Siege of Atlanta--The Capitulation--General Sherman’s Report.
July 21st, heavy skirmishing on our right. 22d, we moved forward in
pursuit of the retreating rebels. 23d, we are now strongly intrenched,
within two miles of Atlanta, Georgia; lively skirmishing much of the
time. 24th, shelling and picket firing to-day; rebels charged our line
but were repulsed. 25th, brisk firing all day. 26th, advanced our line
forty rods. 27th, quiet along the lines. 28th, heavy firing on our
right; the rebels are repulsed. 29th and 30th, fighting continues.
August 1st to 3d, hot firing all the time. 4th, National Thanksgiving
Day; fighting on our right; rebels driven back; skirmishing every
day--all the time; getting monotonous. 25th, left our works and
fell back to the Chattahoochie river, near Vining station; marched
all night. 27th, Major-general W. H. Slocum assumed command of the
Twentieth army corps.
September 4th, moved forward to Atlanta, which we reached about 2
o’clock P. M.; marched through the city and went into camp about one and
one-half miles west of the city. 6th, received an order from General
Sherman that the campaign was ended, and that the troops are to have
a full month’s rest; that our task was not only done, but well done.
12th, the citizens of Atlanta were moved south to-day; from this date
we lay in camp with little to mar our happiness till November 1st,
when we received orders to send all our baggage to the rear and put
ourselves in light marching order. November 5th, orders having been
received for the troops to move, the Twenty-ninth struck tents and
marched from Atlanta at 3:30 P. M. in the direction of Stone Mountain,
some three miles, and camped for the night. At 1 o’clock P. M. on the
following day, the regiment marched back to Atlanta, and again occupied
its old camp.
During the afternoon of the 1st of September specific orders for the
withdrawal of Stewart’s rebel _corps de armee_ and the militia were
issued, and about sunset the latter were withdrawn from the trenches.
When they were fairly on the road Stewart’s corps followed, all being
en route by midnight, except the cavalry, a brigade or two of infantry,
and the pickets. These latter remained until the advance of the
Twentieth corps neared the city on the morning of the 2d. The explosion
of ammunition was of course heard at the position of the Twentieth
corps, and though General Slocum (who it appears was in command of the
Twentieth corps at the time) had received no intelligence of Sherman’s
great success at Jonesboro, he was not unprepared to find Hood gone
any morning, and the explosions convinced him that the withdrawal was
taking place. He instantly issued orders to his division commanders,
Generals Ward, Williams, and Geary, to send out each a heavy
reconnoissance at daybreak on the morning of the 2d.
About 1,000 men were detailed from each division, and at 5 A. M. pushed
forward on neighboring roads into Atlanta on the north and northwest,
encountering no opposition. They pushed rapidly forward, and at 8
o’clock came in sight of the rebel intrenchments, so lately occupied
with enemies but now silent and deserted.
Advancing rapidly, Colonel Coburn, commanding General Ward’s
reconnoissance, entered the enemy’s works, encountering in the
suburbs Mayor Calhoun, of Atlanta, and a deputation of the city
council. The former nervously presented a paper surrendering the city
and asking protection. Colonel Coburn refused to receive the paper
for informality, and directed that another should be drawn up. Mayor
Calhoun invited several of General Ward’s staff to accompany him
to the court-house, where the documents should be made _en regle_,
promising at the same time to expel the drunken rebel stragglers,
who were lingering in the streets and were disposed to skirmish with
our advance. He immediately took measures to effect the last, and
accompanied by the officers whose names are offered in attest, he
returned to the court-house, and the following document was drawn up:
“ATLANTA, GEORGIA, }
September 2, 1864. }
“Brigadier-general Ward, Commanding Third Division
Twentieth Corps.
“SIR:--The fortunes of war have placed the city of Atlanta in your
hands, and as mayor of the city I ask protection to non-combatants and
private property.
“JAMES M. CALHOUN,
Mayor of Atlanta.”
The preliminary formalities thus disposed of, our troops entered
the city with music and flags, marching promptly and erect. A fine
flag-staff was found on the Franklin printing house, where the Memphis
Appeal had been printed. The stars and stripes were soon flung to the
calm, sunny air amid the cheers of the brave men who had fought for so
many weary, consuming days to place it there.
General Henry W. Slocum established his headquarters at the Trout
house, the leading hotel of the city, overlooking the public square.
In the forts around Atlanta eleven heavy guns, mainly sixty-four
pounders, were left by the enemy; also about three thousand muskets, in
good order, stored in various parts of the city, were found; also three
locomotives in running order, and large quantities of manufactured
tobacco were discovered. Between one and two hundred stragglers, the
majority of them very drunk, were fished from their hiding places and
placed under guard at the court-house.
GENERAL THOMAS’ CONGRATULATORY ORDER.
ARMY HEADQUARTERS, July 26, 1864.
“The major-general commanding the army congratulates the troops upon
the brilliant success attending the Union arms in the late battles.
In the battle of the 20th instant, in which the Twentieth corps, one
division of the Fourth corps, and part of the Fourteenth corps were
engaged, the total union loss in killed, wounded, and missing was
1,733. In front of the Twentieth corps there were put out of the fight
6,000 rebels; 563 of the enemy were buried by our own troops, and the
rebels were permitted to bury 250. The Second division of the Fourth
corps repulsed seven different assaults of the enemy with light loss
to themselves, and which must have swelled the number of dead buried
by the rebels to beyond 300. We also captured seven stands of colors.
No official report has been received of the part taken in the battle
by the Fourteenth corps. In the battle of the 22d instant, the total
Union loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 3,500, and also 10
pieces of artillery. The rebel loss in prisoners captured was 3,200.
The known dead of the enemy in front of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
corps and one division of the Seventeenth corps was 2,142. The other
divisions of the Seventeenth corps repulsed six assaults of the enemy
before they fell back, and which will swell the rebel loss in killed
to at least 3,000. The latest reports state that we buried over 3,200
rebels killed in this fight. There were captured from the enemy in
this battle 18 stands of colors and 5,000 stands of arms.
“By command of
MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS.
“W. D. WHIPPLE,
Assistant Adjutant-general.”
GENERAL SHERMAN’S SPECIAL FIELD ORDER NO. 68.
“HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION, OF THE }
MISSISSIPPI IN THE FIELD, }
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, SEPT. 8, 1864. }
“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 remains now only for him
who has been with you from the beginning, and who intends to stay
all the time, to thank the officers and men for their intelligence,
fidelity, and courage displayed in the campaign of Atlanta. On the
1st 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 exultant. He 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 Chattahoochie river.
The crossing of the Chattahoochie 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 competent 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 workshops,
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 wherever our flag
has once floated, and 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 lies 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.
“W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-general commanding.”