512

HOOD IN MOTION.

the ground of teraperary insanity, arising from some cause or other. Still with his aid, Hood was reinforced with forty thousand militia, and by the last of September, declared himself ready to move. Unable to cope with Sherman in the open field, he resolved to throw himself on his long line of communications, and compel him to fall back to Chattanooga.

Moving rapidly, he broke up the railroad in various places. Beyond Allatoona, nearly to Dallas, he had it pretty much all his own way, so that during the entire month of October, Sherman was cut off from Chattanooga. The foresight of the latter, in making Allatoona a secondary base, was now apparent. If it could be taken, his army would be in a perilous position. This Hood knew, and dispatched a whole rebel division, under French, to capture it. Sherman,. aware of his designs, sent a signal from the distant Kenesaw Mountains to General Corse, who was in command of Rome, to take his brigade, and move with the utmost speed to Allatoona, and hold it against all opposition, until he himself could arrive with help.

Pushing forward by railroad, this gallant officer reached the place with about two thousand men before French did, and at once made his dispositions to defend it to the last. As soon as the rebel General, with his overwhelming force, arrived, he sent the following message to Corse :

"AROUND ALLATOONA, October 5, 1864. Commanding Officer U. S. Forces, Allatoona:

SIR, I have placed the forces under my command in such positions, that you are surrounded, and to avoid a needless effusion of blood, I call on you to surrender your forces at once, and unconditionally. Five minutes will be allowed you to decide. Should you acccde to this, you will be treated in the most honorable manner as prisoners of war.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully yours,

S. G. FRENCH,

Major-General Commanding Forces C. S."

A CURT MESSAGE.

513

To this peremptory order, backed by an entire division, the gallant Corse replied in the following droll, yet curt language:

"HEAD-QUARTERS FOURTH DIVISION, FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS, ALLATOONA, GA., 8.30 A. M., October 5, 1864. S

Major-General S. G. French, S. Army, etc.:

Your communication demanding surrender of my command, I acknowledge the receipt of, and respectfully reply that we are prepared for the "needless effusion of blood," whenever it is agreeable to you.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN M. CORSE,

Brigadier-General Commanding Forces U. S."

Corse had but little time to arrange his defense, as he reached the place that very morning, a little after midnight. Sherman, in his dispatch, says of Corse, in the desperate engagement that followed-"his description of the defense is so graphic that it leaves nothing for me to add." We agree with him, and therefore let him tell his own story.

"I had hardly issued the incipicnt orders, when the storm broke in all its fury on the Thirty-ninth Iowa and Seventh Illinois. Young's brigade of Texans, one thousand nine hundred strong, had gained the west end of the ridge, and moved with great impetuosity along its crest, till they struck Rowett's command, where they received a severe check; but undaunted, they came again and again. Rowett, reinforced by the Ninety-third Illinois, and aided by the gallant Redfield, encouraged me to hope we were safe here, when I observed a brigade of the enemy, under General Sears, moving from the north, its left extending across the railroad. I rushed to the two companies of the Ninetythird Illinois, which were on the brink of the cut running north from the redoubt and parallel with the railroad-they having been reinforced by the retreating pickets-and urged them to hold on to the spur: but it was of no avail. The

514

A DESPERATE BATTLE.

enemy's line of battle swept us like so much chaff, and struck the Thirty-ninth Iowa in flank, threatening to engulf our little band without further ado. Fortunately for us, Colonel Tourtellotte's fire caught Sears in flank, and broke him so badly as to enable me to get a staff-officer over the cut, with orders to bring the Fiftieth Illinois over to reinforce Rowett, who had lost very heavily. However, before the regiment sent for could arrive, Sears and Young both rallied, and made their assaults in front and on the flank with so much vigor and in such force, as to break Rowett's line, and had not the Thirty-ninth Iowa fought with the desperation it did, I never would have been able to get a man back into the redoubt. As it was, their hand-to-hand conflict and stubborn stand broke the enemy to that extent, he must stop and re-form, before undertaking the assault on the fort. Under cover of the blow they gave the enemy, the Seventh and Ninety-third Illinois, and what remained of the Thirty-ninth Iowa, fell back into the fort.

The fighting up to this time (about eleven A. M.) was of a most extraordinary character. Attacked from the north, from the west, and from the south, these three regiments, Thirty-ninth Iowa, Seventh and Ninety-third Illinois, held Young's and a portion of Sears's and Cockeral's brigades at bay for nearly two hours and a half. The gallant Colonel Redfield, of the Thirty-ninth Iowa, fell shot in four places, and the extraordinary valor of the men and officers of this regiment, and of the Seventh Illinois, saved to us Allatoona. So completely disorganized was the enemy, that no regular assault could be made on the fort, till I had the trenches all filled, and the parapets lined with men.

The Twelfth Illinois, and Fiftieth Illinois arriving from the cast hill, enabled us to occupy every foot of trench and keep up a line of fire that, as long as our ammunition lasted, would render our little fort impregnable."

But the ammunition gave out, and a brave fellow, whose name he forgot, crossed over to another fort under the enemy's fire, and brought back an armful and the fight

went on.

Sherman, anxious about Allatoona, hastened forward, and about ten o'clock reached the top of the Kenesaw, eighteen miles distant. He says, "I could see the smoke of battle, and hear the faint sound of artillery." He immediately pushed forward a brigade, and flew his signal telling Corse that help was coming. But this heroic Commander had too much on his hands to be looking out for signals. He knew, without them, that Sherman was hurrying forward troops to his relief as fast as they could march.

The fight was kept up, and the smoke of battle wrapped the combatants, while far away on the serene heights of Kenesaw stood Sherman flying his signals and watching through his glass to see if they were answered. For a long time they waved unheeded, but at last an answer came, and he knew then that while Corse lived, the rebel force would never have Allatoona. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the rebel General gave it up-for, repulsed in every attack, he saw he was only increasing his piles of dead, and ordered his bugles to sound retreat.

Sherman, hurrying forward his army, passed. through Allatoona to Kingston, which he reached on the 6th, and at once reinforced Resaca-before which Hood had appeared and demanded its surrender-and pushed forward toward the same point with the main army. The succeeding movements, until the pursuit was abandoned, and Hood left to move north, while he prepared his Georgia campaign, are best described in his own language. He says:

"Arriving at Resaca on the evening of the fourteenth, I determined to strike Hood in flank, or force him to battle, and directed the Army of the Tennessee, General Howard,

516

SHERMAN'S MOVEMENTS.

to move to Snake Creek Gap, which was held by the enemy, whilst General Stanley, with the Fourth and Fourteenth Corps, moved by Tilton across the mountains to the rear of Snake Creek Gap, in the neighborhood of Villanow.

"The Army of the Tennessee found the enemy occupying our old lines in the Snake Creek Gap, and on the 15th skirmished for the purpose of holding him there until Stanley could get to his rear. But the enemy gave way about noon, and was followed through the Gap, escaping before General Stanley had reached the further end of the Pass. The next day, the sixteenth, the armies moved directly toward Lafayette, with a view to cut off Hood's retreat. We found him intrenched in Ship's Gap, but the leading division (Wood's) of the Fifteenth Corps rapidly carried the advanced posts held by two companies of a South Carolina regiment, making them prisoners. The remaining eight companies escaped to the main body near Lafayette. The next morning we passed over into the Valley of the Chattooga, the Army of the Tennessee moving in pursuit by Lafayette and Alpine, toward Blue Pond; the Army of the Cumberland by Summerville and Mellville Post-Office to Gaylesville; and the Army of the Ohio and Garrard's cavalry from Villanow, Dirttown Valley, and Goover's Gap to Gaylesville. Hood, however, was little encumbered with trains, and marched with great rapidity, and had succeeded in getting into the narrow gorge formed by the Lookout Range abutting against the Coosa River, in the neighborhood of Gadsden. He evidently wanted to avoid a fight.

"On the nineteenth, all the armies were grouped about Gaylesville, in the rich Valley of the Chattooga, abounding in corn and meat, and I determined to pause in my pursuit of the enemy, to watch his movements and live on the country. I hoped that Hood would turn toward Guntersville and Bridgeport. The Army of the Tennessee was