DEATH OF POLK.

327

some little Generals are there. The latter did so, and the cannon ball smote Moreau.

Sherman, riding up to a battery, took a careful survey of Pine Mountain with his glass. Then turning to Captain Simonson, he said, "Can you send a shell right on the top of that knob? I notice a battery there, and several general officers near it." "I'll try, General," was the reply. He fired. "A little too high, try again, with a shorter fuse," said SherThe second shell flew through the air, and entering the distant group, crashed through the side of Polk, tearing his body into fragments.

man.

Thomas and Schofield now advanced, and found the enemy again strongly intrenched along the line of rugged hills that connect Kenesaw and Lost Mountains. On the 17th, the enemy abandoned Lost Mountain, and took position on Kenesaw; his right wing thrown back, so as to cover Marietta, and his left covering the railroad in the rear, thus contracting his lines, and leaving no weak spot open to an attack. From his high position he could look down on every movement of our troops, while his cannon thundered away upon our long line. To make matters worse, a heavy rain storm had set in, and day and night, week after week, it poured down on the exposed army, turning the narrow country roads into gulleys, and every open space into a marsh, and thus preventing any general movement. The troops suffered greatly, yet kept steadily at work. "General McPherson watching the enemy on Kenesaw, and working his left forward; General Thomas, swinging, as it were on a grand left wheel, his left on Kenesaw, connected with General McPherson, while General Schofield was all the while working to the south and east along the old Sandtown road."

Thus matters went on, amid the pelting rain, when on the 22nd, Hood made a sudden attack on Hooker's Corps. Driving in the advanced detachments, he fell furiously on

Williams' division. The onset was fierce, but failed-the enemy losing seven or eight hundred men. Sherman now determined to assault in turn; and, on the 27th, the army advanced against the stronghold. The long rain storm had cleared away, the roads were good-and a warm summer sun was shining, as the columns moved off on the desperate undertaking. The grand assault was made by the two armies of Thomas and McPherson, at two different points. Gulleys, rocks, trees, and underbrush, lay on the line of march, before the mountain, swarming now with men like bees, could be reached. Heralded by the crash of artillery, the columns moved steadily forward, and the battle soon raged furiously. Kenesaw seemed a volcano there in the summer air, while a surge of fire kept rolling steadily up its base. Troops never behaved more gallantly, and the officers held them to their deadly work with unparalleled devotion. Generals McCook and Harker fell at the head of their brigades, cheering on the men, and many other officers went down before the awful fire that swept, without cessation, the rugged slopes of the mountain. But it was vain valor, for the position was too strong to be carried by direct assault. Some brave regi ments mounted half way up the slope, but only to be hurled back broken and bleeding; and at length the bugles rung out the order to cease firing, and the battle was over. Sherman had met his first defeat. His loss was severe, reaching full three thousand, among whom were many valuable officers.

If Sherman made any mistake in this remarkable campaign, it was in ordering this assault. His own reasons for making it are not satisfactory. He says, "all looked to outflank. An army to be efficient must not settle down to one single mode of offense," &c. An army must "settle down" just to that "mode of offense" which will bring victory with the least loss of life. He thought also that the "moral

THE CHATTAHOOCHEE REACHED.

329

effect" of a successful assault would be good. But it is equally true that the "moral effect" of an unsuccessful one is bad, and the chances here were nine to one against him. Besides, he after all, had to fall back again to his old flanking system, the only wise course when it can be taken against such a strong position as Kenesaw mountain was.

Gathering up his bleeding army, and, burying his dead, under a flag of truce, he sent McPherson forward to the Chattahoochee, far in the rear of Kenesaw Mountain. As soon as Johnston was aware of this movement, he evacuated his strong position, and Sherman rode into Marietta. The result showed that this would have been the proper course at first, and that he could have had the strong position without the loss of a man.

Sherman now pressed forward, in hope of catching Johnston in the confusion of crossing the Chattahoochee. But the latter had provided against such a contingency, and covered his movements so well that no considerable advantage could be gained over him, though more or less fighting occurred all the way to its banks. On the 4th and 5th of July, the rebel army crossed the river in safety. On the 7th, Schofield effected a lodgment on the farther bank, and laid a good pontoon and trestle bridge. Sherman handled hist troops with such skill, that by the ninth, he had secured three good points for crossing over his army above the enemy's tete-du-pont, when the latter reluctantly abandoned his last line of defense, and fell back to Atlanta.

In the meantime Rousseau, with two thousand cavalry, was sent around Atlanta, to destroy the railroad at Opelika, Ala., south, and cut off Johnston's supplies. This force was gone twelve days, and succeeded in accomplishing its object, and returned, with the loss of only thirty men.

The control of the Chattahoochee, Sherman said, "was one if not the chief object of the campaign," but Atlanta lay

330

ATLANTA IN SIGHT.

only eight miles distant, and he determined to capture it. But after the heavy marching and fighting of the past few weeks, the army needed rest before entering on such a desperate undertaking, and it pitched its camps along the stream, and gave itself up to several days' repose. From a neighboring hill the steeples of Atlanta, and the smoke of its foundries could be seen. Around it stretched a beautiful country, dotted with plantations, while in every direction, the smoke of locomotives, as they sped along the plains, revealed the various lines of railroad that centered in the place.

CHAPTER XXV.

JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1864.

ATLANTA REACHED-HOOD'S FIRST ATTACK-HIS ASSAULT ON MCPHERSONDEATH OF THE LATTER-HOWARD PLACED OVER THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE-STONEMAN AND MC COOK'S RAID-HOOKER RESIGNS-FIERCE ATTACK

ON HOWARD-SHELLING OF ATLANTA-AN UNSUCCESSFUL ASSAULT-WHEELER SENT TO CUT SHERMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS-KILPATRICK DISPATCHED TO CUT HOOD'S-SHERMAN RESOLVED TO PLANT HIS ARMY ON THE MACON ROAD-BATTLE OF JONESBORO'-ATLANTA CUT OFF-HOOD EVACUATES ITSLOCUM TAKES POSSESSION-THE REBEL ARMY PURSUED TO LOVEJOY'S STATION-REST TO THE ARMY-SUMMING UP OF THE CAMPAIGN-SHERMAN ORDERS ALL THE INHABITANTS TO LEAVE-HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH HOOD AND THE MAYOR, ON THE subject.

ON

the

N the 17th of July, the whole army moved forward, fighting as it advanced, and, at length, Atlanta greeted eyes of the weary, suffering, yet enthusiastic troops. Johnston, at this time, was removed from command, and Hood put in his place. A new mode of conducting the campaign was now to be inaugurated. The Fabian policy was dropped at once, and the impetuous Hood, the moment he obtained the control of the army, broke into a furious offensive. On the 20th, Sherman was in the act of forming his new lines, about five miles from Atlanta, with no enemy in force apparently near, when suddenly, nearly the whole of Hood's army came pouring forward with shouts and yells, that rolled like thunder over the field. Newton's division of Howard's Corps, and Johnson's of Palmer's, received the first shock. They had just before thrown up a breastwork of rails, behind which they poured in a galling fire. Hooker's Corps, however, was entirely uncovered, yet stood like a flaming citadel in the open fields. Where this onset was