The stores which had cost such heroic endeavor and expenditure of life,
were saved; the stores, which, as Corse says in a private letter, "would
have been such a prize as Hood in all his long and bloody career as a
soldier had never secured." This fact is due, independently of the main
action, largely to the coolness and vigilance of Tourtellotte, who in
addition to fighting Sears on his north front and flanking the attacks on
the west Redoubt, kept his mind charged with the protection of the
warehouses, even while his wound forced him to physical inaction. As has
been stated, he pushed out the 18th Wisconsin to the southward to hold
back the two regiments which were in front of the rebel batteries, and
only withdrew them at 10:30 when the assaulting column had reached a point
in front of the west Redoubt, whence it had a fire upon the rear of the
outlying command. Thereafter Tourtellotte kept a wary eye out towards the
stores, with men in his southern rifle pit and its vicinity constantly on
guard, and cautioned to unceasing vigilance, and although several attempts
were made by individuals and small parties to reach the warehouses and
fire them, they died on the way and none of them ever attained their
destination. We found several bodies scattered about in the vicinity, and
one of them within 20 feet of the buildings, with the implements in his
hand for firing them.
As to the amount of these stores, General Sherman, in his Memoirs, says
there were "over a million rations of bread," probably with Corse's
report at hand, in which the number is incorrectly stated at that amount.
Cox, in his "Atlanta," gives it more accurately at "nearly three
millions." The actual figures (2,700,000) are given in a letter from
Sherman to Corse in acknowledging, on October 7th, Corse's preliminary
report of the same day.