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BATTLE OF JONESBORO.

777

On the following day, the army moved eastward on several roads; General Howard on the right toward Jonesboro; Thomas, in the centre, by Shoal creek church to Couch's, along the Decatur and Fayettevilleroad, and General Schofield about Morrow's mills, on the left. The possession of these points gave to General Sherman the advantage of shorter and interior lines, owing to the peculiar course followed by the railroad from Atlanta to Macon, along the ridge dividing the Flint and Ocmulgee rivers, and making a wide bend eastwardly between East Point and Jonesboro.

General Sherman was by no means slow to improve the advantage which he had thus obtained, and on the 29th, the columns of his army. moved forward punctually. General Thomas, in the centre, reached Couch's early in the afternoon, having met with but little opposition, except such as arose from the narrowness of the roads; Schofield nearer to the enemy, who were close to East Point, moved cautiously on a small circle around that place, coming into position at Rough-and-Ready. General Howard, having the outer circle, and consequently a greater distance to travel, met cavalry which he drove to Shoal creek crossing, where the enemy had artillery. Here, after some skirmishing, he pushed them on before him, and passing Renfro on the Decatur road, the position indicated for him in the orders of the day, wisely pressed on toward Jonesboro, saved the Flint river bridge, and halted only at nightfall, within half a mile of Jonesboro.

The next morning, he found the enemy in front of him, in large force, and deploying the fifteenth corps, with the sixteenth and seventeenth on its flanks, he threw up temporary fortifications, and prepared to act offensively or defensively as the emergency might require. Sherman immediately sent to Renfro, a division of Davis's corps, and Stanley's and Schofield's corps marched toward Rough-and Ready, with orders to reconnoitre and strike the railroad near that place. Meanwhile, Hood, who until the 29th of August had serenely imagined that Sherman was in full retreat across the Chattahoochie, suddenly had his eyes opened to his own real danger by the news of the Union operations on the West Point railroad.

He found himself again flanked, and all efforts to delay Sherman's advance rendered futile, inasmuch as that general, having the interior lines, could easily keep ahead of any force which might be sent upon his track. Consternation reigned in Atlanta when the position of affairs became known, and catching, with the desperation of a drowning man, at the last hope, Hood resolved to push forward Lee's and Hardee's corps to Jonesboro, to hurl them upon the Union forces before they should have time to intrench, or to damage the railroad line irretrievably.

Accordingly, on the morning of the 31st of August, Howard, who, as we have before seen, had reached Jonesboro the night before, found him

self suddenly attacked by these two Rebel corps. He was, however, admirably prepared for the onset, and after a stubborn contest of over two hours, the foe retired, leaving over four hundred dead on the field, with some two thousand five hundred wounded, three hundred of whom were left in Jonesboro.

While this was being done by Howard, the left and centre were vigor. ously pushed forward, and before four o'clock P. M. Sherman had the satisfaction of hearing that Howard had thoroughly defeated the Rebels at Jonesboro; Schofield had reached within a mile of Rough-and-Ready, breaking up the railroad as he advanced; that Stanley, of Thomas's army, was destroying the same road to the south of Schofield's position, and that General Baird, of Davis's corps, was playing havoc on the same line of communication, still lower down, within four miles of Jonesboro.

The whole army was immediately concentrated on Jonesboro; General Howard keeping the enemy busy while Thomas came down from the north, with Schofield to his left, destroying the road as they went, Garrard's cavalry watched the road in the rear, on the north; Kilpatrick went south, along the west bank of the Flint river, menacing the railroad below Jonesboro, and the whole army was expected to close upon that town by noon of the 1st of September.

The programme was promptly carried out; General Davis, having a shorter line to travel, came in on time, and deployed, facing south, his right connecting with Howard, and his left on the railroad; Stanley and Schofield were steadily doing their work of destruction as they advanced along the Rough-and-Ready road and the railroad.

General Blair's corps, thrown into reserve by the connection of Davis's line with Howard's, was sent to the right, below Jonesboro, acting against the flank with Kilpatrick's cavalry. At four P. M., General Davis assaulted the enemy's lines handsomely across an open field, and carried them, capturing Govan's brigade, with its commander, and two four gun batteries. Stanley and Schofield, however, owing to the difficult nature of the roads, and the absence of roads, failed to get in position before nightfall; and the next morning the enemy had disappeared, having retreated southward.

About two o'clock that night, the Union army heard the sounds of heavy explosions in the direction of Atlanta, twenty miles distant, followed by a series of minor explosions, and by what seemed rapid vollies of cannon and musketry, continuing for nearly an hour. About four o'clock A. M., there occurred another series of similar detonations, apparently

nearer.

At daybreak, finding the enemy's lines at Jonesboro abandoned, a general pursuit southward was ordered, General Thomas taking the left, and General Howard the right of the railroad, while Schofield kept off about two miles to the east. At Lovejoy's station, the enemy was over.

RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN.

779

taken, occupying a strongly intrenched position on Walnut creek, with the evident purpose of covering his communication with the McDonough and Fayetteville road.

News arriving at this juncture that Atlanta had been abandoned on the night of September 1st; that Hood had blown up his ammunition trains; that Stewart's corps had retreated toward McDonough, and the militia toward Covington, Sherman ordered the destruction of the railroad to cease, and held his army in hand for any movement which the news from Atlanta might warrant.

He was not long in suspense. On the night of September 4th, a courier from General Slocum announced that he had entered Atlanta at eleven A. M. of the 2d, the enemy having evacuated it the night previous, retreating toward McDonough, having destroyed his stores, and burned and exploded seven trains of cars loaded with ammunition. His object being now fully attained, and deeming it idle to pursue the enemy in that wooded region of country, Sherman, on the 4th, ordered the army to move slowly back to Atlanta, and on the 8th the several corps reached the positions assigned them, the army of the Cumberland going into camp near Atlanta, the army of the Tennessee at East Point, and the army of the Ohio at Decatur. In this expedition, which formed the last grand move of the campaign, he had lost less than one thousand five hundred killed, wounded, and taken prisoners; while the Rebel loss was fully double; and the Union army had captured more than three thousand prisoners, and twenty-seven guns.

Having decided to make Atlanta a strictly military post, General Sherman issued an order, on the 14th of September, requiring the immediate removal from it of all families which had male representatives in the Rebel armies, to be sent within the Rebel lines, and for all non-combatants to go North, and to expedite such removal, he entered into a ten days truce with General Hood, with whom he made arrangements for forwarding the said citizens beyond the Federal lines.

Wheeler's raid, which, as we have seen, was planned against Sherman's lines of communications about the middle of August, was practically abortive, and after a futile attempt to carry Dalton by assault, he was routed by General Stoneman, and filed to East Tennessee, but being hard pushed by several Federal generals, from point to point, finally passed southward, through Alabama. Other expeditions under Forrest, Morgan, and others were also planned, but all failed in the attainment of their object, which was to force Sherman to loosen his grasp upon Atlanta; while, on the contrary, several expeditions undertaken by Union forces against the Rebels, as an offset to their raids, were almost uniformly successful.

Thus closed the Atlanta campaign, which, although it did not end the war, was at least "the beginning of the end," severing for a second time, the already divided Rebel Confederacy, so that henceforth neither frag

ment could long maintain the pressure of the Union arms. Starting from Chattanooga, a secondary base was held by force of arms in the heart of an enemy's country, and itself three hundred and thirty-six miles distant from Louisville, the real primary base; dependent for supplies almost entirely upon a single line of railroad, General Sherman pushed his way one hundred and twenty-eight miles farther into the enemy's territory, whose topographical difficulties was sufficient to intimidate a less courageous commander, and with which his antagonist was perfectly acquainted, and forced that antagonist to evacuate successively six almost impregnable positions, by flank movements, which in boldness of conception, and successful execution, have never been surpassed in the history of any wars. Yet amid such herculean labors and difficulties, such was his foresight, tact, and care for his soldiers, that his entire losses during the campaign in killed, wounded, and prisoners, were only, killed, five thousand two hundred and eighty-four; wounded, twenty-six thousand one hundred and twenty-nine; missing, five thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, making a total of thirty-seven thousand one hundred and ninety-nine, and very many of the wounded returned to our lines before the close of the campaign; while the Rebels lost during the last days of July alone, over thirty thousand, and during the entire campaign, over fifty thou sand men, of whom about thirteen thousand were prisoners, the Rebel army, according to the admission of the Rebel authorities, having been entirely changed within that time, the losses of veterans being made up by conscripts and militia. Atlanta, thus gained, was a most serious loss to the Confederate Government, and when it fell, they felt the walls of their temple reel and totter around them. From this point the doom of the Rebellion was sealed, and from this city Sherman commenced upon other campaigns, which, as he pithily expressed it, "crushed through the Confederacy, as through an egg-shell."

THE DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA.

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CHAPTER LXII.

THE DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA AND SOUTHEAST VIRGINIA-CAPTURE OF THE UnderWRITER-ATTACK ON NEWBERN-ATTACK ON PLYMOUTH, NORTH CAROLINA-DESPERATE FIGHTING BY THE GARRISON OF THE FORT-CAPTURE OF PLYMOUTH-THE ALBEMARLE'S FIRST APPEARANCE-SHE DRIVES THE UNION GUNBOATS FROM THE RIVER-THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE ALBEMARLE AND THE SASSACUS-DARING CONDUCT OF COMMANDER ROE -THE ALBEMARLE CRIPPLED-EXPLOSION OF THE BOILER OF THE SASSACUS-THE HEROISM OF THE CREW-THE SASSACUS DISABLED-RETREAT OF THE ALBEMARLE-HER SUBSEQUENT FATE-DARING EXPLOIT OF LIEUTENANT CUSHING-MORGAN'S LAST RAID INTO KENTUCKY-CAPTURE OF CYNTHIANA, AND SURRENDER OF GENERAL HOBSON'S TROOPS

DEFEAT OF MORGAN BY GENERAL BURBRIDGE THE GUNBOAT DISASTER-THE REBEL TRAP -RETREAT OF STURGIS-THE TRAIN IN A SLOUGH-COMPLETE ROUT AND DISORDER, AND LOSS OF TRAIN AND GUNS-BRAVERY OF THE NEGRO TROOPS-FORREST'S RAID ON MEMPHIS-THE FORTS AT THE ENTRANCE OF MOBILE BAY-FARRAGUT'S ANXIETY FOR THEIR CAPTURE-THE ATTACK ON THE FORTS-THE BATTLE WITH THE RAM TENNESSEE-HER SURRENDER-RESULTS OF THE BATTLE-SURRENDER OF THE FORTS-SKETCH OF COMMANDER CRAVEN-SKETCH OF FARRAGUT.

IN passing in rapid review the great events of the battle summer of 1864, we have necessarily omitted reference to several Union operations, intended to be subordinate, on the one side or the other, to the main campaigns, but occuring at a distance from them. We will now gather up these broken threads, before proceeding to a continuation of the general narrative.

The Department of North Carolina and southeast Virginia had been subject, before the commencement of the May campaign, to occasional disturbances from the vigilant Rebels, ever on the alert for the opportunity to do the Union troops, garrisons, or gunboats, a mischief. Thus they had on the 4th of February, 1864, captured the Union gunboat Underwriter, in the Neuse river, near Newbern, North Carolina, by a sudden surprise, and had intended with her to capture the other Union gunboats, and transports in the Neuse, but she grounded opposite Fort Stevenson, and the commandant of that fort, ascertaining that she was in Rebel hands, opened upon her with shell, and soon set her on fire, and the Rebels escaped in great baste, leaving some prisoners. They had during the two or three preceding days, made an attack in strong force on Newbern, but though they captured some of the outposts, and took two or three guns, they were, on their approach to the city, effectually repulsed, and though they tried to erect an earthwork about a mile west of Fort Roman, they were speedily driven off, by the shells from the steel guns of the monitor iron-clad car, which ran out toward them, and made terrible havoc in their ranks.

On the 17th of April, Hoke's Rebel division, about ten thousand strong,

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