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[319]

In crossing the Oostenaula, I hoped to find a good position near Calhoun, covering the several roads leading southward from Snake-Creek Gap and the neighborhood of Resaca. No such were there, however. The large creek, the Oothcaloga, which must have divided any position taken, would have been a great impediment. But it appeared, from the map prepared by our engineer-officers, that, a mile or two north of Adairsville, the valley of this stream was so narrow that our army, formed in order of battle across it, would hold the heights on the right and left with its flanks — the stream being too small to be an obstruction. So, after resting fifteen or eighteen hours where they had halted, the troops marched, early in the morning of the 17th, seven or eight miles, to Adairsville; Polk's and Hood's corps by the Spring Place road, and Hardee's by that from Snake-Creek Gap, on which it had been engaged the day before.

The leading Federal troops appeared in the afternoon, pressing back our cavalry. Lieutenant-General Hardee was desired to send forward a division of his corps to support it, and prevent the near approach of the enemy, that our troops might not be disturbed in their bivouacs. Cheatham's division was detailed, and it and Wheeler's troops together kept the head of the Federal column at a convenient distance, by sharp skirmishing, until nightfall.

During the day the division of cavalry commanded by Brig.-General W. H. Jackson joined the army at Adairsville. It had been ordered to it from Mississippi by Lieutenant-General Polk.

The breadth of the valley here exceeded so much

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