ing the many inquiries I had to make on the duration of the delicate and arduous duties devolving on me as mayor

of this city.

"Respectfully,

JAMES M. CALHOUN.'"

Similar testimony appeared in the columns of rebel. newspapers. The next quotation is from the Macon Telegraph: "Refugees report generally kind personal treatment from General Sherman and his officers. Whatever exceptions may have occurred have been in violation of orders-instances of individual pilfering, which cannot always be prevented in an army, and in many cases have been detected and punished.

"A friend, whose wife was left an invalid in Atlanta, and came within our lines a day or two since, says, that at her request General Sherman came to see her, and finding her unable to attend to the arrangement of her movables for transportation, had them all bound up nicely and transported to our lines, even to her washtub.

"The Federal general had three hours' conversation with her, and justified at length his order for the removal, insisting that in his exposed position, liable to be cut off and besieged, it was the part of humanity to require that non-combatants should not be exposed to the privations and perils to which his army must probably be subjected; and worse, because he could not provide food for a large population. Goods left behind were stored and duplicate

receipts given, with the promise that they should be safely returned.

"Refugees report that Sherman's army is going North by thousands, and his force is now very small. Whether this movement is confined to men going out of service, or embraces reënforcements to Grant, they were unable to say."

I must give you a pleasant picture of the chief while marshalling his troops at Atlanta: "While I was watching to-day the endless line of troops shifting by, an officer with a modest escort rode up to the fence near which I was standing, and dismounted. He was rather tall and slender, and his quick movements denoted good muscle added to absolute leanness-not thinness. His uniform was neither new nor old, but bordering on a hazy mellowness of gloss, while the elbows and knees were a little accented from the continuous agitation of those joints.

"The face was one I should never rest upon in a crowd, simply because, to my eye, there was nothing remarkable in it save the nose, which organ was high, thin, and planted with a curve as vehement as the curl of a Malay cutlass. The face and neck were rough and covered with reddish hair, the eye light in color and animated; but, though restless and bounding like a ball from one object to another, neither piercing nor brilliant; the mouth well closed but common, the ears large, the hands and feet long and thin, the gait a little rolling, but firm

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and active. In dress and manner there was not the slightest trace of pretension. He spoke rapidly, and generally with an inquisitive smile. To this ensemble I must add a hat which was the reverse of dignified or distinguished a simple felt affair, with a round crown and drooping brim-and you have as fair a description of General Sherman's externals as I can pen.

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Seating himself on a stick of cordwood hard by the fence, he drew a bit of pencil from his pocket, and spreading a piece of note paper on his knee, he wrote with great rapidity. Long columns of troops lined the road a few yards in his front, and beyond the road, massed in a series of spreading green fields, a whole division of infantry was waiting to take up the line of march, the blue ranks clear cut against the verdant background. Those who were near their general looked at him curiously; for in so vast an army the soldier sees his commander-inchief but seldom. Page after page was filled by the general's nimble pencil, and despatched.

"For a half hour I watched him, and, though I looked for and expected to find them, no symptoms could I detect that the mind of the great leader was taxed by the infinite cares of a terribly hazardous military coup de main. Apparently it did not lay upon his mind the weight of a feather. A mail arrived. He tore open the papers and glanced over them hastily, then chatted with some general officers near him, then rode off with char

acteristic suddenness, but with fresh and smiling countenance, filing down the road beside many thousand men, whose lives were in his keeping."

The truly great mind is magnanimous in the hour of victory; a selfish, narrow one is arrogant and oppressive. We ought to be devoutly grateful to God for leaders in this second life-struggle of freedom, who in general character emulate our unrivalled Washington, and do not tarnish the cause he loved by revengeful or unworthy deeds.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Events which followed the Truce-General Hood's Army in Motion-Battle at Allatoona Pass-He is left to the care of the gallant Thomas-The New and Magnificent Campaign of General Sherman-The Field of his Operations-Burning of Rome-The Advance-Atlanta partially Burned-The Rebel Fears and Hopes-The March.

URING the truce which closed September 22d, General Hood had moved his army toward Macon, to protect that important town. But the startling rumor reached his ear that his bold antagonist would turn his front toward Mobile, away on the shores of the Gulf. This drew the rebel chief from his position, and brought him by a westward movement across the track toward the seaboard.

On Sunday, September 25th, at Macon, Jeff Davis addressed the soldiers, assuring them their feet would soon press the soil of Tennessee, spreading before them golden visions of conquest and abundance of supplies. To compel General Sherman to abandon his southern march, and follow him into Tennessee, the desperate