The Atlanta (Georgia) Campaign: May 1 - September 8, 1864., Part I: General Report.
Maj. George B. Davis, Mr. Leslie J. Perry, Mr. Joseph W. Kirkley, Ed.

[261] August 28, marched three miles southeast to Red Oak Station, on West Point railroad, striking this road twelve miles southwest of the Atlanta. August 29, lay still and fortified. August 30, marched to Shoal Creek, distance five miles. August 31, the Army of the Tennessee fighting to-day in front and on the west of Jonesborough, Ga. Our corps advanced east, met cavalry behind works on the east bank of the Flint River. My brigade formed-Ninth Indiana, Eighty-fourth Illinois, and Eighty-fourth Indiana in front line-and with a strong skirmish line drove the enemy from their position and advanced, Wood's division in front, the Twenty-third Corps on our left, and both corps struck the Macon railroad about 4 p. m., and fortified the position. My command in line on the right of the division; the Second Division (General Newton) extending my right; our corps fronting south. All quiet during the night. September 1, our division marched at 6 a. m., First Brigade in advance, moving on the railroad toward Jonesborough; and under orders spent most of the day in the destruction of the railroad as we advanced. At about 4 p. m. the advanced brigade of our division made a junction with the left of the Fourteenth Corps on the railroad at a point about two miles north of Jonesborough. The First Brigade formed in line, its right near or upon the railroad. I was ordered by General Kimball to prolong the. left of the First Brigade, which I did without halting, until my advance was checked by getting into a thick bramble or underbrush and a swamp in a dense woodland, through which it was impossible to ride; and the enemy with a heavy skirmish line in our front and his artillery in reach, playing upon us, contributed to impede our progress. The course or direction when I entered the woods seemed to be about south, and upon emerging from it, at a distance of a half to three-fourths of a mile, the brigade to my right had shifted to the right to such an extent that I had to move to the “right oblique” to fill the space, and my left swinging around so that when my lines came upon the lines of the enemy behind barricades, my front was about southwest; and, by the time we got the line straightened up and the enemy's skirmishers driven back and the position of the enemy discovered, night came on; yet my lines-Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania, Eighty-fourth and Eightieth Illinois, and Ninth Indiana in front line-pressed forward under a heavy fire of canister from the enemy's guns to within 300 yards--of their barricaded lines. When the fighting ceased at dark one of General Newton's brigades had moved up toward my left and his skirmish line connected with the left of my front battle line. The barricades of the enemy ceased opposite the left of my lines. During the night the enemy withdrew. September 2, at early day, I advanced my brigade into the enemy's vacated works, issued rations, and marched in pursuit of the enemy on the road toward Lovejoy's Station, my brigade in advance of our division; the Second and Third Divisions in advance of me. At about I or 2 p. m. our advance came upon the enemy, and in the deploying of the column, I was ordered and moved to the left. Formed my lines-Eighty-fourth Indiana, Eighty-fourth Illinois, and Seventy-fifth Illinois in the front line — in a corn-field on the left of Colonel Knefler's brigade, of Wood's division, and advanced rapidly as the ground would permit, it being very rough and hilly. We soon came upon the enemy in rifle-pits about 500 yards in advance of their main line of works-heavy trenches; assaulted and carried the pits, taking the most of the men in them prisoners. Our advance