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Gap for the all-important attack upon Resaca. On the 12th they moved to the assault. The cavalry of the chivalric General Kilpatrick led, fol lowed by General McPherson and his army of infantry and artillery. The forces of the enemy sent out to meet them, were speedily repulsed and driven back to their intrenchments. Unfortunately, General Kilpatrick was wounded, and the command of his brigade passed into the able hands of Colonel Murray. The cavalry, when within about two miles of Resaca, wheeled to the right and left, that the infantry and artillery might march between them and front the foe.

The rebel General Johnston found the force menacing Resaca too strong for him to resist with the force he had there. He was, therefore, compelled to evacuate Dalton, and rush down with all his troops to prevent the patriot army from getting a position in his rear, which would effectually cut off all possibility of retreat, and which would probably compel the surrender of his whole command. Thus Dalton, fortified by all the resources of nature and of art, fell into the hands of General Sherman, with comparatively little shedding of blood. It was a beautiful strategic operation, evincing the highest military qualities. Such is the difference between mere blind bull-dog fighting and accomplished generalship.

As Johnston in his hurried retreat rushed from Dalton towards Resaca, General Howard vigorously pursued him, pelting from every eminence his vanishing columns with shot and shell. Nothing but the wonderful facilities of the broken, mountainous country for defensive warfare prevented the destruction or capture' of the whole rebel army. Thus by the 14th of May we had driven the foe a distance of eighteen miles, and again they were intrenched in their "last ditch" at Resaca. They were strongly posted behind a creek, in numerous formidable forts and upon inaccessible hills. Here, again, a direct attack would insure fearful slaughter; but General Sherman was in a condition now of prosecuting a series of flank movements which the foe could by no possibility prevent.

A few miles south of Resaca was the town of Calhoun, upon the railroad, and about twenty miles below was the town of Kingston, where the railroad from Rome forms a junction with the East Tennessee road. The same manœuvre was employed as before. When General Sherman vigorously engaged the attention of the enemy at Resaca, raining down upon them a smothering storm of war's missiles, General Sweeney was sent with a division of the Sixteenth Corps to threaten Calhoun, while at the same time a squadron of cavalry was sent under General Gerrard to break the railroad between Calhoun and Kingston. McPherson, Thomas, Hooker hurled war's thunderbolts with such terrible energy into the midst of the ranks of the intrenched rebels, and with such deafening clamor, that the foe had but little disposition to think of any thing but their own immediate safety.

The Coosawattie River makes a sharp bend at Resaca, and the little town lies just in the curve. On both banks of the river the rebels had strong defences, and the hills on each side of the town bristled with cannon from base to summit. The whole rebel army, having rushed down from Dalton, now crowded these lines. A small stream, swoller by recent

rains, was to be crossed, about two miles west of the town. The rebels had destroyed the bridge. General Sherman, with his characteristic impetuosity of manner, inquired of the superintendent of a construction train"How long will it take to throw another bridge across that stream?" "It can be done in four days," was the reply.

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Sir, I give you forty-eight hours, or a position in the front ranks before the enemy.'

The bridge was finished in the specified time, and part of McPherson's Corps crossed over to threaten Calhoun, while a cavalry division, under General Gerrard, crossed over the same bridge to break the railroad above Kingston. The advance on Resaca was made in three columns. One man behind the elaborate fortifications of the foe was equal to at least three, who should attempt to scale those ramparts. The peculiar formation of the land was such that it was very difficult to get our artillery into position to shell the works. On the Sequatchie Creek, two miles to the left of Resaca, the rebels were strongly posted. Their centre formed the apex of an angle located on the spur of a mountain, seventy-five feet above the level of the creek. Their right rested in open fields, where they were protected by large fields and underbrush. As our troops emerged from the woods on the brow of a hill, they found themselves within pointblank range of the rebel guns. An immediate charge was ordered. Down the steep declivity dismounted men and officers rushed. The heroic band pressed on, while

"The sulphur-throated guns

Poured out hail and fire."

Many fell while descending the slope. They plunged into the creek at the foot of the enemy's redoubts. Even veterans turned pale as the hum of bullets, like swarming bees, filled the air. There was no protection whatever to be found against the deadly storm. Further advance was impossible. Retreat up the slope was certain death. The two brigades threw themselves down in the stream along the shallow banks, and there remained for more than an hour, until arrangements were made for their withdrawal. Mere fragments of regiments, however, came back from this impetuous assault. Out of the thirteen hundred composing the Second Brigade, but six hundred and ninety-seven returned. General Schofield ordered another advance, protected by his heavy guns; it was bravely but unavailingly executed. General Cox then advanced, under cover of the woods, to attack the enemy's right wing. Raked by a heavy fire, they pushed on till they planted their flag quite in the rear of the rebel fortifications.

At

About five o'clock in the afternoon a simultaneous attack was made upon nearly the whole line of rebel intrenchments. Three hours of hard fighting ensued. The loss of the assaulting column was very severe. length night came, and a gloomy pall of smoke and darkness settled down. upon the ensanguined field. During all the hours of that dreary night, the groans which pierced that darkness told too plainly that the angel of death was busy completing his work, as patriot and rebel struggled alike beneath his grasp.

It was near noon of the next day, the 15th, when the flame of battle blazed forth anew upon the enemy's left. General Dan. Butterfield, who had won renown upon many a hard-fought field, assisted by Ward's Indiana troops, assailed a triangular stronghold of the enemy, and soon cut a bloody path into the intrenchments. These works protected them from the fire of the foe, and no rebel could raise his head above the opposing parapets without presenting a mark for the deadly aim of the sharpshooters. About two o'clock the rebels made a desperate endeavor to dislodge the patriots from the important position they had won. A large force was hurled against Hovey's Indiana troops, who held the centre of the line. None of these men had ever been under fire before. The rebels came on with a whoop and a yell, but the Western men met them half-way across the flat, and the fight, at times hand to hand, was desperate. The rebels finally staggered, gave way, and then tumultuously ran back to the protection of their earthworks. Many of these Indiana troops, so fearless in battle, were mere boys in years. Far into the night the battle continued. In these long hours, which tried men's souls, Northern firmness triumphed over rebel desperation. A little after midnight, in the darkness, Johnston gathered his shattered columns and fled precipitately, burning his supply and ammunition trains, but dragging off his artillery. All the rebel killed and wounded were left behind.

The next morning, Sunday, May 16, our victorious troops entered Resaca, while preparations were made for a victorious pursuit of the foe. The capture of Dalton and Resaca cost five thousand precious patriot lives. Though the rebels fought behind intrenchments mainly, they lost nearly an equal number in killed and wounded. General Sherman, with that wonderful vigor which characterized this whole campaign, had scarcely entered Rcsaca ere his concentrated columns were again upon the march, pursuing the vanquished rebels. And now ensued truly an exciting chase. Sixty thousand men, with all the concomitant encumbering trains of war, were hotly pursued by an army over ninety thousand strong. The rearguard of the retreating foe was often caught sight of by the advance of the pursuers. While the fugitive rebels and the avenging patriots swept along like a swollen flood, through every channel of movement they could find, General Jefferson C. Davis, whose patriotism has redeemed the name, by a slight detour seized Rome. There were many buildings there for the manufacture of articles of war. Among these work-people, thus efficiently helping on the rebellion, General Sherman captured six hundred girls. What to do with these young and blooming maidens was quite a perplexity. To release them would be simply to replace them in the rebel factories, where they were far more efficient in causing the death of our soldiers, than they could be shouldering muskets in the field. After deliberation, he wisely decided that the pretty rebels were "contraband of war," and that they could not be safely surrendered to that hoary sinner, Jeff. Davis. They were, therefore, sent to the North, outside the rebel lines.

In the eager pursuit of the foe, General Thomas followed by the main road directly on the heels of the fugitive army. General McPherson pressed along by country roads on the right. General Schofield hurried his

corps through obscure roads on the left. The whole army, with all its needful trains, stretched along in a single line, would have filled any one road for a distance of seventy or eighty miles. It was now sweeping down upon Atlanta, in a resistless current, twenty or thirty miles broad. At Adairsville, on the railroad, a portion of our advance came up with the rear of Johnston's army. It was near sunset as General Newton's Division caught sight of the foe, formidably intrenched, as if determined to repel any farther advance of the patriots. Immediately a rebel shell was hurled screaming into our ranks, on its mission of mutilation and death. The decisive challenge was promptly accepted. A sharp but brief encounter ensued, which the gloom of night soon terminated. Taking advantage of the darkness, Johnston again retreated, but so precipitately as to leave his wounded behind him.

The rebels, with swift feet, pressed on through Kingston to a position about four miles beyond the town, at a little hamlet called Cassville. Here, on ground peculiarly favorable for defence, the rebels seemed determined to fight a battle. It was the 19th of May. But General Sherman came thundering on with his centre and his right and left wings, and as his converging columns threatened to envelop the foe, again they hurriedly abandoned their intrenchments and continued their flight. A few miles brought them to the Etowah River, which they tumultuously crossed, burning the bridge behind them. The rebels thus gained a little respite from the harassing pursuit. General Sherman, now in undisturbed possession of the whole of Georgia north of the Etowah River, gave his heroic but exhausted troops a few days for rest. For two weeks they had fought nearly every day. They had occupied eight important towns, capturing the Gibraltar-like fortresses of Dalton and Resaca. They had rebuilt demolished bridges, and repaired the torn-up rail-track. Every day they had been pressing forward in their impetuous march, driving all opposition before them, while General Sherman so skilfully repaired the ruin which the rebels left behind, as to preserve perfect railroad and telegraphic communications between his advance-guard and his base at Chattanooga. The rapidly marching army was thus abundantly supplied.

Cassville is a pretty little village, just off the railroad, where the wearied men, soiled with the dust of travel, spent two and a half days in the luxury of bathing and sleeping. During the long years of peace, the inhabitants, but two hundred in number, had led a peculiarly quiet and isolated life. There were two quite flourishing schools in the place-onc for boys, the other for girls. As these hostile armies, with clamor and battleroar, came sweeping on, the inhabitants fled, and the little rural town soon. presented a pitiable scene of desolation. What the rebels left, and that was but little, the patriots consumed. Though the town suffered but little from shot and shell, mothers and children, young maidens and aged grandames, by command of the rebel leader, followed the fugitive army, "forced from their homes, a melancholy train," to endure in their continuous flight privations frightful to contemplate.

On Monday, the 23d, two good bridges having been secured to cross the river, the victorious army was again put in motion. The enemy occupied formidable positions, strongly intrenched, at Allatoona. These

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could not be carried in front without great loss of life. Sherman therefore resolved upon one of those masterly flank movements which he seemed specially skilled in planning and executing. General McPherson, crossing the Etowah a few miles west of Cassville, moved vid Van Wert to a position near Dallas. General Davis also moved from Rome to Dallas by the same route. To the same point, which was to the west and very considerably to the south of Allatoona, General Thomas also marched, but by roads different from those taken by the divisions to which we have alluded. General Schofield, advancing by roads farther to the east, came up on General Thomas's left. The country through which the army now passed was one of the most beautiful parts of Georgia. There were large and handsome mansions, surrounded with blooming shrubbery, and or chards of delicious fruits, in the midst of vast plantations. But these dwellings of opulence were empty. The owners had fled, leaving behind them the wealth which had been accumulating for a hundred years.

One plantation, by its elegance, attracted special attention. It had belonged to John S. Rowland, a particular friend of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Sitting upon his piazza, he could look over four hundred acres of cultivated land. His mansion was truly palatial, embowered in an exuberance of native flowering shrubs and rare exotics. These lands had been cultivated and this wealth gained by the toil, through several generations, of laborers robbed of their hire. The patriot army, with

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