marched toward Turner's Ferry, there to cross the Chattahoochee. The movement was effective. Johnston immediately abandoned Kenesaw, and retreated five miles, to Smyrna Camp Ground.
That Fourth of July Sherman was exultant. He did not believe the enemy would make another stand that side of the Chattahoochee. But Howard thought otherwise, and soon proved, by sending out a double line of skirmishers, that he was right. Johnston had intrenched himself strongly, and threatened to dispute Sherman's further progress toward Atlanta. Schofield made a strong demonstrationacross a neighboring ferry, however, and Johnston soon fell back to the Chattahoochee bridge, Thomas following closely. The river was deep and swift, but Sherman determined to cross it. Schofield went over first, near the mouth of South Creek; then McPherson further up at Roswell; Thomas built a bridge at Power's Ferry and crossed over, nearest of all to the Rebel lines; and thus, by July 9th, they had crossed the river at three points and commanded three good roads to Atlanta. And the Rebel position was once more turned. Forthwith Johnston hurried across the river, burning the bridges behind him.
"At Smyrna," says General Howard, "Atlanta was in plain sight. Johnston had bothered us long. He had repelled direct assaults with success except, perhaps, at Muddy Creek where Baird and Harker had ditched and covered their men, in the open, at one of his angles, and then had run squarely over his barricades. But Sherman, by that unceasing flanking operation of his, persistently undertaken and accomplished, while Hooker, Palmer, and Howard were hammering away at the centre motes, which had no approaches and no drawbridges, and now at last pressed Johnston back, back across the Etowah and across the Chattahoochee. Johnston had planned a final terrible blow for him at Peach Tree, when, fortunately for Sherman and his army, Jefferson Davis, favoring, as he claimed, the indications of Providence, relieved the able Johnston from command, and put in charge the hardy but rash Hood. He at once, as was expected, took the offensive. He came on, as at Gettysburg, from the close wood into the valley, to welcome us in his charming way, several miles out from Atlanta. His blows were so sudden and his onslaught so swift, that at first it disturbed Hooker's breathing, madeWilliams talk fast, and Geary suspend his favorite Kansas stories and tales of the Mexican war. In the language of the football men, the Unions for a few hours, 'had a hard tussle.' They lost heavily, but managed to keep on the Atlanta side of the Peach Tree. Newton planted his big cross, made of soldiers, at the east end of Thomas's line, and Newton, though no doubt badly terrified, was as always, too obstinate to go back. Thomas's modesty put in additional reserve batteries and kept pieces of iron rattling among the chaparral and alders of those low-land intervales. So Thomas and Newton preserved that weak left flank from capture. Hood had put forth his tremendous energy, but was baffled and turned back to his cover within the fortified lines of Atlanta."
By this time the people of Georgia were fully roused from their old feeling of false security. They had seen the Union Army march triumphantly over the mountain barrier at the northwest. They had seen their favorite commander, Johnston, and his great army, driven from point to point and forced to surrender positions which had been deemed impregnable. And now Sherman's conquering hosts, flushed with success, had crossed the Chattahoochee and lay only eight miles from Atlanta. Consternation prevailed throughout the State, and the people of Atlanta itself were panic-stricken. Nor were they allowed to gain new courage by a respite. Sherman's advance upon the city suffered no delay. A strong cavalry force was pushed forward from Decatur, Alabama, to Opelika, and thence to Marietta, completely cutting off Johnston's army from all sources of supply and reinforcement in that direction. Sherman also brought up fresh stores from Chattanooga. July 17th a general advance was made.
On this very day the Rebel government at Richmond committed an act that was worth three victories to the Union Army. There had long been antagonism between Joe Johnston and J. P. Benjamin, the Rebel Secretary of War, and Jefferson Davis had sympathized with the latter. Benjamin had now been removed from office, but his successor, Seddon, had inherited the antagonism to Johnston. So now, on July 17th, a dispatch came to Johnston from Richmond, saying that since he had failed to check Sherman's advance the government had no confidence in his ability to do so, and ordering him immediately to surrender his command to General Hood. This did great injustice to Johnston, but it also did greater injury to Rebel cause. Hood was a brave general, but rash and not competent to direct the operations of a great army in an important campaign. Indeed he himself felt most deeply his unfitness to continue Johnston's work, although he of course resolved to do his best.
In response to the harsh criticisms made upon him for not fighting a decisive battle with Sherman, Johnston said:
"Defeat would have been our ruin. Our troops, always fighting under cover, had trifling losses when compared with the enemy, whose numerical superiority was thus reduced daily and rapidly. We could, therefore, reasonably expect to cope with him on equal terms by the time that the Chattahoochee was passed. Defeat on our side of that river would have been his destruction. We, if beaten, had a refuge in Atlanta too strong to be assaulted, too extensive to be invested. I also hoped, by breaking the railroad in his rear, that he might be compelled to attack us in a position of our own choosing, or to a retreat easily converted into a rout. After we crossed the Etowah,five detachments of cavalry were successively sent with instructions to destroy as much as they could of the railroad between Dalton and the Etowah; all failed, because too weak. We could never spare a sufficient body of cavalry for this service, as its assistance was absolutely necessary in the defence of every position we occupied. Early in the campaign the statements of the strength of cavalry in the Departments of Mississippi and East Louisiana given me by Lieutenant-General Polk, just from that command, and my telegraphic correspondence with his successor, led me to hope that a competent force could be sent from Mississippi and Alabama to prevent the use of the railroad by the United States army."
The Rebel army was now about 51,000 strong, and was strongly posted at Peach Tree Creek, four miles northwest of Atlanta. The place had been selected by Johnston for a decisive battle, and he had expected that the Union Army, in spreading out to flank him, would weaken its centre so that he could make an effective attack. Exactly this thing occurred, and on the afternoon of July 20th, the Rebel blow was struck. Hood's troops came rushing down the hillside against the Union lines with just such fury as Stonewall Jackson's columns used to display. But they were met by strong resistance, and after a bloody conflict, were driven to their intrenchments. Thus the first of Johnston's plans which Hood tried to execute, failed. The second plan and effort was to withdraw the main army from Peach Tree Creek far to the right, leaving Atlanta almost undefended, and then fall upon Sherman's left flank as his army advanced upon the city.
When Sherman came up and found the works on Peach Tree Creek abandoned, he thought Atlanta also had been evacuated, and he marched right up to within two miles ofthat city. Then after an all night circuit the Rebel attack was made upon his left and rear. For four hours the battle raged furiously. The Union lines were broken and some guns captured. Sherman watched the struggle from a point between Schofield and McPherson, John A. Logan and other officers performed prodigies of valor, and finally the Rebels were checked and driven back, leaving more than three thousand dead upon the field, together with other thousands of wounded and about one thousand prisoners. Their total loss must have been at least eight thousand, while Sherman's entire loss, in killed, wounded and prisoners, was 3,722. But in this battle almost in the outset the Union Army suffered an irreparable loss in the death of the gallant and accomplished McPherson, who was shot by Rebel skirmishers as he was hastening from Dodge's Corps to Blair's through the woods,i.e., the left flank of the army, to meet there the Rebel attack which first struck his rear.
Who should succeed McPherson in command was a question that caused some perplexity. Logan succeeding to McPherson in the battle had done well, but was junior to several corps commanders, and had, as Sherman thought, some other disabilities, as a rivalry between him and Blair, and political aspirations. At last Sherman and Thomas agreed upon the appointment of General O. O. Howard, a choice which was promptly approved by the Government at Washington. This offended Hooker, Howard's senior in rank. He had aspired to succeed McPherson, and so at once asked to be relieved of the command of the Twentieth Corps. His wish, as before Gettysburg, was granted, and General Slocum came from Vicksburg to take his place.
The 26th of July Sherman's army lay before Atlanta in this position: the Army of the Tennessee was at the left,the Army of the Ohio, under Schofield, came next; the Army of the Cumberland, under Thomas, completed the line at the right. This line was about five miles long, and strongly fortified. The cavalry and other minor detachments of the army were posted at the rear and at the flank.
The 27th, General Howard took command and marched around beyond Thomas. At Ezra Church, due west from Atlanta, the next battle was fought on July 28th. Howard, putting in his last corps, had led the way thither, believing that at this point the Rebel attack would be made. Hood's men came on with a rush, and some of them forced their way for a space beyond the Union right. But Howard's troops, particularly the Fifteenth Corps, under Logan, aided by detachments from Dodge and Blair, stood like an iron wall, and repulsed the enemy with a coolness and steadiness that has seldom been equalled. Artillery and repeating rifles threw back the enemy's flanks. Attack after attack was made by the Rebels, with the same result, and the engagement finally ended in an unqualified victory for the Union army. "As this," says General Howard, "was Hood's third attempt, anger and energy were engendered in his heart and transfused into his charging lines; it showed itself in the scream, the yell, the run, the brisk, unceasing musket-fire, and the cannon roar. We who were there cannot forget them. But at last our enemy was effectually repulsed and the sad field at night was ours. The baffled Confederates again returned to the shelter of their protecting batteries."
This was Howard's first engagement after his appointment to succeed McPherson, and both he and Sherman were deeply gratified at its result. When the conflict was at its height, a straggler of some rank hurried to Sherman with the report that Howard was proving incompetent andthat his army was going to pieces. Sherman asked him if Howard himself was at the scene of action. He replied, "Yes, I suppose so." "Well," said Sherman, "I will wait till I hear from him."
During the early days of August Sherman kept extending his lines to the right, with frequent demonstrations against the enemy at all points. He brought down from Chattanooga some heavy rifled guns with which to bombard the enemy's works. Many of the shells fell beyond the enemy's fortifications in the city itself, and did much damage. At the middle of the month it was decided to execute a grand flank movement around the city. The advance was made toward the right or southward. At the same time Hood sent a force of cavalry, from 6,000 to 10,000 strong, to pass around Sherman's rear and cut off his communications and lines of supply. Sherman was glad to learn this, for he knew that the absence of these troops from the Rebel army would be a more serious loss to Hood than they could possibly inflict upon the Union army. He at once halted his flanking movement, and sent Kilpatrick with 5,000 cavalry to break the West Point Railroad near Fairburn, and then go on and break the Macon Railroad, cutting off Atlanta from the Southern counties. Kilpatrick was not able to accomplish this work as completely as Sherman desired, and the flanking movement was soon resumed. On the night of August 26th, the Army of the Tennessee moved to the South, followed by the Army of the Cumberland, while the Army of the Ohio remained substantially in its position. The armies thoroughly accomplished the destructive work which Kilpatrick had tried to do, and then faced eastward. Howard encountered the enemy's cavalry at several points, and drove it before him. "From the 25th to the 30th ofAugust," says General Howard, "Sherman's forces made a curious manœuvre. If you should face a line of cavalry, infantry and artillery to the rear, and then make a little more than a half wheel about its new left as a pivot, you would get some idea of the manner in which we fell upon Hood's communications. Yet the line, like an Indian rubber string, was stretched out till the Army of the Tennessee, rapidly marching, reached Renfro Place, twenty-five miles from Atlanta. Schofield kept near the pivot, and Thomas was between.
"The evening of the thirtieth, after a weary day during which our cavalry and infantry had been forcing a succession of log barricades and repairing culverts and bridges, we came to a tract of barren sand-banks, intending to camp there for the night. After a short halt, I called Kilpatrick to me and said: 'It is but six miles to Flint River, where a bridge crosses, and but a few more miles to Jonesboro, the railway station. Can you send me an officer who can take a squadron of cavalry and keep Wheeler's rear guard in motion?' 'Yes, here is Captain Estes. He can do it if anybody can.' 'All right, go ahead, Estes; I will follow you with infantry.' Wheeler's men, thinking we had stopped for the night, had already dismounted and were preparing to bivouac at a respectful distance, when suddenly they beheld Captain Estes with his indomitable squadron charging down the road. The Confederates sprang to their saddles and nobody tarried, neither pursuer or pursued, till the Flint River bridge had been reached. Our men extinguished the flames already kindled, saved the bridge, and soon were crossing in force, just as the twilight was darkening into the night. One corps, Logan's, was quickly marched over and along the farther bank of the river and began to ascend the wooded hillbeyond. Hardee's Confederate Corps, hastily brought hither by rail from Atlanta, now gave in the darkness only a feeble skirmish line resistance. We charged the hill, cleared the way to the crest, and the men, though exceedingly weary with a long march of twenty-five miles or more, worked the whole night, so strong were they then to cover their front with the habitual intrenchments.
"The next day, the thirty-first of August, Logan's and Ransom's men supported by Blair, received Hardee's renewal of the conflict. The charges were not as vigorous as at Atlanta. They were, all along the line, repulsed. Before the next day Thomas had closed in on my left; had a combat, and the two together made a vigorous push for Jonesboro. By this movement Hardee's half of Hood's army was dislodged. The instant the situation was known Hood, still 25 miles back at Atlanta, he abandoned the city and succeeded by a wonderful night march in forming a junction with Hardee below us at Lovejoy station.
"Slocum, who with the Twentieth Corps being left behind, had intrenched himself in a strong fortified place across Sherman's northern communications, soon had positive evidence by the city fires and explosions, that Hood had left. He put his columns in motion at dawn of September second and marched joyously into the lately beleaguered city.
"General Sherman, who was near us at Jonesboro, gives a graphic picture: that night, he says, he was so restless and impatient that he could not sleep. About midnight there arose, toward Atlanta, sounds of shells exploding and other sounds like that of musketry. He walked to the house of a farmer close by his bivouac, and called him out to listen. The farmer said, that these sounds were just like those of a battle. An interval of quiet then ensued,when again, about 4 A. M., arose another similar explosion. Sherman remained in doubt whether the enemy was engaged in blowing up his own magazines, or whether General Slocum had not felt forward and become engaged in a real battle. Finally a note from Slocum himself assured the anxious General of the facts. Then, as he turned back to take possession, Sherman sent Mr. Lincoln that memorable despatch: 'Atlanta is ours and fairly won.'
"Probably no words uttered at this date could give to our children an idea of the joy and the assurance of hope that penetrated all classes of society when the proclamation was made at Washington and echoed through the North and West, 'Atlanta is won.' It meant that our glorious cause had prevailed. Rebellion, it is said, cannot last much longer. It spoke of the end of war, of the beginning of peace, glimpses of which were already seen from the hilltops of Georgia. It meant speedy emancipation to white men as well as to black. It spoke of happy homes soon to be visited, of lovely women and precious children who had long waited for such good news, and whose eyes were already sparkling with delight to welcome us home.
"Yes, yes, 'Atlanta won' was indeed a bow of promise set in the clouds, though yet heavy; a bow of promise to America and to the world, that right and justice should prevail, and God's will be done sooner or later upon the earth."
Congratulations and Rejoicings—Sherman's Address to his Army—Incidents of the Campaign—Appearance of Atlanta and its Environs—Hood's Northward March—How Corse Held the Fort—Sherman's Stern Work at Atlanta—Exchange of Prisoners—Organizing for the March to the Sea—Sketches of Howard and Slocum—Orders for the Campaign—Cutting off all Communication with the North—Atlanta in Ruins—Marching toward the Sea.
Congratulations and Rejoicings—Sherman's Address to his Army—Incidents of the Campaign—Appearance of Atlanta and its Environs—Hood's Northward March—How Corse Held the Fort—Sherman's Stern Work at Atlanta—Exchange of Prisoners—Organizing for the March to the Sea—Sketches of Howard and Slocum—Orders for the Campaign—Cutting off all Communication with the North—Atlanta in Ruins—Marching toward the Sea.
Sherman and his command took possession of Atlanta with mingled emotions. There was much regret for the long line of graves of gallant men that marked the path from Chattanooga; most of all, for that of the loved and trusted McPherson. Yet there was much exultation at the great victory won, which had struck the Confederacy a death blow and sent rejoicing to every loyal heart in all the Union. Congratulations poured in. Lincoln telegraphed to Sherman: "The National thanks are rendered by the President to Major-General W. T. Sherman and the gallant officers and soldiers of his command before Atlanta, for the distinguished ability and perseverance displayed in the campaign in Georgia, which, under Divine favor, has resulted in the capture of Atlanta. The marches, battles, sieges and other military operations, that have signalized the campaign, must render it famous in the annals of war, and have entitled those who have participated therein tothe applause and thanks of the Nation." And Grant telegraphed from City Point: "In honor of your great victory I have ordered a salute to be fired with shotted guns from every battery bearing upon the enemy. The salute will be fired within an hour, amid great rejoicing."
These and other similar dispatches Sherman communicated to his army, together with the news of illuminations, flag-raisings, bell-ringings, mass-meetings and other scenes of rejoicing throughout the country. He also issued the following congratulatory order:
"The officers and soldiers of the Armies of the Cumberland, Ohio and Tennessee, have already received the thanks of the Nation through its President and Commander-in-Chief; and it now only remains with him who has been with you from the beginning, and who intends to stay all the time, to thank the officers and the men for their intelligence, fidelity and courage displayed in the campaign of Atlanta.
"On the first day of May our armies were lying in garrison, seemingly quiet, from Knoxville to Huntsville, and our enemy lay behind his rocky-faced barrier at Dalton, proud, defiant, and exulting. He had had time since Christmas to recover from his discomfiture on the Mission Ridge, with his ranks filled, and a new Commander-in-Chief, second to none of the Confederacy in reputation for skill, sagacity and extreme popularity.
"All at once our armies assumed life and action, and appeared before Dalton; threatening Rocky Face, we threw ourselves upon Resaca, and the Rebel army only escaped by the rapidity of its retreat, aided by the numerous roads with which he was familiar, and which were strange to us.
"Again he took post at Allatoona, but we gave him no rest, and by a circuit toward Dallas, and a subsequent movement to Ackworth, we gained the Allatoona Pass. Then followed the eventful battles about Kenesaw, and the escape of the enemy across the Chattahoochee River.
"The crossing of the Chattahoochee, and breaking of the Augusta road, was most handsomely executed by us, and will be studied as an example in the art of war. At this stage of our game, our enemies became dissatisfied with their old and skilful commander, and selected one more bold and rash. New tactics were adopted. Hood first boldly and rapidly, on the 20th of July, fell on our right at Peach Tree Creek, and lost.
"Again, on the 22d, he struck our extreme left, and was severely punished; and finally again, on the 28th he repeated the attempt on our right, and that time must have been satisfied, for since that date he has remained on the defensive. We slowly and gradually drew our lines about Atlanta, feeling for the railroads which supplied the Rebel army and made Atlanta a place of importance.
"We must concede to our enemy that he met these efforts patiently and skilfully, but at last he made the mistake we had waited for so long, and sent his cavalry to our rear, far beyond the reach of recall. Instantly our cavalry was on his only remaining road, and we followed quickly with our principal army, and Atlanta fell into our possession as the fruit of well-concerted measures, backed by a brave and confident army.
"This completed the grand task which had been assigned us by our Government, and your General again repeats his personal and official thanks to all the officers and men composing this army, for the indomitable courage and perseverance which alone could give success.
"We have beaten our enemy on every ground he has chosen, and have wrested from him his own Gate City, where were located his foundries, arsenals and work-shops, deemed secure on account of their distance from our base, and the seeming impregnable obstacles intervening. Nothing is impossible to an army like this, determined to vindicate a Government which has rights wherever our flag has once floated, and is resolved to maintain them at any and all cost.
"In our campaign many, yea, very many of our noble and gallant comrades have preceded us to our common destination, the grave; but they have left the memory of deeds, on which a Nation can build a proud history. McPherson, Harker, McCook, and others, dear to us all are now the binding links in our minds that should attach more closely together the living, who have to complete the task which still lays before us in the dim future.
"I ask all to continue as they have so well begun, the cultivation of the soldierly virtues that have ennobled our own and other countries. Courage, patience, obedience to the laws and constituted authorities of our Government; fidelity to our trusts, and good feeling among each other; each trying to excel the other in the practice of those high qualities, and it will then require no prophet to foretell that our country will in time emerge from this war, purified by the fires of war and worthy its great founder, Washington."
Sherman had, on August 12th, been made a Major-General in the Regular Army.
It was possible now and even after to recall many dramatic and even humorous incidents of the campaign. At one point Sherman's soldiers, looking back, saw a line of bridges in flames over a stream they had just crossed.
"Hello, Charley," exclaimed one, "Uncle Billy Sherman has set the river on fire." "Well," replied Charley, "if he has I reckon its all right." Their fun, even, showed their confidence.
The Rebels also came to have a remarkable degree of confidence in Sherman's ability. The rapidity of his marches and the readiness with which his armies rebuilt roads and bridges bewildered them. It was after a time a current saying in the Rebel camp that there was no use in burning bridges, for Sherman carried a large assortment of duplicates along with him to replace them. Then, when Wheeler's Cavalry was sent north to cut Sherman's communications at the rear, a Rebel soldier remarked one day: "Well, the Yanks will have to git up and git, now, for I heard General Johnston himself say that General Wheeler had blown up the tunnel near Dalton and the Yanks would have to retreat because they could get no more rations." "Oh shucks," said another, "don't you know that old Sherman carries a duplicate tunnel along?"
On September 6th, a writer inThe New York Tribune, described the appearance of the captured city, at the entrance of the troops, as follows:
"The Twentieth Corps is now located in the famous city, occupying the forts and earthworks so recently filled by the Rebels. The city was captured by Colonel Coburn, Thirty-third Indiana, on the 2d inst., who was sent by General Slocum from the Chattahoochee River on a reconnoisance. The same day the corps followed in. The works of the enemy are of the most formidable character, embracing a circuit of some twelve miles. The abattis, palisades, rifle pits, ramparts, lunettes, redoubts, redans and varied forms of earthworks, exhibit every variety of defensive expedient used in modern warfare. Nothing inmilitary experience has surpassed the industry of the enemy, in this campaign, except that of our own. Here, he had some 1,500 negro men constantly at work, and marched them off, with tools on shoulder, when he left. The hills at all points around the city afforded good positions for such works.
BATTLE OF ATLANTA.From painting by J. E. Taylor.
BATTLE OF ATLANTA.
BATTLE OF ATLANTA.
From painting by J. E. Taylor.
"This is a peculiar city, with streets diverging from the centre and running out upon ridges while the intervening spaces are not built upon, just as if the map were a wagon-wheel and the business were near and around the hub and the residences were built along the spokes to the outer rim. Many of these residences are elegant and convenient, with large lots and fine shrubbery. The native growth is a mixture of small oak and pine, while the hand of culture has interspersed the China tree, Grape, Myrtle, Rose, Laurel, Holly, Honey-suckle, Sensitive plant, and a multitude of beautiful shrubs, full of odors and rich colors. Indeed, nothing can exceed the beauty of the plants and trees of this region.
"The city has contained a population of eighteen thousand inhabitants (about six thousand are here now), and on account of the salubrity of the climate and purity of its waters, it being on the dividing ridge between the Gulf and the Atlantic, has become a place of residence to many wealthy persons.
"Here figs are now ripe and hanging on the trees, this being the second crop. Grapes grow in abundance, and wine is made of a delicious flavor.
"The houses are, many of them, disfigured with marks of our shot, splintered cornices and doorways—shattered roofs and chimneys, perforated walls and torn fences show the frightful look of these swift messengers whirling night and day over the doomed place. Many a tenement has itsunderground retreat; some are lined with cotton bales, some with timbers, and some banked around with earth.
"When the enemy's troops were about to leave they set fire to immense trains of cars and wagons, loaded with army stores and ammunition. More than a hundred cars were burned at the Augusta depot, shell, torpedoes, fireballs, and boxes of ammunition popping, blazing and roaring, shook the city and were heard plainly by us at the river. When Colonel Coburn entered the city they were exploding in the forts, and sounded like the continual discharge of artillery.
"What machinery had not been removed has been destroyed. The great rolling mill has been taken to Augusta, and it is said, will be taken to Deep River, North Carolina, and put up. Our position here cuts the enemy off from his greatest iron works in Northern Georgia. There are some of considerable extent yet used by them near Selma, Alabama. We see fire brick here which are made near Augusta, the bed of clay having been discovered since the war; before that time they were procured in the North. We see also in the ruins of the rolling mill a quantity of gunboat iron five inches thick, ready rolled for plating.
"The surrounding county is hilly and poor. South of this the water is not good, and the land is much lower and richer. To the east, about fifteen miles, is Stone Mountain, a grand elevation of more than two thousand feet, affording a prospect of unequalled extent and beauty.
"It is a solitary sugar-loaf, and looms up from the horizon gray and grand. Northwest, some eight miles, is the Chattahoochee River, a yellow, muddy and swift-running stream, some two hundred yards wide. Chattahoochee means 'blossoming rocks.' The Cherokees so named it from a great ledge of beautifully-colored rock on its banks,which resembles flowers. The river of 'blossoming rocks' is anything but a beautiful stream. Peach Tree Creek, the now famous scene of the battle of the 20th of July, is three miles north, a muddy, deep slimy stream. Its true name is 'Pitch-Tree,' from a great pitch-pine tree on its banks. The Indians called it 'Pitch-Tree.'
"The whole face of the earth is marked and scared for many miles around with the rival fortifications."
A quarter of a century has nearly obliterated them all.
A series of military operations around Atlanta followed. Further pursuit of Hood's army was for a time suspended while Sherman's army rested, and its leader was planning the next step in the campaign. Thus passed the month of September. Many changes occurred in the composition and organization of the army. The field portion of the Army of the Tennessee was consolidated into two corps numbered Fifteenth and Seventeenth, and commanded, during the temporary absence of Logan and Blair, by P. J. Osterhaus and T. E. G. Ransom, General Howard retaining his place at the head of that army which now lay at East Point, and the Sixteenth corps now in the Mississippi Valley. The Army of the Cumberland, under General Thomas, was in Atlanta. The Army of the Ohio was at Decatur under General Cox, General Schofield having returned temporarily to Knoxville. Atlanta was carefully fortified, on a smaller but stronger scale than had been done by Johnston, so that it might be held by a comparatively small force when Sherman's main army had left.
As for the Rebel army, it changed its tactics altogether, and was soon moving westward and northward. Apparently Hood's intention was by, as he said, towing him back, to cut Sherman's communications, and if possible carry the war back into Tennessee. If Hood would onlymarch back to Tennessee, Sherman would gladly give him rations and transportation for the journey. Hood did march back, and the result of his doing so may be summed up at this point in a few words. He tried to destroy the garrisons Sherman had left behind him here and there, but Sherman turned on him all but Slocum's Corps, so that he utterly failed to do so. French's Division of the Rebel army, for example, attacked Allatoona, where Howard had placed a handful of troops. General Corse hastened with help from Rome. French sent in a note to Corse, summoning him to surrender, and threatening that if he did not do so he would be attacked, and every man of his command massacred. To this monstrous message the undaunted Corse defiantly replied that the Rebels were welcome to come and take the place if they thought they were able. French immediately assaulted the place with great fury, and again and again his overwhelming columns surged against the works. But at nightfall they were compelled to retire with dreadful loss. Next morning Sherman reached the top of Kenesaw, to within signalling distance of Corse, eighteen miles away. Signal flags waved from peak to peak, conveying Sherman's message to Corse, which has been idealized in a popular song, "Hold the fort, for I am coming." Corse's reply has become historic. He had had a chip from his cheek shot away by a Rebel ball, but was only the more determined to hold out. He said to Sherman, "I am short part of an ear and cheekbone, but am able to whip all hell yet!"
During October, Hood moved to the northwest, Howard following him up vigorously. At last, at the end of the month, as he ran toward Gaylesville, Ala., Sherman decided to let Hood go, trusting to Schofield and Thomas, whom he sent with troops to Nashville, to deal with him,should he enter Tennessee. He did enter Tennessee, and met his fate at Franklin and Nashville.
But to return to Sherman's work at Atlanta, before Hood's flanking and final flight. Sherman determined to march forward through Georgia to the sea, and to make Atlanta, as he left it behind him, a purely military post, occupied and controlled solely by his army. On September 4th he made this order:
"The City of Atlanta, belonging exclusively for warlike purposes, it will at once be vacated by all except the armies of the United States and such civilian employes as may be retained by the proper departments of the Government.... At a proper time full arrangements will be made for a supply to the troops of all the articles they may need over and above clothing, provisions, etc., furnished by Government, and on no pretence whatever will traders, manufacturers, or sutlers, be allowed to settle in the limits of fortified places; and if they manage to come in spite of this notice the quartermaster will seize their stores, apply them to the use of the troops and deliver the parties, or other unauthorized citizens who thus place their individual interest above that of the United States, over to the hands of some provost-marshal, to be put to labor on forts or conscripted into one of the regiments or battery already in service. The same military principles will apply to all military posts south of Atlanta."
If the people of Atlanta had already become panic-stricken, what shall be said of their state of mind when this thunderbolt fell upon them? Consternation is far too weak a word. The Mayor and City Council made a formal and impassioned appeal to Sherman to revoke it. They said, in part:
"At first view, it struck us that the measure would involve extraordinary hardship and loss, but since we have seen the practical execution of it, so far as it had progressed, and the individual condition of many people, and heard their statements as to the inconveniences, loss, and suffering attending it, we are satisfied that it will involve, in the aggregate, consequences appalling and heartrending.
"We know your mind and time are constantly occupied with the duties of your command, which almost deters us from asking your attention to this matter; but thought it might be that you had not considered the subject in all its awful consequences, and that on more reflection you, we hope, would not make this people an exception to all mankind, for we know of no such instance ever having occurred; surely none such in the United States; and what has this helpless people done that they should be driven from their homes, to wander as strangers, outcasts, and exiles, and to subsist on charity?"
To this Sherman replied at considerable length, in explicit and unmistakable terms. He had, he said, read their appeal carefully and he gave full credit to their statements of the distress that was about to be caused to the people of Atlanta. But there were greater issues involved than the personal comfort and welfare of these people. He said:
"I cannot revoke my order. I have to prepare for a future struggle in which millions, yea, hundreds of good people outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. We must have peace, not only in Atlanta, but in all America. To have peace, the Rebel armies must be defeated. To defeat them, we must reach them in their recesses. My military plans make it necessary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer ofservices to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible.
"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it. Those who brought war on our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I had no hand in making this war, and I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. We don't want your negroes, or your houses, or your land, or anything that you have, but we do want, and will have, a just obedience to the laws of the United States. That we will have, and if it involves the destruction of your improvements we cannot help it.
"You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers. They live by falsehood and excitement, and the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters the better for you. You began this war without one jot or tittle of provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your own armies and desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi we fed thousands upon thousands of the families of Rebel soldiers, left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes home to you, you feel very differently—you deprecate its horrors. But you did not feel them when you were sending car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and were moulding shells and shot to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes under the government of their inheritance.
"But, when peace does come, you may call upon me for anything. Then I will share with you the last cracker,and watch with you to guard your homes and families against danger from every quarter. Now you must go, and take with you the old and feeble, feed and nurse them, and build for them in more quiet places proper habitations to shield them against the weather until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the Union and Peace once more to settle on your old homes in Atlanta."
Sherman also had some correspondence with Hood on the same subject. He notified Hood of the order he had issued and proposed that hostilities be suspended for ten days while the people of Atlanta were being removed. Hood agreed to the truce, saying that he did not consider that he had any alternative in the matter. But he took occasion of this correspondence to denounce Sherman's conduct in the strongest terms, concluding his letter as follows:
"Permit me to say, the unprecedented measure you propose transcends in studied and iniquitous cruelty all acts ever before brought to my attention in this dark history of the war. In the name of God and humanity, I protest, believing you are expelling from homes and firesides wives and children of a brave people."
Sherman read these words with some irritation and with some contempt, and then promptly replied, saying:
"You style the measures proposed 'unprecedented,' and appeal to 'the dark history of war for a parallel as an act of studied and ingenious cruelty.' It is not unprecedented, for General Johnston himself very wisely and properly removed the families all the way from Dalton down, and I see no reason why Atlanta should be excepted. Nor is it necessary to appeal to 'the dark history of war,' when recent and modern examples are so handy. You yourself burned dwelling-houses along your parapet; and I haveseen, to-day, fifty houses that you have rendered uninhabitable because they stood in the way of your forts and men. You defended Atlanta on a line so close to the town that every cannon-shot, and many musket-shots from our line of investment, that overshot their mark, went into the habitations of women and children. General Hardee did the same thing at Jonesboro' and General Johnston did the same last summer at Jackson, Mississippi.
"I have not accused you of heartless cruelty, but merely instance these cases of very recent occurrence, and could go on and enumerate hundreds of others, and challenge any fair man to judge which of us has the heart of pity for the families of 'brave people.' I say it is kindness to these families of Atlanta to remove them at once from scenes that women and children should not be exposed to; and the 'brave people' should scorn to commit their wives and children to the rude barbarians who thus, as you say, violate the rules of war as illustrated in the pages of its 'dark history.'
"In the name of common sense, I ask you not to 'appeal to a just God' in such a sacrilegious manner—you who, in the midst of peace and prosperity, have plunged a nation into war, dark and cruel war; who dared and badgered us into battle; insulted our flag; seized our arsenals and forts that were left in the honorable custody of a peaceful ordinance sergeant; seized and made prisoners even the very first garrisons sent to protect your people against negroes and Indians; long before any other act was committed by the, to you 'hateful Lincoln Government;' tried to force Missouri and Kentucky into rebellion, in spite of themselves; falsified the vote of Louisiana; turned loose your privateers to plunder unarmed ships; expelled Unionfamilies by the thousands, burned their houses, and declared by acts of your Congress the confiscation of all debts due Northern men for goods had and received. Talk thus to the Marines, but not to me, who have seen these things, and who will this day make as much sacrifices for the peace and honor of the South as the best-born Southerner among you. If we must be enemies, let us be men, and fight it out as we proposed to-day, and not deal in such hypocritical appeals to God and humanity.
"God will judge us in due time, and he will pronounce whether it will be humane to fight with a town full of women and the families of 'a brave people' at our back, or to remove them in time to places of safety among their own friends and people."
There was also some correspondence between the two Generals on the subject of the exchange of prisoners. Hood began it, and Sherman replied, consenting to such an exchange, man for man, and equal for equal, and then added:
"By your laws all men eligible for service areipso factosoldiers, and a very good one it is; and, if needed for civil duty, they are simply detailed soldiers. We found in Atlanta about a thousand of these fellows, and I am satisfied they are fit subjects of exchange; and if you will release an equal number of our poor fellows at Andersonville I will gather these together and send them as prisoners. They seem to have been detailed for railroad and shop duty, and I do not ask for them an equal number of my trained soldiers, but will take men belonging to any part of the United States Army subject to your control.
"We hold a good many of your men styled 'deserters,' who are really stragglers, and would be a good offset to such of our stragglers and foragers as your cavalry pickedup of our men; but I am constrained to give these men, though sorely against the grain, the benefit of their character, pretended or real."
This did not suit Hood, who replied:
"Your refusal to receive, in exchange, your soldiers belonging to 'regiments whose times are out, and who have been discharged,' discloses a fixed purpose on the part of your Government to doom to hopeless captivity those prisoners whose term of service have expired, or will soon expire.
"My offer to exchange the prisoners captured during the campaign precludes an intention on my part in the delivery to discriminate between your prisoners, as all would have been delivered; and even had it been intended, this discrimination between your men, whose term of service had and had not expired, would have been impossible, and could not have been effected, as I had no reliable means of ascertaining what portion of your men were entitled to their discharge.
"Your avowal that this class of your soldiers will not be exchanged, but will be rewarded by the sufferings and privations incident to military imprisonment because their boldness and courage subjected them to capture, although their terms of service has nearly expired, is deeply regretted by me, as I have the earnest desire of my Government to release from prolonged confinement the large number of prisoners held by both parties."
An exchange of about two thousand prisoners was, however effected. During the truce, four hundred and forty-six families were sent South. These comprised 705 adults, 860 children, and 79 servants, and each family took on the average, 1651 pounds of furniture and other personal effects.
At the end of October, Sherman was ready to continue his campaign. He had corresponded with Grant on the subject and had intimated to him what he proposed to do. Grant replied to him, on November 2d, "Go on, then, as you propose." Thus the credit of the historic march that followed must be given to Sherman himself,—the conception of it as well as its execution. "The honor is all yours," said Lincoln afterward; "none of us went further than to acquiesce."
But Sherman had not stated positively, not even to Grant, what his objective point was, whether Charleston or Savannah, or even Pensacola. He proposed to march from Atlanta to the sea; that was all. What road he would follow, he would decide for himself and he would keep his own counsel. And in order to isolate Atlanta and render it useless to the enemy and that there might be no interference with his plans as he proceeded, he performed the unique act of destroying utterly the railways and telegraph by which he had communicated with the North. When everything was ready, and the final messages transmitted between himself and Grant, he cut the last remaining wire, and thence forward for a time, was lost to the Nation's view. His conquering host became known as "the lost army." This was on November 12th. On the 14th his army was ready for the march, and on the 15th the drums beat and they moved forward.
Acting under the grim necessities of war, Sherman sent this order to Captain Poe: "You may commence the work of destruction at once, but don't use fire until towards the last moment." Thus much of the City of Atlanta was destroyed, and it was past smoking ruins that Sherman's army marched forward to the sea.
The army was divided, for the purposes of this march, into two great wings. The right, keeping its army name, was commanded by General Howard, and consisted of the Fifteenth Corps, under Osterhaus, and the Seventeenth Corps, under Blair. The left, called Army of Georgia, was commanded by General Slocum, and consisted of the Fourteenth Corps, under J. C. Davis, and the Twentieth Corps, under A. S. Williams. In all there were about 60,000 infantry and 60 cannon. In addition, there was a cavalry division of 5,500 men, under General Kilpatrick.
General Howard was now 34 years old; a native of Maine, and a graduate of West Point in the class of 1854. He had served in Florida against the Indians, and as an instructor at West Point. He had joined the army again as Colonel of the first three years' regiment that came from Maine; had commanded a brigade at Bull Run and served with the Army of the Potomac until the battle of Fair Oaks, where he had lost his right arm while leading a gallant charge. Two months later, he had returned to active service in time to be at the second battle of Bull Run, where he commanded the rear guard on the retreat. He had rendered distinguished service at Antietam and Fredericksburg, and also at Chancellorsville. He had been one of the chief actors at Gettysburg, being responsible for the selection of the invincible position at Cemetery Ridge occupied by the Union Army. His gallantry at Missionary Ridge has already been recorded in these pages, and he had also marched with Sherman to the relief of Burnside at Knoxville. His Christian character and his intellectual attainments made him as acceptable as a man as he was as a brave and skilful General.
General Slocum, a native of New York State, had been graduated at West Point two years before Howard. Aftersome military service he had become a practicing lawyer and active in the politics of his State. At the outbreak of the war he had returned to the army as Colonel of one of the first three years' regiments sent from New York. He had served with honor at Bull Run and with the Army of the Potomac on the Rappahannock and at Yorktown and all through the Peninsula campaign from West Point, Va., to Malvern Hill. He had won great distinction at South Mountain and Antietam, at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He and Howard were trusted lieutenants of Sherman in the great campaign that was now to be undertaken.
Kilpatrick came from New Jersey, and was only 26 years old. He had been graduated at West Point in 1861, just in time to rush to the front with Duryeas's Zouaves, and received a slight wound at Big Bethel. Then he received a cavalry command and pursued a brilliant career with the Army of the Potomac, until he was sent to assist Sherman in Georgia.
General Thomas was now at Nashville, and Schofield en route near Pulaski, Tennessee, ready to deal with Hood on his northwestern march. In Sherman's army there were few non-combatants and sick men. There was a goodly supply of ammunition, but provisions were scanty. It was the intention of the army to live off the enemy's country as they marched through it. Sherman's orders for the campaign were as follows:
"I. For the purpose of military operations, this army is divided into two wings, viz., the right wing, Major-General O. O. Howard commanding, composed of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps; the left wing, Major-General H. W. Slocum commanding, composed of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps."II. The habitual order of march will be, whenever practicable, by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible, and converging at points hereafter to be indicated in orders. The cavalry, Brigadier-General Kilpatrick commanding, will receive special orders from the commander-in-chief."III. There will be no general trains of supplies, but each corps will have its ammunition and provision trains distributed habitually as follows: Behind each regiment should follow one wagon and one ambulance; behind each brigade should follow a due proportion of ammunition wagons, provision wagons, and ambulances. In case of danger, each army corps commander should change this order of march by having his advance and rear brigade unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will start habitually at 7 A. M., and make about 15 miles per day, unless otherwise fixed in orders."IV. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather near the route travelled corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagon trains at least ten days' provisions for the command, and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but during the halt, or at camp, they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and drive in stock which is in sight of their camp. To regular foraging parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the road travelled."V. To army commanders alone is intrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army corps commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of such hostility."VI. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit, discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor or industrious, who are usually neutral or friendly. Foraging parties may also take mules or horses to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments or brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive or threatening languages, and may, when the officer in command thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no receipts, and they will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance."VII. Negroes who are able-bodied, and can be of service to the several columns, may be taken along, but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one, and that his first duty is to see to those who bear arms."VIII. The organization at once of a good pioneer battalion for each corps, composed, if possible, of negroes, should be attended to. This battalion should follow theadvance guard, should repair roads, and double them if possible, so that the columns may not be delayed on reaching bad places. Also, army commanders should study the habit of giving the artillery and wagons the road, and marching their troops on one side, and also instruct their troops to assist wagons at steep hills or bad crossings of streams."IX. Captain O. M. Poe, chief engineer, will assign to each wing of the army a pontoon train, fully equipped and organized, and the commanders thereof will see to its being properly protected at all times."
"I. For the purpose of military operations, this army is divided into two wings, viz., the right wing, Major-General O. O. Howard commanding, composed of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps; the left wing, Major-General H. W. Slocum commanding, composed of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps.
"II. The habitual order of march will be, whenever practicable, by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible, and converging at points hereafter to be indicated in orders. The cavalry, Brigadier-General Kilpatrick commanding, will receive special orders from the commander-in-chief.
"III. There will be no general trains of supplies, but each corps will have its ammunition and provision trains distributed habitually as follows: Behind each regiment should follow one wagon and one ambulance; behind each brigade should follow a due proportion of ammunition wagons, provision wagons, and ambulances. In case of danger, each army corps commander should change this order of march by having his advance and rear brigade unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will start habitually at 7 A. M., and make about 15 miles per day, unless otherwise fixed in orders.
"IV. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather near the route travelled corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagon trains at least ten days' provisions for the command, and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but during the halt, or at camp, they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and drive in stock which is in sight of their camp. To regular foraging parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the road travelled.
"V. To army commanders alone is intrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army corps commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of such hostility.
"VI. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit, discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor or industrious, who are usually neutral or friendly. Foraging parties may also take mules or horses to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments or brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive or threatening languages, and may, when the officer in command thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no receipts, and they will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance.
"VII. Negroes who are able-bodied, and can be of service to the several columns, may be taken along, but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one, and that his first duty is to see to those who bear arms.
"VIII. The organization at once of a good pioneer battalion for each corps, composed, if possible, of negroes, should be attended to. This battalion should follow theadvance guard, should repair roads, and double them if possible, so that the columns may not be delayed on reaching bad places. Also, army commanders should study the habit of giving the artillery and wagons the road, and marching their troops on one side, and also instruct their troops to assist wagons at steep hills or bad crossings of streams.
"IX. Captain O. M. Poe, chief engineer, will assign to each wing of the army a pontoon train, fully equipped and organized, and the commanders thereof will see to its being properly protected at all times."