was seen on every side; but on an eminence on the east of the railway, were heavy earth-works, cast up by the Confederates, in perfect order for battle, excepting armament and men. From that point all the way to Atlanta, block-houses, afterward built by the National troops for the protection of the railway, such as were erected between Murfreesboro' and Chattanooga,' were frequently seen.

a

• May 15,

We arrived at Resaca at about noon on the second anniversary of the battle there. It was then a ruined hamlet, with the earth-works left by the Confederates clustered around it. On the east side of the railway, between the station and the bridge over the Oostenaula River, were two considerable forts, built of earth, upon a low ridge; and at

1866.

about the same distance, on the west side, on gentle eminences, were three forts. Across the Oostenaula, at the bridge, was a block-house (seen in the picture), erected by the Nationals after the Confederates left, and another earth-fort near by.

The heaviest of the battle was fought near Camp Creek, about two miles from the station, in the direction of Snake Gap. The day was very warm, and we desired to ride, rather than walk, to the battle-ground. It was difficult to find an animal or a vehicle for the purpose. At length, through the kind offices of Dr. Johnston, who had been a surgeon in the Confederate army, and was in the Battle of Resaca, we were furnished with a rickety wagon and a most forlorn-looking little white mule, arrayed in rope harness. The doctor was our driver and guide. Three almost bottomless splint-bottomed chairs were the furniture of the wagon. They were sufficient, for Mr. Dreer was too ill to go far in the sun, and he remained at the station.

1 See pages 177 and 179.

2 See page 375. This was a new bridge, not quite complete, erected on the site of the old one destroyed by Johnston when he fled from Resaca. The block-house is seen to the right. The Oostenaula is here a considerable stream, flowing between high banks.

VOL. III.-104

402

FROM RESACA TO MARIETTA.

We soon left the highway, and took a direct line across the fields for the battle-ground, opening fences for a passage, receiving curses from a planter because we crossed his cornfield, and laboring a little harder, on the whole, than if we had walked the entire distance. Our frowsy little mule was faithful to the instincts of his race, and varied our experience by running away down a hill, deep-gullied, and giving the writer an opportunity to display his agility by leaping from the bouncing wagon to a gravel bank full fifteen feet "from the place of beginning."

May 16, 1866.

After visiting places of interest connected with the struggle near the head of Camp Creek, and sketching the theater of the hottest of the fight, delineated on page 376, we went over the hills, along which lay the Confederate trenches, to the main Dallas road, and returned by it to Resaca, where we lodged that night. Our friend was better in the morning," and we left at seven o'clock in a freight car for Allatoona, fortyfour miles farther South. At Calhoun, Adairsville, Kingston, and other places, we stopped long enough to observe the sad effects of war. At Adairsville, the Georgia State Arsenal was in ruins; and from that point all the way to the Etowah River, solitary chimneys, small redoubts, and lines of intrenchments, with marks of desolation and stagnation everywhere, proclaimed the operations of an active and destructive campaign.

We crossed the Etowah River and its rich valley not far from Cartersville, in the heart of the beautiful and picturesque land of the ancient Cherokeesthe mountaineers of the Southern tribes-where the few fields planted with cotton-seed were becoming delicately green with the springing germs; and at noon we arrived at Allatoona Pass, just as a thunder-storm was approaching. We found time to visit Fort Hammond and make the sketch on page 397 before much rain fell, and observed the relative position of the assailants and the assailed on the day when Corse and French fought so desperately there. Only the chimneys of Hammond's house were standing. The rough ridge was denuded of its covering of forest trees, and dreariness brooded over the whole scene. From the fort, looking southward, we saw the blue summits of Big and Little Kenesaw, about eighteen miles distant, and in that direction we proceeded, in another freight car, at three o'clock on the same afternoon.

And now the doings of the Demon of War became more and more manifest and manifold in features. After passing Ackworth and approaching Big Shanty, in the vicinity of Kenesaw, the country seemed to be overspread with a net work of intrenchments. These stretched away from the railway to Lost Mountain (which, with Pine Knob, on which Polk was killed, arose on our right), around to New Hope and Dallas, and became lodes of lead, placed there by the muskets of the belligerents in the terrible fights in which they were engaged in that region. These, for a long time after the armies disappeared, were sources of supply to the inhabitants of that region of means for purchasing subsistence. At the time of our visit, they had sold, in Marietta alone, over two hundred thousand pounds of lead in the form of bullets, which they had dug from these works or picked up over the intervening country.

See page 397.

MARIETTA AND KENESAW.

403

We arrived at Marietta-once beautiful and delightsome Marietta-about three miles from Kenesaw, toward evening, where we lodged in one of the houses which had escaped the ravages of war. That town, having about five thousand inhabitants when the war broke out, was noted for the beauty of its situation among the wooded hills, the salubrity of its climate, and the wealth, taste, and refinement of its people. It was a favorite summer resort in the hill-country of Georgia, for the residents of the coast. When we visited it, it was a ghastly ruin. Much of the natural beauty of its surroundings was preserved; and we can never forget the delight experienced by us in an early morning

walk along the broad and winding Powder Springs road, shaded with magnificent old forest trees, that led up to the eminence on which stood the Georgia Military Institute, until, by the torch of National soldiers, it was all reduced to ashes, excepting the broken ruins delineated

in the engraving. In that sketch, made during the morning ramble, Kenesaw is seen in the distance, on the right. A few hours later we were on the summit of that great hill, whither we rode on spirited horses, in company with W. H. Tucker, of Marietta, as cicerone, who was the guide of General Johnston in that region during his campaign. At the foot of the mountain we struck the Confederate intrenchments, and found them winding up its northeastern slopes, so as to cover and command the railroad. They were in a continuous line of rifle-pits, redans, and redoubts, all the way to the summit, on which were the remains of a battery, and the signal station for both armies.'

From that lofty eminence we had a broad view of the surrounding country, and overlooked a theater of some of the most wonderful military events which history has recorded. It was within a circle of vision with an average of thirty miles radius, and every point was familiar to our guide. To the westward we looked off over the wooded country to Dallas and New Hope Church. Farther to the north and northwest were Lost and Pine mountains, and the Allatoona hills; and eastward, away beyond Atlanta, at a distance of thirty-six miles, arose, seemingly from a level country covered with forest, the magnificent dome of Stone Mountain. The air was full of little showers in all directions, which sometimes veiled what we desired to see; and just as we had finished our sketches and observations, one passed over Kenesaw, and drenched us gently while we descended to the rolling plain, and galloped back to Marietta. There we lodged again that night, and on the following morning went on to Atlanta,

May 18,

1866.

1 See page 378.

404

ATLANTA AND ITS VICINITY.

passing through heavy fortifications on the right bank of the Chattahoochee River, near the railway bridge, and then among others more thickly strewn around the ruined city.

We spent a greater portion of two days in and about Atlanta, visiting places of chief interest connected with the siege, accompanied by Lieutenant Holsenpiller, the post commander, and two other officers. Then we went down to Jonesboro', twenty-one miles south of Atlanta, on the Macon road. It was a little village of seven hundred inhabitants when the war began. It, like others in the track of the armies, was nearly ruined. The Courthouse, and almost twenty other buildings, were destroyed. An intelligent young man, who was a Confederate soldier in the battle there between Howard and Hardee,' accompanied us to places of interest connected with that struggle, and at about noon we returned to the village and took the cars for Atlanta. We went out to Marietta that night and lodged, and on the following morning we journeyed by railway from that town to Cleveland, in East Tennessee, on our way to Richmond, in Virginia, by way of Knoxville.?