THE ENEMY DRIVEN FROM PINE MOUNTAIN.

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were rapidly completed, and on the 8th, supplies were brought into camp by rail. On the same day, also, General Blair arrived at Ackworth, with two divisions of the seventeenth corps and a brigade of cavalry-a reinforcement which amply compensated for Sherman's losses in battle, and the troops left in garrison at Resaca, Rome, Kingston, and Allatoona. On the next day, the 9th, with well secured communications to the rear, and with ample supplies for the advance, the entire army moved forward to Big Shanty, the next station on the railroad. Here they found themselves surrounded by scenery of peculiar and lofty beauty. They were on the broad and uneven plateau which reaches from the base of the easternmost hills of the Appalachain chain toward the Chattahoochee river. To their left, and on the east of the railroad, were Sweat mountain and Black Jack, while to the westward, and nearly in front of their position, rose Kenesaw, the bold and striking Twin mountain. To the right was the smaller hill, known as Pine mountain, and still more distantly to the right was Lost mountain. All these mountains, though links in a continuous chain, had sharp conical peaks, which rendered them peculiarly prominent in the vast and roughly-moulded landscape which surrounded them. Here they found the Rebel General Johnston holding a strongly fortified position on the northern slopes of Pine, Kenesaw, and Lost mountains-the first named forming the apex, and the two latter the base, of a triangle, completely commanding the town of Marietta, and the railroad as far as the Chattahoochie. On each of these peaks the enemy had established signal stations, while the summits were crowned with batteries, and the spurs alive with men, busily engaged in felling trees, digging pits, and preparing for the impending crisis of battle. General Sherman says, in his official report: "The scene was enchanting; too beautiful to be disturbed by the harsh clamors of war; but the Chattahoochie lay beyond, and I had to reach it." On a closer approach, he found that the enemy was holding a line full two miles long, and one which he could not properly maintain with the force at his disposal. With a view, therefore, to break this over-extended line at some weak point, General Sherman ordered General McPherson to move toward Marietta, with his right on the railroad, General Thomas on Kenesaw and Pine mountains, and General Schofield toward Lost mountain; while General Garrard's cavalry hovered on the left, General Stoneman's on the right, and General McCook looked to the rear, and communications with the depot at Big Shanty.

On the 11th of June, having closed his lines well up to the enemy's position, Sherman prepared to break the line between Kenesaw and Pine mountain-that point being apparently the weakest-and for a few days there was some very severe and protracted skirmishing. On the 14th, Hooker's and Howard's corps opened a sharp cannonade upon the Rebels on Pine mountain, in the course of which the Rebel Lieutenant-General

Polk was killed, and on the morning of the 15th, it was ascertained that the enemy had abandoned their position at that point, and had fallen back upon the line of rugged hills connecting Kenesaw and Lost mountains.

McPherson was now thrown forward, gaining substantial advantages on the left, and constant pressure being firmly kept up on the enemy's lines, an assault was ordered by Sherman on the 17th; but the enemy had abandoned, that very morning, both Lost mountain and the long line of admirable breast works which connected it with Kenesaw. Following him closely, so as to keep up an uninterrupted pressure upon his lines; skirmishing amid dense forests and difficult ravines, the Union army again came upon and found Johnston, strongly intrenched, with Kenesaw as his salient, his right wing covering Marietta, and his left behind Nose's creek, in position to protect the railroad as far as the Chattahoochie-his lines being thus contracted and greatly strengthened. From his eyrie on the twin summits of Kenesaw, he could look down upon the Union camp, and watch every movement of the troops, whom he constantly cannonaded, although with little effect, owing to the extreme elevation of his position.

Here, lying closely up against the mountain town, and under the constant fire of the enemy's guns, Sherman's army passed three weeks, during a season of heavy rains, which fairly flooded the whole surrounding country and rendered a general movement impossible. The men, however, kept daily working their way closer to the intrenched foe, maintaining an incessant picket fire, and embracing every opportunity of advancing the general lines. Thus, slowly gaining, step by step, McPher son had reached within two miles of Marietta, Thomas had swung from the left, where he joined McPherson, around to the west and southwest of Kenesaw, and Schofield was steadily pressing southward and eastward along the old Sandtown road.

Suddenly, on the 22d, the enemy, who were restive under this intermitting pressure, rallied and attacked General Hooker, the blow falling chiefly on General Williams's division and a brigade of Schofield's army. The ground was quite open, and the enemy easily drove in the skirmish lines—an advanced regiment purposely thrown forward by General Schofield as a temporary check to the assailants. Their point of attack was evidently a wooded ridge running in a southeasterly direction, and diagonally across the front of the Union lines, and which had been gained by Butterfield's division that morning after some severe and mined fighting. It was occupied, at the moment of the attack, by Williams's division of the same corps, who had come upon it about noon, but before they had time to fortify it the Rebels dashed out upon them from the distant woods, moving at the quick-step, in three lines of battle. The danger was imminent; but our batteries opened fiercely upon them, and as they came within short range, Williams's men, who had hitherto reserved their fire, delivered such rapid and deadly vollies that they fell

very

deter

ATTACK ON KENESAW MOUNTAIN.

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back, their confusion greatly increased by a sudden enfilading fire, which came from some batteries placed in position by General Geary, of the same corps.

They rallied, and made repeated attempts especially to drive Whittaker's division of the army of the Ohio from its position of the morning, but each attempt was repulsed with very heavy loss, and they finally retired, leaving their dead and wounded in the hands of the Union troops. This action is known as the battle of "Kulp's house." With the return of fair weather, General Sherman determined to drive the foe from his stronghold, either by assault or by flanking.

Either alternative presented its own difficulties and dangers. If he assaulted the Rebel lines at their weakest point, he might, by capturing Marietta, divide and defeat the enemy's force in detail. But then, the attempt to carry by arms a position so strong by nature, and so improved by military science, would be attended with uncertainty of success, and, in any event, with a heavy loss of life. If, however, he should, as the enemy and his own officers evidently expected him to do, flank the position by a detour to the right, and seize the railroad near the crossing of the Chattahoochie, he would commit his army to a single method of offence, which would involve much loss of time, and would be attended with peculiar hazards. The evident expectation of both friend and foe, that he would renew the flanking policy which had hitherto characterized his progress in this campaign, seems to have decided him to do just the opposite. Believing, as he says, that "an army, to be efficient, must not settle down to one single mode of offence, but must be prepared to execute any plan which promises success," he resolved to avail himself of the moral effect which would result, to friend and foe alike, from a successful assault upon the enemy behind his breastworks, and at that point where success would yield the largest fruits of victory. This point, in his opinion, was the Rebel left-centre, through which, if he could push a strong column, it could reach the railroad below Marietta by a bold and rapid march of two and a half miles, thus cutting off from their line of retreat the enemy's right and centre, either of which could then be overwhelmed and destroyed.

On the 24th of June, General Sherman ordered that two assaults should be simultaneously made on the 27th, one by General McPherson's troops near Little Kenesaw, and another by General Thomas's command, about a mile further south. The assaults were made in the time and manner prescribed, and both failed, in spite of the indomitable bravery and perseverance of the troops engaged, with a loss of over three thousand killed and wounded, including Generals Harker and McCook. The Rebels, fighting behind breast works, suffered a comparatively slight loss. Sherman, however, was not the man to allow his men to rest long under the influence of a mistake or a failure, and he accordingly ordered General

Schofield to work farther along toward the Rebel left; and relieving General McPherson in front of Kenesaw by General Garrard's cavalry, the former quickly moved his whole command by the right, down to Nickajack creek, which, as well as Turner's ferry, he threatened; while Stoneman's cavalry was also sent to the river near Turner's ferry. General McPherson commenced his movement on the night of the 2d of July, and the effect was instantaneous. The next morning Kenesaw was abandoned by the Rebel hosts, and at early dawn our skirmishers had occupied its summits.

General Thomas's whole line was immediately moved forward to the railroad, and turned southward to the Chattahoochie, in pursuit of the Rebels, while General Sherman rode into Marietta at eight o'clock that morning, just as the Rebel cavalry left it. The rear-guard of McPherson's army, under Logan, was ordered back to Marietta, while McPherson and Schofield were instructed to cross Nickajack creek, attacking the enemy in flank and rear, and, if possible, to catch him in the confusion of crossing the Chattahoochie. Johnston, however, foreseeing this danger, had succeeded in covering his movements well by establishing a strongly intrenched tete de pont at the Chattahoochie, and an advanced line of intrenchments across the road at the Smyrna camp-meeting ground, five miles from Marietta. Here, with his front well protected by good parapets, and his flanks behind the Nickajack and Rottenwood creeks, he was found by General Logan's advance-guard.

Detailing a garrison for Marietta, and directing General Logan to rejoin his own army, then near the outlet of the Nickajack, General Sherman himself overtook General Thomas at Smyrna. On the 4th of July they pushed a strong skirmish line down the main road, capturing the entire line of the enemy's rifle-pits, at the same time making strong demonstrations against Turner's ferry, and along the Nickajack creek—and the next morning the enemy had fled across the Chattahoochie. The Union army, therefore, moved down to the river, General Thomas's left resting on it near Paice's ferry, General McPherson's right at the mouth of the Nickajack, while General Schofield's command was held in reserve. Opposite to them lay the enemy, behind an intrenched line of unusual strength, covering the railroad and pontoon bridges, and beyond the Chattahoochie; and the heavy skirmishing along the whole front during the 5th, clearly demonstrated the strength of the position, which could only be turned by crossing the river, a deep and rapid stream, only passable at that point by bridges, and a few very difficult fords. Difficult as this was, however, General Sherman wisely deemed it best to attempt it while the enemy was still suffering from the partial demoralization incident to their rapid retreat, and before they should have time to oppose further obstacles, in the form of additional fortifications. Acting under his orders, General Schofield's corps, on the 7th, successfully crossed the Chattahoochie, near the mouth of Soap creek, capturing one gun, surprising the guard, laying

BURNING OF ROSWELL FACTORIES.

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a good pontoon and a trestle bridge, and making a lodgement on the east bank, on high and commanding ground, with good roads leading eastward.

While this was being done, General Garrard's cavalry captured Roswell, and destroyed the factories, which, during the war, had supplied the Rebel armies with cloths. Over one of these, the nominal owner had hoisted the French flag, as a ruse for its protection, but the building met the same fate as the others, General Sherman declining to recognize the right of neutrals, any more than our own citizens, to make cloth for hostile uses. A shallow ford near Roswell was then secured by Garrard, under Sherman's orders, and held until relieved by General Newton's division of Thomas's corps, who were shortly after relieved in turn by the whole of General McPherson's army, which had been transferred from the extreme right.

Meanwhile, General Howard's corps had built a bridge at Powers' ferry, two miles below Schofield's, and crossing over, had taken position on that general's right. This was effected on the 9th, and General Johnston finding that the Union army had secured three good and safe crossings over the Chattahoochie, had no other resource, on the 10th, than to abandon his tete de pont, burn his bridges, and leave the country, north and west of the river, to the undisputed control of the Federal forces.