Johnston was now intrenched at Allatoona Pass, and Sherman knew that the position was too strong to be carried by direct assault. He therefore determined to make a circuit to the right, and marched toward Dallas. Johnston detected this movement, and prepared to meet it. On May 25th, the armies met again at New Hope Church, just north of Dallas. Hooker led Sherman's advance, and ran against one of Hood's brigades in a forest. A sharp conflict followed, while a terrific thunder storm was raging. Hooker's men made repeated attacks upon the enemy's position, but were hurled back from the log breastworks with much loss. Heavy rain continued all that night, but Sherman's men worked steadily constructing fortifications of earthwork and logs. The next morning the engagement was continued, and for several days thereafter there was almost continual skirmishing. On the 28th the Rebels made a strong attack far to the right of Hooker, upon McPherson, at Dallas, but were repulsed. Then the army began pushing to the left, and by June 1st Allatoona Pass was completely within the national lines.
"The picture of the field of New Hope Church," says General Howard, "crowds memory like the painting of a young artist who has put too much upon his canvas. There was Hooker just at evening in an open wood—there were glimpses of log breastworks beyond him, from which came fierce firing against his lines stretched out—there were numberless maimed and many dead among the trees—and a little back was a church with many wounded, and many surgeons doing bloody work. It was dreadfully dark that night. Schofield's horse stumbled and disabled him, and General Cox took his place. We had numerous torches, weird in effect among the trees, as our men bravely worked into place and intrenched the batteries, and covered their front. But the torches seemed to make the darkness darker, and our hopes that night beat low. Johnston had stopped us rudely at New Hope Church. But afterwards Dallas and McPherson, off to our right, gave us the reverse side, and so hopes which had drooped revived, when Confederates, and not Yankees, were there several times driven back.
"Another night scene, though not quite so gloomy as that of New Hope Church, pictured itself the 27th of May at Pickett's Mill. Our enemy thus describes its cause. He says: 'The fighting rose above the grade of skirmishing, especially in the afternoon, when, at half-past 5, the Fourth Corps (Howard's) and a division of the Fourteenth (Palmer) attempted to turn our (Confederate) right, but the movement, after being impeded by the cavalry, was met by two regiments of our right division (Cleburn's) and two brigades of his Second brought up on the first. The Federal formation was so deep that its front did not equal that of our two brigades; consequently those troops were greatly exposed to our musketry—all but the leading troops being on a hillside facing us. They advanced until their first line was within twenty-five or thirty paces of ours and fell back only after at least seven hundred men had fallen dead in their places. When the leading Federal troops paused in their advance, a color bearer came on and planted his colors eight or ten feet in front of his regiment, but was killed in the act. A soldier who sprang forward to hold up or bear off the colors was shot dead as he seized the staff. Two others who followed successively fell like him, but the fourth bore back the noble emblem. Some time after nightfall, we (the Confederates) captured above two hundred prisoners in the hollow before them.'
"It was of that sad night that this was written: 'We worked our men all that weary night in fortifying. The Confederate commander was ready at daylight to take the offensive against us there at Pickett's Mill, but he did not do so, because he found our position too strong to warrant the attempt. With a foot bruised by a fragment of a shell, General Howard sat that night among the wounded in the midst of a forest glade, while Major Howard of his staff led regiments and brigades into the new positions chosen for them. General R. W. Johnson, (Palmer's Division Commander) had been wounded and Captain Stinson of Howard's staff had been shot through the lungs, and a large number lay there on a sliding slope by a faint camp fire, with broken limbs or disfigured faces.' Actually but one division, and not a corps, made that unsuccessful assault, and its conduct has received a brave enemy's high praise. The fighting and the night work secured the object of the movement, causing Johnston to swing back his whole army from Sherman's post to a new position."
Thus Johnson abandoned his lines at New Hope Church and retreated to Marietta, taking up almost impregnable positions on Kenesaw, Pine and Lost Mountains. Sherman marched to Ackworth, between Marietta and Allatoona Pass, and fortified the Pass. He was here reinforced by two divisions of the Seventeenth Corps and some other bodies of troops, which nearly compensated him for the losses in the battles he had fought. He had now driven Johnston before him nearly one hundred miles, had forced him to abandon four strong positions, had fought him six times, had captured over two thousand prisoners, twelve guns and three colors, had weakened the Rebel army by about fifteen thousand men, and had captured or destroyed many important factories, mills and other works of a public character.
DEATH OF GEN. J. B. McPHERSON.
JULY 22D, 1864.
From Painting by J. E. Taylor.
The line held by Johnston at Kenesaw and Pine Top was a strong one. But it was twelve miles long, and he had scarcely enough men to hold it at all points. To attack him on the crest of Kenesaw Mountain would be a hopeless task. But Sherman thought he could break through his lines on the gentler southern slope. On June 11th the advance began. Hooker was at the right front and Howard at the left front, and they pressed forward with great vigor. During their cannonading, on June 14th, they inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy, killing General Polk. Next day the Rebels abandoned Pine Mountain and retired to Muddy Creek, holding the rugged range of hills between Kenesaw and Lost Mountains. Again Sherman pressed the centre and turning to Johnston's flank on the 17th captured Lost Mountain and all the hills except Kenesaw. For three weeks thereafter the Union army vainly sought to dislodge Johnston from the heights of Kenesaw. It seemed an impossible task. The whole mountain was a fortress. There were miles of strong intrenchments. All the time the rain fell in torrents and the low lands were flooded. The roads were almost impassable. Sherman's soldiers at times worked knee deep in mud. But they kept on working.