Battery B of the First Illinois Light Artillery followed Sherman in the
Atlanta campaign. It took part in the demonstrations against Resaca,
Georgia, May 8 to 15, 1864, and in the battle of Resaca on the 14th and
15th. It was in the battles about Dallas from May 25th to June 5th, and
took part in the operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain in
June and July. During the latter period this photograph was taken. The
battery did not go into this campaign without previous experience. It had
already fought as one of the eight batteries at Fort Henry and Fort
Donelson, heard the roar of the battle of Shiloh, and participated in the
sieges of Corinth and Vicksburg. The artillery in the West was not a whit
less necessary to the armies than that in the East. Pope's brilliant feat
of arms in the capture of Island No. 10 added to the growing respect in
which the artillery was held by the other arms of the service. The
effective fire of the massed batteries at Murfreesboro turned the tide of
battle. At Chickamauga the Union artillery inflicted fearful losses upon
the Confederates. At Atlanta again they counted their dead by the
hundreds, and at Franklin and Nashville the guns maintained the best
traditions of the Western armies. They played no small part in winning
battles.
[Illustration: THOMAS' HEADQUARTERS NEAR MARIETTA DURING THE FIGHTING OF
THE FOURTH OF JULY