The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South
Alexander Kelly McClure, Ed.

[337] southeast bank of the Chattahoochee, from Roswell to Powers' ferry. That night General Hood was placed in command of the Southern army by telegraph. On the 18th, at his urgent request, Johnston forced the troops on the. high ground, overlooking the valley of Peachtree creek from the south, to meet the advance of the Federal forces reported that morning by General Wheeler.

General Sherman's returns, on pages 24 and 136, shows ninety-eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven men present for duty May 1st; one hundred and twelve thousand eight hundred and nineteen June 1st, and one hundred and six thousand and seventy July 1st. Those of the Southern army show forty-two thousand eight hundred present for duty May 1st; fifty-eight thousand five hundred and sixty-two June 6th, and fifty-three thousand two hundred and seventy five July 1st. Fourteen thousand two hundred infantry and artillery and seven thousand cavalry were received in six detachments, coming at different times-all in May. General Sherman points out these additions to our forces, but says nothing of the reinforcements he received --except the arrival of the Seventeenth Corps (nine thousand men) June 8th. His reported losses in May, corrected by General Thomas (on page 5, report of Committee on Conduct of the War, supplementary part i), and the difference between the May and June returns above, show that he received above twenty-five thousand men in May alone. According to the table on page 133, before July 18th the Federal army lost in killed and wounded about twenty-one thousand men, of whom about twenty-five hundred were killed. The Southern army lost in the same time nine thousand nine hundred and seventy-two killed and wounded, of whom one thousand two hundred and eighty-eight were killed. The Southern officers believed that the Federal losses compared with theirs about as five to one. And circumstances justify that belief.

Except on three occasions, the Southern troops fought in their intrenchments, exposing scarcely a thirtieth of their persons, while their adversaries were fully exposed on open ground. Therefore, with equal marksmanship, they would have given thirty hits for one received. According to the reports of General Sherman's subordinates, they gave but two; or, on equal ground, would have made one effective shot to the enemy's fifteen--which is incredible. The more so, because a fire so utterly ineffective could not have repulsed or checked, in seventy days of such close and continued fighting as General Sherman describes, veteran American soldiers such as his. We had, too, direct proofs of the inaccuracy of these reports. After the action of June 27th (pages 60, 61), we counted--one thousand