Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 11.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[240] your correspondent noticed some eight hundred or one thousand new-made graves. Adjoining this, and enclosed with a white picket fence, is the city cemetery, in which stand quite a number of elegant marble monuments, in memoriam of departed citizens. On one side of the main street stands a large three-story mill--“Kenesaw Mills” --but like the dead organ-grinder, its occupation is gone. The steam engine, boiler, burrs and bolting-cloths have all been removed, and may in all probability be again used in grinding hominy for our oppressed Southern brethren. The stores were all closed; the tape and needle merchants, the green-grocers and the egg and butter venders had all packed up and skedaddled. Only one store was left with any goods in it, and that was a drug store, and from its appearance there did not seem to be much there beyond a few tinctures, some Yankee patent medicines--no doubt never paid for — and a lot of pill and salve boxes. As our troops marched through the city in solid column, their bayonets glistening in the sunshine — orderly and in good marching time — some fair secesh damsel would cautiously draw the curtain and take a peep. Finding they did not prove any attraction, they became more bold, and windows and doors were gradually opened. Little children would run out and inquire if we were Yanks, and gaze on us with childish simplicity.

All day long and far into the night, solid bodies of infantry marched, long trains of artillery rumbled, and the wheels of miles of wagontrains creaked through the town, and it was not until near daylight that the noise ceased. General Sherman made his headquarters at the big hotel, while the Department of the Cumberland was to be found at an elegant residence — formerly occupied by the chief professor of the Marietta Military Academy. This was, in its palmiest days, quite an institution, and was largely patronized by the scions of the Georgian chivalry. The Academy is a large three-story building, built of brick, and shaped somewhat like the letter E, and is situated on the crest of a hill about a mile to the south-west of the town. In front is a beautiful lawn, on which the students were put through the manual of arms. On either side of the Academy, at a distance of about one hundred feet, are some twenty or thirty small cottages, in which the students board, in a style similar to that in use at West Point. In rear was a gymnasium, but as the gymnasts had all gone, the appliances for getting up muscle have gone also. From the top of the Academy is a splendid view of the surrounding country. Lost and Pine Mountains, the Kenesaws and Bush Mountains, together with the intervening hills and valleys — the tout ensemble forming a very beautiful landscape.

In company with several staff officers, your correspondent rode through the rebel fortifications a little to the south-west of the Kenesaw-particularly those which were so unsuccessfully attacked by Newton and Jeff. C. Davis on Monday last. These works were the admiration of all military men, with whom we talked, and it excited no little surprise that Johnston was ever obliged to leave them. It was the universal opinion that they could never have been successfully assaulted, except at an enormous loss, and even then the issue would have been doubtful. The works were in double line, and built in conformity with the most approved style of engineering. They were so well protected by earth as to be impervious to either shot or shell, and the ditching behind is of such character as to afford the best possible protection against shelling. In front of the first line was a cheveaux de frise, and immediately behind a double row of abatis. The points of the cheveaux de frise were splintered almost as fine as broom corn by the terrific shower of leaden hail fired by our men, in the charge made on Monday last, but it was too strong for our brave boys to charge, and so they had to fall back to the rebel skirmish line, where they intrenched themselves. The abatis was very formidable, and consisted of a series of sharpened stakes firmly posted to the earth by means of riders and forks. To give your readers an idea of it, let them imagine a picket fence inclined so near the earth that the points of the pickets would reach to the knees of a man standing immediately in front of it, and in order to make it immovable, suppose the bottom board of the fence to be fastened to the earth by means of crotches. The cheveaux de frise resembles a long string of those domestic animals known as “saw-horses,” with the ends of the “crosses” sharpened. These cross-pieces are inserted, at a distance of some two feet apart, through holes bored in a log, and make a most formidable defense.

On Tuesday last, the day after the unsuccessful assault on the rebel lines, McCook's brigade, of which the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonel Langley commanding, formed the front, determined to advance their line of works in order to mine those of the enemy. As the distance was not more than two hundred feet, it was an extremely hazardous enterprise; but as Yankee ingenuity cannot be balked, Colonel Langley devised a plan, the like of which has not been seen since the commencement of the war. The Colonel and one volunteer crawled from their line to a tree some twenty yards in advance, and behind it commenced digging a small pit. After digging enough earth to give protection, an empty cracker-box was dragged up from the lines by means of a rope, and filled with earth this was placed in front of the pit and after digging a little more, another cracker-box was brought along, filled and placed in juxtaposition. This was continued with success until finally the whole regiment advanced the twenty yards, and were safely ensconed behind the cracker-box fortifications. Mining was then at once commenced, but the evacuation of the rebels rendered it useless to proceed with the work to its completion. By the way, somehow or another the