Journal History of the Twenty-Ninth Ohio Veteran Volunteers, 1861-1865 / Its Victories and its Reverses. And the campaigns and battles of Winchester, Port Republic, Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, Atlanta, the March to the Sea, and the campaign of the Carolinas, in which it bore an honorable part

by J. Hamp SeCheverell

CHAPTER XIX.

Siege of Atlanta—The Capitulation—General Sherman’s Report.

July 21st, heavy skirmishing on our right. 22d, we moved forward in pursuit of the retreating rebels. 23d, we are now strongly intrenched, within two miles of Atlanta, Georgia; lively skirmishing much of the time. 24th, shelling and picket firing to-day; rebels charged our line but were repulsed. 25th, brisk firing all day. 26th, advanced our line forty rods. 27th, quiet along the lines. 28th, heavy firing on our right; the rebels are repulsed. 29th and 30th, fighting continues.

August 1st to 3d, hot firing all the time. 4th, National Thanksgiving Day; fighting on our right; rebels driven back; skirmishing every day—all the time; getting monotonous. 25th, left our works and fell back to the Chattahoochie river, near Vining station; marched all night. 27th, Major-general W. H. Slocum assumed command of the Twentieth army corps.

September 4th, moved forward to Atlanta, which we reached about 2 o’clock P. M.; marched through the city and went into camp about one and one-half miles west of the city. 6th, received an order from General Sherman that the campaign was ended, and that the troops are to have a full month’s rest; that our task was not only done, but well done. 12th, the citizens of Atlanta were moved south to-day; from this date we lay in camp with little to mar our happiness till November 1st, when we received orders to send all our baggage to the rear and put ourselves in light marching order. November 5th, orders having been received for the troops to move, the Twenty-ninth struck tents and marched from Atlanta at 3:30 P. M. in the direction of Stone Mountain, some three miles, and camped for the night. At 1 o’clock P. M. on the following day, the regiment marched back to Atlanta, and again occupied its old camp.

During the afternoon of the 1st of September specific orders for the withdrawal of Stewart’s rebel corps de armee and the militia were issued, and about sunset the latter were withdrawn from the trenches. When they were fairly on the road Stewart’s corps followed, all being en route by midnight, except the cavalry, a brigade or two of infantry, and the pickets. These latter remained until the advance of the Twentieth corps neared the city on the morning of the 2d. The explosion of ammunition was of course heard at the position of the Twentieth corps, and though General Slocum (who it appears was in command of the Twentieth corps at the time) had received no intelligence of Sherman’s great success at Jonesboro, he was not unprepared to find Hood gone any morning, and the explosions convinced him that the withdrawal was taking place. He instantly issued orders to his division commanders, Generals Ward, Williams, and Geary, to send out each a heavy reconnoissance at daybreak on the morning of the 2d.

About 1,000 men were detailed from each division, and at 5 A. M. pushed forward on neighboring roads into Atlanta on the north and northwest, encountering no opposition. They pushed rapidly forward, and at 8 o’clock came in sight of the rebel intrenchments, so lately occupied with enemies but now silent and deserted.

Advancing rapidly, Colonel Coburn, commanding General Ward’s reconnoissance, entered the enemy’s works, encountering in the suburbs Mayor Calhoun, of Atlanta, and a deputation of the city council. The former nervously presented a paper surrendering the city and asking protection. Colonel Coburn refused to receive the paper for informality, and directed that another should be drawn up. Mayor Calhoun invited several of General Ward’s staff to accompany him to the court-house, where the documents should be made en regle, promising at the same time to expel the drunken rebel stragglers, who were lingering in the streets and were disposed to skirmish with our advance. He immediately took measures to effect the last, and accompanied by the officers whose names are offered in attest, he returned to the court-house, and the following document was drawn up:

“Atlanta, Georgia,	⎫
September 2, 1864.	⎭

“Brigadier-general Ward, Commanding Third Division Twentieth Corps.

“Sir:—The fortunes of war have placed the city of Atlanta in your hands, and as mayor of the city I ask protection to non-combatants and private property.

“James M. Calhoun,

Mayor of Atlanta.”

The preliminary formalities thus disposed of, our troops entered the city with music and flags, marching promptly and erect. A fine flag-staff was found on the Franklin printing house, where the Memphis Appeal had been printed. The stars and stripes were soon flung to the calm, sunny air amid the cheers of the brave men who had fought for so many weary, consuming days to place it there.

General Henry W. Slocum established his headquarters at the Trout house, the leading hotel of the city, overlooking the public square. In the forts around Atlanta eleven heavy guns, mainly sixty-four pounders, were left by the enemy; also about three thousand muskets, in good order, stored in various parts of the city, were found; also three locomotives in running order, and large quantities of manufactured tobacco were discovered. Between one and two hundred stragglers, the majority of them very drunk, were fished from their hiding places and placed under guard at the court-house.

GENERAL THOMAS’ CONGRATULATORY ORDER.

Army Headquarters, July 26, 1864.

“The major-general commanding the army congratulates the troops upon the brilliant success attending the Union arms in the late battles. In the battle of the 20th instant, in which the Twentieth corps, one division of the Fourth corps, and part of the Fourteenth corps were engaged, the total union loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 1,733. In front of the Twentieth corps there were put out of the fight 6,000 rebels; 563 of the enemy were buried by our own troops, and the rebels were permitted to bury 250. The Second division of the Fourth corps repulsed seven different assaults of the enemy with light loss to themselves, and which must have swelled the number of dead buried by the rebels to beyond 300. We also captured seven stands of colors. No official report has been received of the part taken in the battle by the Fourteenth corps. In the battle of the 22d instant, the total Union loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 3,500, and also 10 pieces of artillery. The rebel loss in prisoners captured was 3,200. The known dead of the enemy in front of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth corps and one division of the Seventeenth corps was 2,142. The other divisions of the Seventeenth corps repulsed six assaults of the enemy before they fell back, and which will swell the rebel loss in killed to at least 3,000. The latest reports state that we buried over 3,200 rebels killed in this fight. There were captured from the enemy in this battle 18 stands of colors and 5,000 stands of arms.

“By command of

Major-general George H. Thomas.

“W. D. Whipple,

Assistant Adjutant-general.”

GENERAL SHERMAN’S SPECIAL FIELD ORDER NO. 68.

“Headquarters Military Division, of the	⎫
Mississippi in the Field,	⎬
Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 8, 1864.	⎭

“The officers and soldiers of the armies of the Cumberland, Ohio, and Tennessee have already received the thanks of the Nation through its President and commander in chief, and it remains now only for him who has been with you from the beginning, and who intends to stay all the time, to thank the officers and men for their intelligence, fidelity, and courage displayed in the campaign of Atlanta. On the 1st day of May our armies were lying in garrison, seemingly quiet, from Knoxville to Huntsville, and our enemy lay behind his rocky-faced barrier at Dalton, proud, defiant, and exultant. He had time since Christmas to recover from his discomfiture on the Mission Ridge, with his ranks filled, and a new commander in chief, second to none of the Confederacy in reputation for skill, sagacity, and extreme popularity. All at once our armies assumed life and action and appeared before Dalton. Threatening Rocky Face, we threw ourselves upon Resaca, and the rebel army only escaped by the rapidity of its retreat, aided by the numerous roads with which he was familiar, and which were strange to us. Again he took post, at Allatoona, but we gave him no rest, and by a circuit toward Dallas and a subsequent movement to Ackworth, we gained the Allatoona pass. Then followed the eventful battles about Kenesaw and the escape of the enemy across the Chattahoochie river. The crossing of the Chattahoochie and breaking of the Augusta road was most handsomely executed by us, and will be studied as an example in the art of war. At this stage of our game our enemies became dissatisfied with their old and skilful commander and selected one more bold and rash. New tactics were adopted. Hood first boldly and rapidly on the 20th of July fell on our right at Peach Tree creek, and lost again. On the 22d he struck our extreme left and was severely punished; and finally again on the 28th he repeated the attempt on our right, and that time must have been satisfied, for since that date he has remained on the defensive. We slowly and gradually drew our lines about Atlanta, feeling for the railroads which supplied the rebel army and made Atlanta a place of importance. We must concede to our enemy that he met these efforts patiently and skilfully, but at last he made the mistake we had waited for so long and sent his cavalry to our rear, far beyond the reach of recall. Instantly our cavalry was on his only remaining road, and we followed quickly with our principal army, and Atlanta fell into our possession as the fruit of well-concerted measures, backed by a brave and competent army. This completed the grand task which had been assigned us by our Government, and your general again repeats his personal and official thanks to all the officers and men composing this army for the indomitable courage and perseverance which alone could give success. We have beaten our enemy on every ground he has chosen, and have wrested from him his own Gate city, where were located his foundries, arsenals, and workshops, deemed secure on account of their distance from our base and the seeming impregnable obstacles intervening. Nothing is impossible to an army like this, determined to vindicate a government wherever our flag has once floated, and resolved to maintain them at any and all cost.

“In our campaign many, yea very many of our noble and gallant comrades have preceded us to our common destination, the grave; but they have left the memory of deeds on which a Nation can build a proud history. McPherson, Harker, McCook, and others dear to us all, are now the binding links in our minds that should attach more closely together the living, who have to complete the task which still lies before us in the dim future.

“I ask all to continue as they have so well begun, the cultivation of the soldierly virtues that have ennobled our own and other countries,—courage, patience, obedience to the laws and constituted authorities of our Government, fidelity to our trusts, and good feeling among each other; each trying to excel the other in the practice of those high qualities, and it will then require no prophet to foretell that our country will, in time, emerge from this war purified by the fires of war and worthy its great founder, Washington.

“W. T. Sherman,

Major-general commanding.”