The 26th of July Sherman's army lay before Atlanta in this position: the Army of the Tennessee was at the left, the Army of the Ohio, under Schofield, came next; the Army of the Cumberland, under Thomas, completed the line at the right. This line was about five miles long, and strongly fortified. The cavalry and other minor detachments of the army were posted at the rear and at the flank.
The 27th, General Howard took command and marched around beyond Thomas. At Ezra Church, due west from Atlanta, the next battle was fought on July 28th. Howard, putting in his last corps, had led the way thither, believing that at this point the Rebel attack would be made. Hood's men came on with a rush, and some of them forced their way for a space beyond the Union right. But Howard's troops, particularly the Fifteenth Corps, under Logan, aided by detachments from Dodge and Blair, stood like an iron wall, and repulsed the enemy with a coolness and steadiness that has seldom been equalled. Artillery and repeating rifles threw back the enemy's flanks. Attack after attack was made by the Rebels, with the same result, and the engagement finally ended in an unqualified victory for the Union army. "As this," says General Howard, "was Hood's third attempt, anger and energy were engendered in his heart and transfused into his charging lines; it showed itself in the scream, the yell, the run, the brisk, unceasing musket-fire, and the cannon roar. We who were there cannot forget them. But at last our enemy was effectually repulsed and the sad field at night was ours. The baffled Confederates again returned to the shelter of their protecting batteries."
This was Howard's first engagement after his appointment to succeed McPherson, and both he and Sherman were deeply gratified at its result. When the conflict was at its height, a straggler of some rank hurried to Sherman with the report that Howard was proving incompetent and that his army was going to pieces. Sherman asked him if Howard himself was at the scene of action. He replied, "Yes, I suppose so." "Well," said Sherman, "I will wait till I hear from him."
During the early days of August Sherman kept extending his lines to the right, with frequent demonstrations against the enemy at all points. He brought down from Chattanooga some heavy rifled guns with which to bombard the enemy's works. Many of the shells fell beyond the enemy's fortifications in the city itself, and did much damage. At the middle of the month it was decided to execute a grand flank movement around the city. The advance was made toward the right or southward. At the same time Hood sent a force of cavalry, from 6,000 to 10,000 strong, to pass around Sherman's rear and cut off his communications and lines of supply. Sherman was glad to learn this, for he knew that the absence of these troops from the Rebel army would be a more serious loss to Hood than they could possibly inflict upon the Union army. He at once halted his flanking movement, and sent Kilpatrick with 5,000 cavalry to break the West Point Railroad near Fairburn, and then go on and break the Macon Railroad, cutting off Atlanta from the Southern counties. Kilpatrick was not able to accomplish this work as completely as Sherman desired, and the flanking movement was soon resumed. On the night of August 26th, the Army of the Tennessee moved to the South, followed by the Army of the Cumberland, while the Army of the Ohio remained substantially in its position. The armies thoroughly accomplished the destructive work which Kilpatrick had tried to do, and then faced eastward. Howard encountered the enemy's cavalry at several points, and drove it before him. "From the 25th to the 30th of August," says General Howard, "Sherman's forces made a curious manœuvre. If you should face a line of cavalry, infantry and artillery to the rear, and then make a little more than a half wheel about its new left as a pivot, you would get some idea of the manner in which we fell upon Hood's communications. Yet the line, like an Indian rubber string, was stretched out till the Army of the Tennessee, rapidly marching, reached Renfro Place, twenty-five miles from Atlanta. Schofield kept near the pivot, and Thomas was between.
"The evening of the thirtieth, after a weary day during which our cavalry and infantry had been forcing a succession of log barricades and repairing culverts and bridges, we came to a tract of barren sand-banks, intending to camp there for the night. After a short halt, I called Kilpatrick to me and said: 'It is but six miles to Flint River, where a bridge crosses, and but a few more miles to Jonesboro, the railway station. Can you send me an officer who can take a squadron of cavalry and keep Wheeler's rear guard in motion?' 'Yes, here is Captain Estes. He can do it if anybody can.' 'All right, go ahead, Estes; I will follow you with infantry.' Wheeler's men, thinking we had stopped for the night, had already dismounted and were preparing to bivouac at a respectful distance, when suddenly they beheld Captain Estes with his indomitable squadron charging down the road. The Confederates sprang to their saddles and nobody tarried, neither pursuer or pursued, till the Flint River bridge had been reached. Our men extinguished the flames already kindled, saved the bridge, and soon were crossing in force, just as the twilight was darkening into the night. One corps, Logan's, was quickly marched over and along the farther bank of the river and began to ascend the wooded hill beyond. Hardee's Confederate Corps, hastily brought hither by rail from Atlanta, now gave in the darkness only a feeble skirmish line resistance. We charged the hill, cleared the way to the crest, and the men, though exceedingly weary with a long march of twenty-five miles or more, worked the whole night, so strong were they then to cover their front with the habitual intrenchments.
"The next day, the thirty-first of August, Logan's and Ransom's men supported by Blair, received Hardee's renewal of the conflict. The charges were not as vigorous as at Atlanta. They were, all along the line, repulsed. Before the next day Thomas had closed in on my left; had a combat, and the two together made a vigorous push for Jonesboro. By this movement Hardee's half of Hood's army was dislodged. The instant the situation was known Hood, still 25 miles back at Atlanta, he abandoned the city and succeeded by a wonderful night march in forming a junction with Hardee below us at Lovejoy station.
"Slocum, who with the Twentieth Corps being left behind, had intrenched himself in a strong fortified place across Sherman's northern communications, soon had positive evidence by the city fires and explosions, that Hood had left. He put his columns in motion at dawn of September second and marched joyously into the lately beleaguered city.
"General Sherman, who was near us at Jonesboro, gives a graphic picture: that night, he says, he was so restless and impatient that he could not sleep. About midnight there arose, toward Atlanta, sounds of shells exploding and other sounds like that of musketry. He walked to the house of a farmer close by his bivouac, and called him out to listen. The farmer said, that these sounds were just like those of a battle. An interval of quiet then ensued, when again, about 4 A. M., arose another similar explosion. Sherman remained in doubt whether the enemy was engaged in blowing up his own magazines, or whether General Slocum had not felt forward and become engaged in a real battle. Finally a note from Slocum himself assured the anxious General of the facts. Then, as he turned back to take possession, Sherman sent Mr. Lincoln that memorable despatch: 'Atlanta is ours and fairly won.'
"Probably no words uttered at this date could give to our children an idea of the joy and the assurance of hope that penetrated all classes of society when the proclamation was made at Washington and echoed through the North and West, 'Atlanta is won.' It meant that our glorious cause had prevailed. Rebellion, it is said, cannot last much longer. It spoke of the end of war, of the beginning of peace, glimpses of which were already seen from the hilltops of Georgia. It meant speedy emancipation to white men as well as to black. It spoke of happy homes soon to be visited, of lovely women and precious children who had long waited for such good news, and whose eyes were already sparkling with delight to welcome us home.
"Yes, yes, 'Atlanta won' was indeed a bow of promise set in the clouds, though yet heavy; a bow of promise to America and to the world, that right and justice should prevail, and God's will be done sooner or later upon the earth."