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of the enemy, so as to enable the Union troops to save this ill-fated division, but in vain; the crater was a complete slaughter-pen, from which all attempts to retreat were sure to result in death. After some hours, a few succeeded, in a lull of the enemy's fire, in escaping; but the greater part not slain were captured. The whole affair had been badly managed, and the investigation of the Committee on the Conduct of the War indicated that the blame was due to the disagreement of some of the commanding officers, and that General Meade was not altogether without fault in the matter. The Union loss in this disaster was four thousand and eight, of whom one thousand nine hundred and ten were missing, mostly prisoners, four hundred and nineteen killed, and one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine wounded. The losses in the previous battles before Petersburg, and north of the James, from June 20th to July 30th, had been five thousand three hundred and sixteen; but there were gains as well as losses to count in these, while this assault had accomplished nothing. The enemy's loss was only about one thousand, of whom two hundred were prisoners.

CHAPTER LX.

SHERMAN'S ATLANTA CAMPAIGN-SHERMAN'S PREPARATIONS-THE FORCE UNDER HIS COM MAND, AND THE SEVERAL ARMIES COMPOSING IT-THE ARMY OF THE ENEMY—ITS POSITION AND COMMANDER-SKETCH OF JOHNSTON-THE DEMONSTRATION ON ROCKY FACED RIDGE, AND BATTLES THERE-FLANKING MOVEMENT THROUGH SNAKE CREEK GAP ON RESA CABATTLES AT RESACA-FLANKING MOVEMENT TOWARD KINGSTON-CAPTURE OF ROMECROSSING THE ETOWAH-MOVEMENT TOWARD DALLAS-BATTLES OF NEW HOPE CHURCH AND DALLAS-SHERMAN MOVES TO THE LEFT-OCCUPATION OF ALLATOONA PASS, AND BIG SHANTY-THE PASS MADE A SECONDARY BASE OF SUPPLIES-THE ENEMY DRIVEN FROM PINE AND LOST MOUNTAINS THE AFFAIR OF "THE KULP HOUSE"-ASSAULT ON THE ENEMY ON KENESAW MOUNTAIN-REPULSE-FLANKING AGAIN-THE REBELS COMPELLED TO FALL BACK TO THE CHATTAHOOCHIE-OCCUPATION OF MARIETTA-THE UNION ARMY CROSS THE CHATTAHOOCHIE-BURNING OF ROSWELL FACTORIES.

THE general order of the War Department of the 12th of March, 1864, vesting in General Grant, as Lieutenant-General, the chief control of the armies of the United States, also assigned to Major-General W. T. Sherman the command of the division of the Mississippi, the position. previously held by Grant. This division, including the military Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and for a time, Arkansas, comprised a force of over one hundred and fifty thousand troops, commanded by such able lieutenants as Major-Generals Thomas, McPherson, Schofield, Hooker, Logan, Hurlbut, and Howard, besides many other corps and division commanders equally distinguished for skill and bravery, such as Kilpatrick, Stoneman, Palmer, Wood, Davis, Rousseau, Newton, Williams, Geary, and Baird. Sherman at once started upon a tour of inspection of the several armies and military posts within his command in Tennessee and Alabama, holding interviews with his generals, and arranging with them, in general terms, as to the lines of communication to be guarded, the strength of the respective armies and garrisons, etc., fixing upon the 1st of May as about the time when the advance was to be made. Leaving to these officers the completion of the details of organization and preparation, he returned to Nashville, and bent all his energies to the work of collecting at Chattanooga the immense quantities of supplies necessary to his proposed undertaking. The time which remained to him before the 1st of May, seemed all too brief for the herculean task of concentrating at one point, arms, ammunition, and provisions; of uniting, and reorganizing the various and widely scattered army; corps of mounting his cavalry, and making all the preparations for a gigantic campaign. Yet his remarkable energy and executive ability, aided by that of his able subordinates, accomplished the work with such celerity and success that, on the 6th of May, the grand army of the

SKETCH OF GENERAL JOHNSTON.

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Mississippi, fully organized, equipped and provisioned, was ready for its share in the great movements which were to decide the fate of the Union. It numbered ninety-eight thousand, seven hundred and ninety-seven effective men, and two hundred and fifty-four pieces of artillery, and was divided as follows:

The Army of the Cumberland, Major General Thomas commanding -infantry, fifty-four thousand five hundred and sixty-eight; artillery, two thousand three hundred and seventy-seven; cavalry, three thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight; total, sixty thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, with one hundred and thirty guns. Army of the Tennessee, Major-General McPherson commanding-infantry, twentytwo thousand four hundred and thirty-seven; artillery, one thousand four hundred and four; cavalry, six hundred and twenty-four; total, twentyfour thousand four hundred and sixty-five, with ninety-six guns. Army of the Ohio, Major-General Schofield commanding-infantry, eleven thousand one hundred and eighty-three; artillery, six hundred and seventynine; cavalry, one thousand six hundred and ninety-seven; total, thirteen thousand five hundred and fifty-nine, with twenty-eight guns. These numbers continued relatively the same during the campaign, the losses in battle and from sickness being about compensated by recruits, and returns from furlough and hospitals. The three Union armies on the 6th of May, occupied the following positions: that of the Cumberland, at or near Ringgold; that of the Tennessee at Gordon's Mills, on the Chickamauga; and that of the Ohio near Red Clay, on the Georgia line, north of Dalton. In and about Dalton, lay the Rebel army, superior to the Union army in cavalry, and comprising three corps of infantry and artillery, viz: Hardee's, Hood's, and Polk's, numbering in all about sixty thousand men, the whole commanded by General J. E. Johnston.*

* General Joseph Eccleston Johnston, the able commander of the Rebel forces which were opposed to General Sherman's army, was born in 1808, in Prince Edwards county, Virginia. He graduated at West Point in 1829, ranking high, and was appointed on the 1st of July of that year, brevet second lieutenant in the fourth artillery. In 1836 he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and made commissary of subsistence. In 1838 he was transferred to the corps of topographical engineers, with the rank of first lieutenant, and served in that capacity in the Florida war, where he distinguished himself for bravery and skill, and was brevetted captain. His regular promotion to a captaincy came in September, 1846, and in February, 1847, he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel of voltigeurs, and sailed for Mexico with General Scott's expedition. He was severely wounded in a daring reconnoissance on the advance to Mexico, near Cerro Gordo, but recovered sufficiently to take part in the concluding battles of the war. He distinguished himself at Chapultepec and Molino del Rey, and in the latter battle was again wounded. His regiment having been disbanded, he remained captain of topographical engineers, with a brevet of lieutenant-colonel, till March 3, 1855, when he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the first cavalry. In June, 1860, he was appointed quartermaster-general of the United States, with the rank of brigadiergeneral. This position he held at the outbreak of the war, and retained it, to the ad

Dalton was in itself a position of great strength, being completely cov ered by a ridge or spur of the Chattoogata mountains, known as the Rocky Faced Ridge, through which a high and narrow defile, called Buzzard's Roost gap-traversed by the railroad and wagon-road-offered the only approach to the town from the northwest. This narrow pass, obstructed by abatis, flooded by water, caused by dams across Mill creek, and commanded thoughout its whole length by batteries stationed on the spurs on either side, effectually barred any attempt which the Union armies might make in that direction, and the town, on its northern aspect, was well defended by strong lines of defence behind Mill creek. On their left, however, General Sherman found in Snake Creek gap-a crooked defile of the Chattoogata mountain-an opportunity to reach and disturb the enemy's railroad communication at or near Resaca, eighteen miles south of Dalton. The plan which he quickly conceived and promptly put into execution, was to send McPherson's column, via Ship's gap, Villanow, and Snake Creek gap, toward Resaca, or the railroad below Dalton, with orders to break up the road as thoroughly as possible, after which he was to fall back to some good defensive position on Snake creek, and await his opportunity to strike the enemy's flank, in case he should

vantage of the Rebels, till April 22, 1861, when he resigned, and immediately went over to the Rebel army, where he was commissioned major-general, and placed in command of their army of the Shenandoah, where he confronted General Patterson, and eluding him, marched to Manassas, which he reached at noon of July 20th, the day before the battle of Bull Run. He took part in that battle, though under command of General Beauregard. He remained in command of the army of Virginia through the siege of Yorktown and the battle of Williamsburg, and at the battle of Seven Pines was severely wounded, and for three or four months was unable to resume command. In November, 1862, he was put in command of the Western army east of the Mississippi, having Bragg's, Kirby Smith's, and other armies, under his command. His health was not fully recovered, and he therefore directed rather than commanded in person. He commanded at Jackson, in the Vicksburg campaign, and it was owing to Pemberton's disobedience to his orders that he was shut up in Vicksburg, and finally compelled to surrender. Sherman compelled him to retreat from Jackson in July, 1863. Directing the movements of the Rebel troops in the West, he did not take active command till General Bragg fell into disgrace after the battles of Chattanooga.

In the Atlanta campaign he proved himself, as the narrative shows, a skilful and able strategist; his retreats were performed with great skill and success, and without loss of supplies or material, and his removal and supersession by General Hood, was regarded by General Sherman as a matter of congratulation. He was subsequently restored to command in the Carolina campaign, but the Rebel cause was past hope, and though he exhibited his abilities in the two battles of Averysboro and Bentonville, he promptly made overtures for surrender on learning of Lee's capitulation. Of the conferences and propositions then submitted, we shall give a full account in the proper place. After his surrender, General Johnston indicated his disposition to return fully and heartily to his allegiance, and has entered upon his duties in civil life, in a spirit which does him credit

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retreat. Meanwhile, the enemy's attention at Dalton was to be diverted by a strong feint of attack in front from General Thomas' force, and the approach of General Schofield's army from the north.

In accordance with this programme, General Thomas, on the 7th, occupied Tunnel Hill, opposite Buzzard Roost gap, with but slight opposition, the enemy's cavalry retreating well through the gap; General McPherson took possession of Snake Creek gap on the 8th, completely surprising a Rebel cavalry brigade which was on its way thither with similar intent; while, on the 9th, General Schofield pushed down close on Dalton from the north. Then Thomas renewed his demonstra tion against Buzzard Roost and Rocky Faced Ridge, pushing it almost to a battle, in the course of which General Newton's division of the fourth corps-General Howard's-carried the ridge, and turning south toward Dalton, found the crest too narrow, and too well protected by rock epaulments, to permit their approach to the pass; while General Geary's division (of Hooker's command) making a bold push for the summit, to the south of the pass, found the road to strongly held by the enemy to be carried. This action, which has received the name of the battle of Rocky Faced Ridge, was fought with great gallantry, and was attended with considerable loss, yet it was fully successful as a feint to cover the movements of McPherson, who was thereby enabled to march within a mile of Resaca, almost unopposed. Finding, however, that Resaca was too strongly fortified to be carried by assault, and being unable to discover any road passable for his artillery, by which he could reach and destroy the railroad between Dalton and Resaca, he fell back to a strong position near the west end of Snake Creek gap.

General Sherman, who, although appreciating the advantage gained, was not satisfied with any result which did not fully accomplish his plan of striking a decided blow upon the enemy's railroad communications, then sent Hooker's and Palmer's corps, of General Thomas's division, and the whole of General Schofield's command, through Snake Creek gap, to the support of McPherson, leaving only Howard's corps to threaten Dalton in front. On the 12th, the Union forces moved against Resaca; and Johnston, finding that he was outflanked, fell back to that place from Dalton, over excellent roads which he had previously constructed, Howard following so closely on his heels, that he entered Dalton as the Rebels left it.

Resaca, strong by nature, had been rendered so impregnable by the six months' labor which the enemy had bestowed upon its fortifications, that the main body of the Union army as they approached it saw that it was useless to attempt its capture by assault. Sherman therefore threw a pontoon bridge across the Oostanaula, at Lay's ferry, near Calhoun, over which he sent a division of the sixteenth corps to demonstrate against the town. General Garrard's division was also moved from Villanow