During all this day constant communications passed between me and Gens. Polk and Johnston urging me not to fail to join the retreating army. Cockrell's Brigade arrived at dusk, having marched thirty-two miles, and were at once furnished cars and started for Kingston at 10 P.M. Ector's Brigade reached Kingston at 7:30 A.M. Before we left Rome I had all the horses, stores, sick, and wounded removed. When we reached Kingston, on the 18th, I found Gen. Johnston moving, with his army, to Cassville, and I marched my division there also, and joined Gen. Polk and encamped near headquarters.
It was an error to not have had Polk's Corps concentrated and well in hand to unite with Johnston to oppose Sherman's advance from Dalton, considering the month of May was passing and the time for active movements had arrived. As it was, they were widely separated. On the 4th of May Gen. Polk was ordered to concentrate his command at Rome. From causes noted in my diary the last brigade did not reach there until the 17th.
With Gen. W. T. Sherman, above Dalton, Ga., in command of a hundred thousand men, it behooved either the War Department at Richmond, or Gen. J. E. Johnston, in command of the Army of Tennessee, to have concentrated the Army of Mississippi under the command of Gen. Polk, and held it ready to join the Army of Tennessee; whereas it was widely separated. April 26, I was in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and ordered by Gen. Polk to send a brigade north to the counties as stated. The consequence of all this was only one division of the Army of Mississippi reached Johnston before the battle of Resaca was fought, on May 13-15.
CHAPTER XIV.
Cassville—The Line of Battle—Hood's Line Not Enfiladed—History of that Conference—Two Lieutenant Generals Invite Their Commander to a Council of War—Johnston Obliged to Fall Back—We Cross the Etowah River—Dallas—New Hope Church—Constant Fighting—Rain, Rain—Death of Lieut. Gen. Polk—Battle of the Latimer House—My Division Occupies Little and Big Kennesaw Mountains—The Battle—Incidents of the Battle—Confederates Save Wounded Union Soldiers from Burning—Kennesaw During Night Bombardment—Col. Martin's Noble Conduct—The Irony of Fate—Maj. Poten and French Soldier.
It will be seen that of those troops under Hood that were maneuvering to attack the enemy advancing on our right, I was the last to leave the position east of Cassville, for the whole line of battle was formed before I fell back, and I would have been in reserve entirely had Hood, as he should have done, extended his line to the left until it touched Canty's Division.
May 19, 1864. This morning the army was formed in line of battle. At first I was on the extreme right, but soon after, by change of dispositions, I occupied the line from the hills, on Loring's right, across the valley to the top of the first hill on my right. Hood's Corps was on my right, maneuvering to attack the enemy, but from some cause no fight was made. After this line was formed Cockrell, who was in reserve, was placed on a range of hills south of Cassville, and behind the town. At 4 P.M., I was ordered to fall back and form behind the division of Gen. Canty and Cockrell's Brigade, which I did. But as there was an interval between Hood's line and Canty without troops, I placed there in position Hoskin's Battery and half of Ector's Brigade. This left me Sears's Brigade and half of Ector's Brigade in reserve. Then came an order adding to my command the division of Canty, which was directly in front of me. Cockrell, on Canty's left, was put, for the occasion, under the orders of Loring.
About 5 P.M. our pickets from the extreme front were driven in toward the second line by the enemy's cavalry. Hoskin's Battery opened on the cavalry and checked them. About 5:30 P.M. the Federals, having placed some batteries in position on a ridge in front of Hood's right, opened fire on our line, and the shells from their extreme left (in front of Hood's right) enfiladed Hoskin's gun and the line that for a little while curved out to the battery. Hood's line was not a prolongation of Polk's line, because it fell back at the point of junction about twenty-five degrees. [See map in the "War Records.">[
After dark, as I was returning from dinner, I met Gen. Hood, who asked me to ride over with him to see Gen. Johnston at Gen. Polk's headquarters, and take supper.