Hooker’s and Schofield’s troops on the Federal right, near what is known
as the “Kulp House,” and was handsomely repulsed, leaving his dead,
wounded, and many prisoners behind him. The Federal centre was now
established squarely in front of Kenesaw, but it required so many men to
hold the railroad and the line running along the base of the mountain,
that but a small force was left with which to attempt a flank movement
to the right. So small was it that General Sherman hesitated to push it
vigorously toward the railroad, in the rear of Marietta, for fear that
it might be altogether detached from the army, and exposed to disaster.
He therefore contented himself with extending his right along the
enemy’s flank, hoping that General Johnston would thereby be induced to
weaken his centre sufficiently to render an assault in that direction
practicable. “Although inviting the enemy at all times,” says General
Sherman in his official report, “to make such mistakes, I could not hope
for him to repeat them after the examples of Dallas and the ‘Kulp
House;’ and upon studying the ground, I had no alternative but to assail
his lines or turn his position. Either course had its difficulties and
dangers. And I perceived that the enemy and our own officers had settled
down into a conviction that I would not assault fortified lines. All
looked to me to ‘outflank.’ An army to be efficient must not settle down
to one single mode of offence, but must be prepared to execute any plan
which promises success. I waited, therefore, for the moral effect, to
make a successful assault against the enemy behind his breastworks, and
resolved to attempt it at that point where success would give the
largest fruits of victory.”
BATTLE OF LITTLE KENESAW.
JUNE 24, 1864.
On the twenty-fourth of June General Sherman ordered an attack to be
made at two points south of Kenesaw—the one to be made upon Little
Kenesaw, by General McPherson, and the other, about a mile south of that
point, by General Thomas. At six A. M. of the twenty-seventh—the
appointed day—the Seventeenth corps, commanded by General Blair, moved
upon the eastern point of the mountain, threatening the enemy’s right;
while the Fifteenth (General Logan), and the Sixteenth (General Dodge),
attacked the northern slope. The three brigades forming the Fifteenth
corps scattered the enemy’s skirmishers, and pushing up the slope with
daring impetuosity, carried a large part of the rebel rifle-pits.
Rushing forward, the troops found themselves at the foot of a
precipitous cliff not less than thirty feet high, which they attempted
to scale, but from which they were beaten back by the fire of the enemy
formed in line of battle at its summit, and by a shower of heavy stones,
which were hurled down upon them. A second attack was ordered, and, for
the purpose, a portion of General Newton’s division of the Fourth corps,
and General Davis’s, of the Fourteenth, were selected. Buoyant with
courage, the troops rushed forward, charged up the mountain in the midst
of a murderous fire, and gallantly carrying the line of rifle-pits,
reached the works beyond. Many of them scaled the ramparts, but the fire
of musketry and artillery was so overpowering that the men were hastily
recalled. General Newton’s troops returned to their original line, but
the Second brigade of General Davis threw up works between those they
had carried, and the enemy’s main line, and there they held their
position. Brief as this fight was, it cost General Sherman a loss of
three thousand men in killed and wounded, while that of the rebels,
intrenched behind strong works, was comparatively trifling.
Referring to this defeat General Sherman says, “Failure as it was, and
for which I assume the entire responsibility, I yet claim it produced
good fruits, as it demonstrated to General Johnston that I would
assault, and that boldly, and we also gained and held ground so close to
the enemy’s parapets that he could not show a head above them.”
It would have been wholly out of character in General Sherman to have
rested under the imputation of defeat; and, accordingly, immediate
preparations were made to turn the rebel left. On July 1st, General
McPherson was relieved by Garrard’s cavalry in front of Kenesaw, and was
in that way enabled to threaten Nickajack creek and Turner’s Ferry
across the Chattahoochie, Stoneman’s cavalry being pushed down below the
ferry. The effect of this movement was instantaneous, and on the morning
of the 3d, Kenesaw was utterly abandoned by the rebels, and its summit
covered by Union soldiers before the sun had risen. General Thomas’s
line was then moved toward the Chattahoochie, in pursuit of the rebels,
and at half past eight o’clock General Sherman entered Marietta, and
took possession of the city. During the rebel retreat upwards of two
thousand prisoners were captured by the Union soldiers.
General Thomas overtook the enemy at the Smyrna camp-meeting ground,
about five miles from Marietta, protected in front with a strong
parapet; and in rear by the Nickajack and Rottenwood creeks. General
Sherman assigned a garrison for Marietta, and joined General Thomas at
Smyrna. On the 4th, the whole line of rebel pits was captured, and on
the next morning the enemy was gone. The army of General Sherman then
moved directly on the Chattahoochie, beyond which the enemy was found
behind a very strong line. Heavy skirmishing opened at once, which
served to show the strength of the rebels, and to prove to General
Sherman that the line could be turned only in one way—namely, by
crossing the main river. On the 7th, General Schofield having been
ordered to cross the Chattahoochie, did so with success, surprised the
enemy, and effected a lodgment on high ground, from which the rebels
fled to the eastward. General Garrard next secured the fort at Rosswell,
which he was ordered to hold till relieved by infantry; which was done,
while General Schofield crossed the river two miles below Powens’ Ferry,
and took a strong position on the right. Thus three safe points of
passage across the river were secured. Each position obtained had good
roads leading direct to Atlanta, and at daylight on the tenth of July,
the enemy had fled, leaving the Unionists in full possession of all they
had won.
One of the most important objects of the campaign was now accomplished;
and beyond—only eight miles distant—lay the city of Atlanta, to obtain
possession of which was the next object of General Sherman’s march.
Without an hour’s delay the first step was taken.
An expedition, commanded by General Rousseau, in command of the district
of Tennessee, was sent out at that time to break the railroad between
Montgomery and Opelika, by which Johnston received his supplies.
General Rousseau, as his commanding general states, “fulfilled his
orders and instructions to the very letter;” and on his route
encountered and defeated the rebel General Canton, returning safely to
Marietta on the twenty-second; having sustained a loss of not more than
thirty men.
During this period the main army had spent some days in rest and
collecting supplies, and had advanced on the seventeenth along the road
called the Old Peachtree.
All the armies had closed in and were converging towards Atlanta on the
twentieth. In the afternoon the enemy emerged from his works along the
road and attacked the Union right centre, composed of General Newton’s
division of General Hooker’s corps, and of General Johnson’s division.
This attack, though entirely unexpected, was handsomely repulsed by all
three generals against whom it was aimed, with a loss to the enemy of
five hundred killed, one thousand wounded, many stand of colors, and
over three thousand prisoners. The National loss did not exceed fifteen
hundred in all, killed, wounded and missing.
During the 21st the enemy’s position was examined and found to be
strong—his right resting below the Augusta road to the east, and his
left on the Chattahoochie, about four miles from Atlanta. On the 22d
this whole line was found to have been abandoned during the night, which
singular movement was subsequently explained to the astonished Unionists
by learning that General Johnston had been superseded in command by
General Hood, and an entirely new line of policy determined on by the
rebels.
BATTLE BEFORE ATLANTA, GA.
JULY 22, 1864.
By a show of retreating to the city, the rebel general hoped to draw
General Sherman on, and, while he was in motion, to strike at the Union
army on all available points. This decoy was not wholly without effect,
for General Sherman pushed on beyond the abandoned rebel works, and
found the enemy, in strong force, occupying a line of redoubts which
entirely covered the approach to Atlanta. This showed an evident
intention to fight, on the part of General Hood; and General Sherman at
once sent orders to all points of the centre and right of his army to
press forward and engage the enemy, while General Schofield held as
large a force as possible in reserve.
General McPherson engaged the enemy at about noon, on the left, where
they were making a cavalry demonstration. The fighting had now become
very severe; the loud crash of musketry was followed in quick succession
by the rapid firing of artillery, and while a roar as of continuous
thunder pealed all along the line, the flash of fire streamed out in
vivid sheets of flame upon the noonday air. Just as General McPherson
reached the left, the enemy advanced upon the Sixteenth corps, but were
three times determinedly and desperately repulsed by General Dodge.
Perceiving that the attempt to break the line of the Sixteenth had
failed, General McPherson took advantage of a momentary lull to ride up
to the Seventeenth corps, which was reported severely threatened by the
enemy. Every member of his staff, except one, had been sent on various
errands; and he now directed that one to obtain a brigade from General
Logan to throw across the gap between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
corps; and then, with a single orderly, struck into the road that led
direct to General Smith’s position. Almost immediately he found himself
hemmed within the enemy’s skirmish line; the rebel officer commanding
called out to him to surrender, which order he replied to by dashing his
horse to the front of the road, but before he could effect his escape a
volley fired by the skirmishers unhorsed him, mortally wounded. For a
time his body remained within the enemy’s line, but was subsequently
recovered and brought within the line of the Union army. His death was a
severe loss, and he was deeply regretted, both as an officer and as a
man. General Sherman in chronicling this event says of General
McPherson:
“He was a noble youth, of striking personal appearance, of the highest
professional capacity, and with a heart abounding in kindness, that drew
to him the affections of all men.”
By his death the command of the Army of the Tennessee devolved
temporarily upon the brave and gallant General John A. Logan, who
sustained his already brilliant reputation, and that of the veteran army
placed under his command.
The battle continued to rage with still increasing fury. The brigade
that had been ordered from Logan’s corps arrived just in time to check
the farther progress of the enemy in that direction, but was not able to
keep a portion of the rebel force from getting in the rear of the
Seventeenth corps; while a strong detachment pushed up against the Union
position on the hill beyond, determined to obtain possession of it. But
the brave troops held firmly to their post, and presented so determined
a resistance, that the rebels recoiled before them, leaving the ground
strewn with the dead and dying that fell from their ranks. A portion of
the enemy, which had pushed for the gaps between the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth corps—now bridged over with Wangelin’s brigade—made another
attack on the right flank of the Sixteenth, and captured a six-gun
battery, surprising the Unionists, but were promptly driven back in
confusion, and with heavy loss.
The enemy’s attack upon the Union left flank was quite abandoned by
three o’clock, the rebels having gained absolutely nothing except the
capture of a few guns, while they had suffered enormous losses in every
way.
At about four o’clock in the afternoon, General Hood massed a large
force of troops for the purpose of assaulting the Fifteenth corps—lately
commanded by General Logan, and then temporarily under General Morgan L.
Smith. The corps was stationed behind substantial breastworks, and held
the right of the Army of the Tennessee. The first rebel column marched
against the Union line, and were handsomely repulsed and kept at bay for
more than half an hour; when a second column approached steadily, and
without flinching, beneath the furious Union fire. Close behind them
came a third column, before which the Unionists were compelled to give
way, losing their position, and two important batteries. This gain to
the rebels was such a serious loss to General Sherman, that General
Logan was ordered to regain the lost position at any cost. Several
batteries from General Schofield were so placed that the enemy’s works
could be shelled, and reinforcements for him rendered impossible; and
just as the rebels were making ready to turn the captured battery upon
the National line, the Fifteenth corps, reinforced by General Schofield,
pressed forward, and after a desperate struggle, in which the combatants
fought hand-to-hand, the Unionists regained their lost position, and
retook their guns. The rebels retreated before them in the wildest
confusion, and the battle terminated with this defeat of the enemy’s
last effort.
In this battle the total loss to the Union army was estimated at three
thousand seven hundred and twenty-two men, of whom the larger portion
were killed and wounded.
In front of the National line the enemy’s dead was counted at two
thousand and two hundred, of whom eight hundred were delivered under
flag of truce; their total loss in killed amounted to three thousand two
hundred and forty. Upwards of three thousand prisoners were taken by the
Unionists, including one thousand wounded, among whom were many officers
of high rank. Besides these severe losses in men, eighteen stands of
colors, and five thousand small arms were taken from the rebels.
THE CAVALRY EXPEDITIONS.
The next important movement was fixed for the 28th of July, the
preparations for which were as follows: General Rousseau’s troops,
fatigued with their long march, were not expected to do active service
immediately: and were, therefore, ordered to relieve General Stoneman,
who was sent to the left flank, there to remain in readiness to strike
at the Macon road, at the same time that the Army of the Tennessee,
which had been shifted below Proctor’s Creek, was to move toward East
Point. In order to make General Stoneman’s movement sure of success, an
effective cavalry force of five thousand men was placed under his
command. This force, and that of General McCook, numbering four
thousand, were ordered to move at the same time, the latter, by the
right, on Fayetteville, and the former, by the left, skirting Atlanta,
round to McDonough. In the evening of the day appointed, these two
strong bodies of Union cavalry were to meet on the Macon road, at a
point known as Lovejoy’s, with orders to utterly destroy the railroad.
These orders were not carried out.
The two expeditions set forth; General Stoneman taking the direction to
McDonough, after sending General Garrard to Flat Rock to cover his
movement. General McCook took his way along the right bank of the
Chattahoochie. General Stoneman, after proceeding a very short distance
on the road he had taken, turned to the Georgia railroad, along which he
advanced to Covington. There he altered his course again, going due
south for Macon, the neighborhood of which he reached on the 30th. A
detachment which he sent east to Loudon, destroyed eleven locomotives
and several trains loaded with stores, and a great many bridges between
that place and Macon. It had been the intention of General Stoneman, as
a part of the expedition—having received the necessary permission from
his general commanding—to proceed to Macon and Andersonville, and
release the Union prisoners confined at those two places; but having
received information at Gordon that the prisoners at Macon had been sent
forward to Charleston, the movements upon Macon and Andersonville were
both abandoned. On the evening of the 30th General Stoneman turned
northward (having so far accomplished nothing of especial value),
skirmishing with the enemy as often as he was encountered on the way
till on the morning of the 31st he was met by a strong rebel force.
The country at this point was particularly unsuited for cavalry
movements; accordingly, General Stoneman determined to escape without
fighting, if possible. He sent a portion of his command forward as
skirmishers, but quickly discovered that he was surrounded. Everything
that ready wit and ingenuity could suggest was done with the hope of
outwitting the enemy; but escape was impossible. As a last resource,
General Stoneman ordered the larger portion of his command to break
through the opposing lines, and effect their escape in the readiest
manner possible, while he, himself, with a few hundred men and a section
of artillery, drew off the enemy’s attention from the movement of the
other troops. He was speedily overpowered, and obliged to surrender; and
together with all those who were with him, became prisoners to the
enemy.
Of the remainder of his command, one brigade returned in safety to the
main army, and another was attacked and considerably broken up on its
way back.
General Garrard, in the mean time, after remaining at Flat Rock two
days, awaiting further orders, moved toward Covington on the 29th, where
he learned that General Stoneman had gone south; and having no further
orders to obey, he returned to his position on the left flank of the
army.
General McCook was more fortunate in his expedition than his brother
officer. Having reached a place called Rivertown, on the Chattahoochie,
he crossed the river, and directed his way toward Palmetto Station; at
this place he destroyed a portion of the Atlanta and West Point
railroad. From there he proceeded to Fayetteville, dealing destruction
by burning public and private property along the whole line of his
journey. He destroyed an important part of the Macon and Western
railroad. There he was disappointed by not meeting General Stoneman; and
being constantly met by large and ever increasing numbers of the enemy,
he turned to the southwest, and proceeded in that direction. At a place
called Newman, on the Atlanta and West Point railroad, he encountered a
strong rebel force, through which he cut his way with hard fighting, and
considerable loss. After losing all his prisoners, he reached the
Chattahoochie, and from thence arrived in safety within the Union lines.
THE SIEGE OF ATLANTA.
General Howard, who, upon the 27th of July, according to the President’s
appointment, assumed command of the Army of the Tennessee, vacant by
General McPherson’s death, had put his army in motion while the events
above detailed were taking place. The Army of the Tennessee was placed
on the extreme right of General Sherman’s army, its right flank being
held by General Logan. By this movement the whole lino was drawn out
directly south, with its face to the eastward, and gradually winding
around to the Macon road. The enemy perceiving this, massed his troops
in the same direction. On the 28th, General Stewart’s corps advanced
from Atlanta upon the Union right flank, and for several hours kept up a
succession of fierce assaults upon General Logan’s troops. The assaults
were as fiercely repelled, causing the rebels to retire again and again,
with constantly lessening ranks, till compelled to retire entirely at
four P. M., leaving their dead and wounded on the ground, after
sustaining a loss of five thousand men. In this conflict the Union loss
did not exceed six hundred.
About this time General Hooker resigned command of his corps, and was
succeeded by General Slocum—whose place in turn, was temporarily filled
by General H. S. Williams—General Slocum being absent in Vicksburg
General Palmer also resigned command of his corps, and was succeeded by
General Jeff. C. Davis; and General D. S. Stanley was placed in command
of the Fourth corps, left vacant by the promotion of General Howard.
With his customary promptitude, General Sherman soon perceived that his
last movement would not effect the dislodgment of Hood from Atlanta, and
he accordingly changed his tactics. He still further extended the right
wing of his army, with the view of outflanking Hood in that manner. The
Twenty-third and Fourteenth were, therefore, during the 5th and 6th of
August, transferred from their position on the left to the extreme
right, where they joined the Fifteenth corps, and formed the army’s
right flank.
While this movement was in progress, occasional demonstrations were made
against the enemy, which only served to show that he was protected by
defences of the strongest description, and was in a condition to
maintain his position for a long period, unless dislodged by some
master-piece of generalship on the part of the Union commander.
The Union army was now very much changed from its first position for the
siege of Atlanta. Instead of threatening the city north and east,
General Sherman’s left now covered the northern approaches to it, while
his extreme right lay southwest and ran parallel to the railroad. The
lines of his army were drawn about two and a half miles from the city,
and between them and the enemy’s works lay a narrow strip of wooded
country, which had been the scene of almost perpetual skirmishing
between the opposing forces.
A movement against the enemy had now become of the first importance, as
nothing could be gained to the National troops by delay, while Hood was
every day strengthening the city’s defences, and adding to his army by
organizing all the laborers, teamsters, and quartermasters’ men within
Atlanta, and filling their places by negroes. Without haste, and after
mature consideration as to the safest course to pursue, General Sherman,
having satisfied himself that the rebel lines could not be taken except
by a fearful sacrifice of life, determined upon the capture of Atlanta
by a bold strategic movement. A new movement by the right flank was
ordered, which would require the participation of nearly the whole army.
One corps was withdrawn and sent to the intrenched position across the
Chattahoochie, in order to preserve, in any event, communication with
the base. The whole of the remaining army was ordered to move upon the
south and southwest sides of the city, destroy the railroad
communications, and thus place Atlanta beyond the possibility of
obtaining supplies. Preparations for these operations were entered upon
at once, and by the 16th General Sherman’s plans were virtually
completed. On the 18th, General Kilpatrick, with five thousand men, made
a raid, and struck the Macon railroad at Jonesboro’ and Lovejoy’s, and
the Atlanta and West Point road at Fairburn. But the enemy resisted him
at all points and he failed to inflict permanent injury upon the roads.
Retreating, therefore, on the 22d instant, by way of Decatur, he brought
in one hundred prisoners, and a piece of artillery. General Sherman now
made no further delay in executing his plan to force Hood to abandon
Atlanta. That plan, as already noted, consisted in changing the position
of his lines, getting in between Atlanta and Macon, and thus cutting off
Hood’s supplies. The scheme was brilliant, and was cleverly executed. A
brisk engagement took place near Jonesboro’, on the 31st of August, in
which the rebels under Hardee were severely defeated, which was
accomplished with little loss to the Union arms. Finding himself thus
dangerously situated, General Hood, on the 1st of September, ordered the
evacuation of Atlanta—first taking care to burn the railroad rolling
stock and all other material that would have been useful to the National
army. On leaving the city he retreated to McDonough, whence, moving
westward, he was able to join his forces to those of Hardee and S. D.
Lee. Meanwhile, at daybreak on the 2d of September, the Union troops
marched into Atlanta. “We have,” says General Sherman, announcing the
capture of the city, “as the result of this quick, and, as I think,
well-executed movement, twenty-seven guns, over three thousand
prisoners, and have buried over four hundred rebel dead, and left as
many wounded that could not be removed. The rebels have lost, besides
the important city of Atlanta and their stores, about five hundred
killed, twenty-five hundred wounded, and three thousand prisoners;
whereas our aggregate loss will not foot up fifteen hundred. If that is
not success I don’t know what is.”