1864.]

SIGNALLING.

471

flag may be of any color or shape which can be seen well at a distance.

Now suppose there is another signal party, ten or fifteen miles away, on some high place within sight of the first party, and that the latter wishes to send a message. The flagman holds his flag upright, as in position 1 of the picture below, which means "Ready," and the officer looks through his telescope. As soon as he is observed from the other station, the flagman begins to signal. If he wave his flag to the ground on his right and bring it back quickly over his head again, as in position 2, the officer on the distant station will understand it to mean the figure one (1); if he wave to the left and back again, as in position 3, it will mean figure two (2); and if he wave to the ground directly in his front and back again, as in

SIGNALLING WITH FLAGS.

position 4, it will mean figure three (3). We have thus the means of making the figures 1, 2, and 3, which may be combined or put together in a great number of ways; for instance, one may easily signal 123, 231, 1123, 1213, etc. Each flagofficer carries a little book, called a signal code, in which each combination of figures is given a certain meaning: thus, 123 may mean "send troops at once," "railroad bridge burned," or "out of provisions," it being understood that the same meaning is always given to the same combination of figures in all the books, so that each signal officer may easily find it by turning to the number. Of course the books are kept very secret, and if one should fall into the hands of the enemy the whole code has to be changed and new meanings given to the numbers.

In signalling by night the same motions are made by means of torches. Two torches are used-a foot-torch, which is placed

on the ground at the flagman's foot, so that the party signalled may see where he stands, and a waving torch, which is used in the same way with the flags. The torches are lamps filled with camphene or turpentine, and fitted with a large wick, so as to give a bright light.

General Sherman was greatly relieved to hear of Corse's arrival at Allatoona, for he knew that officer would hold the place. In the afternoon he received another signal telling him that the Confederates had been repulsed, but that Corse was wounded. His cheek bone and one ear were shot away, but he continued to cheer on his men and to give orders to the last. The enemy had badly damaged the railroad, tearing it up and destroying it for eight miles; but Sherman set ten thousand men at work, and in a week it was repaired and the trains were

SIGNALLING WITH TORCHES.

running again. The Confederate soldiers began to think it was of little use to tear up tracks and burn bridges when the Yankees could repair them so easily and quickly, and it was reported that Sherman carried along with him duplicates of all the bridges on the railroad. A story is told of a party of "Butternuts" who were lying under a tree, one hot day in July, when Sherman was advancing on Atlanta.

"Well," said one of them, "the Yanks will have to git up and git now, for I heard General Johnston himself say that General Wheeler had blown up the tunnel near Dalton, and that the Yanks will have to retreat, because they can get no more rations."

"Nonsense!" said a listener. "Don't you know that old Sherman carries a duplicate tunnel along?"

1864.]

BURNING OF ATLANTA.

473

General Sherman followed Hood until he became sure that he intended going into Tennessee, and then, leaving Thomas, who was in Nashville, to attend to him, returned to Atlanta and made preparations for his march across Georgia to the Atlantic coast. The authorities in Washington were much. troubled at Hood's march northward, and even General Grant thought that Sherman ought to destroy his army before going on his march; but Sherman believed that Hood's movement was meant to draw him out of Georgia, and knowing that Thomas was strong enough to keep the Confederate army from doing much damage, he determined to set out at once. He felt that his movement to the Atlantic was the surest means of striking a blow at Richmond, and he believed that it would end the war. He had already collected at Atlanta a large quantity of supplies, and he now ordered all the sick and wounded, the refugees and camp-followers, and all the artillery and baggage not needed, to be sent back to Chattanooga. The railroads around Atlanta were utterly destroyed, and the engines and cars and even the rails were taken to Chattanooga for future use. The garrisons, too, of the places south of there were sent back to that post, and the country made unfit for the use of the enemy.

Before leaving Atlanta all the public property in the city, including the railroad station, machine-shops, storehouses, and other buildings which had been used by the Confederates, were set on fire. In the night the burning buildings presented a grand and awful spectacle, lighting up the heavens with lurid flames and showers of sparks, and rolling away great clouds of smoke. Many of the houses had powder and loaded shells. stored in them, and the explosion of these added to the horrors of the night; while above the crackling of the flames and the noise of the bursting shells could be distinctly heard the grand strains of the band of the Thirty-third Massachusetts. The scene was one to be remembered by every man who witnessed it. The next morning (Nov. 15), leaving Atlanta in ruins and enveloped in a pall of smoke, the army set out on its great march to the sea. General Sherman says that as the troops tramped out with a cheery look and a swinging pace, that made light of the thousand miles between them and Richmond, a military band struck up "John Brown's Body." "The

men caught up the strain, and never before or since have I heard the chorus of 'Glory, glory, hallelujah!' done with more spirit or in better harmony of time and place." The soldiers fully believed that they were bound for Virginia, and as General Sherman rode with his staff along the lines of glistening bayonets, many a group called out to him:

"Uncle Billy, I guess Grant is waiting for us at Richmond!"

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

MARCH TO THE SEA.

ANXIETY IN 1864.-GRANT AND LEE.-SECRETARY CHASE AND THE FINANCES.-GREENBACKS.— GOLD.-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.-NEWS FROM ATLANTA.-COPPERHEADS.-RE-ELECTION OF LINCOLN.-ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.-HOOD MARCHES NORTHWARD.-BATTLE OF FRANKLIN. SIEGE OF NASHVILLE.-THOMAS'S VICTORY.-FLIGHT OF HOOD.-SHERMAN'S ARMY.ORDERS FOR FORAGING.-JEFF. DAVIS'S NECKTIES.-CONTRABANDS.-DEY SAY YOU'S MASSA SHERMAN.-BUMMERS.-MARCHING AND CAMPING.-SOLDIERS' PETS.-PET PIGEON.-OLD ABE, THE WAR EAGLE.-MILLEDGEVILLE.--BEAUREGARD AGAIN.--SOLDIERS' FUN.-CAVALRY SKIRMISHES.-PRISON PEN.-ANDERSONVILLE.--TORPEDOES.--DEFENCES OF SAVANNAH. -STORMING OF FORT MCALLISTER.-SAVANNAH AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT.

G

REAT as was the loss of Atlanta to the Confederates, its capture had far more important results than any we have yet related. When the glad news of its fall was flashed by the telegraph all over the land, the hearts of the people were sad, and many of the best men had begun to despair of the Union. The summer of 1864 was the darkest in the history of the war. In the spring Grant's splendid army had set out on its campaign followed by the hope and belief of the people of the North that it would soon end the struggle; but after four months of almost ceaseless fighting, in which more than a hundred thousand men had fallen, Lee's army was still in its front strong enough to bar the way to Richmond. Nay, so sure was the Confederate leader of his ability to keep back Grant, that he had felt able at the same time to invade Pennsylvania and even to attack the defences of Washington. People began to question Grant's ability, and to think that the fame he had won in the West was due to good fortune rather than to soldierly skill.

Another source of great anxiety was the condition of the finances that is, of the national money matters. Of course a great deal of money was needed to pay the cost of carrying on the war, and as the ordinary revenues of the governmentderived from customs duties and other taxes-were only sufficient to pay the expenses in time of peace, money had to be raised by other means. When Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, entered upon the duties of his office in 1861, he found the national finances in so bad a way that it was very