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midst.
We afterward learned that it killed two rebel officers, one of them, a Captain, being left in a house in Decatur.
This put them to flight at once, and the artillery rapidly followed up a little distance and lodged a few shells close about the village, and then Colonel Swayne's brigade pushed rapidly forward and entered Decatur close upon the heels of the flying rebels.
So impetuous was their onset that the rebel citizens who were disposed to flee had barely time to get themselves off, without carrying away any considerable amount of their goods.
Half of the families had gone, and a great portion of those who remained were women and children.
A solitary family alone showed signs of approbation by waving handkerchiefs on our arrival; all the rest were impudent and defiant, or sullen and little disposed to answer questions.
A provost guard was stationed at once at every principal place where booty could have been procured, and all pillaging and unwarranted license was repressed.
The main captures of property were about five hundred coffee-pots, which had accumulated in a small tin-store, as, doubtless, the rebels had little use for them, and a box or two of laces.
Decatur is rather a pretty country village, well shaded with trees, and wearing a somewhat ancient air, as though fashioned according to the idea of a half-century past.
July 20, 4.30 A. M.--The army has lain perfectly quiet during the night.
The rebels do not seem at all disposed to come out of Atlanta and throw down the gage of battle on open ground.
Headquarters are agog, and the army will doubtless move early.
Another day's march will carry us across the second, if not the third, of their three railroads.
Another account.
in the field, three miles East of Atlanta, July 21, 1864.
At daylight of the eighteenth, the Army of the Tennessee moved by the road toward Stone Mountain.
The Second cavalry division took the advance, followed by the Fifteenth corps, and it by the Seventeenth corps.
At Providence Church, a cross-road seven miles from Roswell, the Sixteenth corps took the Decatur road, the Twenty-third corps moving on a road still further to the right.
East of Atlanta and between it and Stone Mountain, Peach-tree creek runs in a north-westerly direction emptying into the Chattahoochee.
Along Peach-tree the rebels were believed to have a line.
The Army of the Cumberland, which now held the right of our line, was in front of the creek.
During the operations of the day, General Thomas' command remained substantially quiet.
Whatever firing took place along his line was intended to detain the rebels in their position.
The object of the movement was the destruction of the railroad running east from Atlanta, at some point near Stone Mountain.
It also had for a secondary object the securing of a position upon the enemy's right.
The day was excessively hot, but the men moved forward with alacrity.
The cavalry reached the railroad without much opposition, and commenced its destruction.
To make the work more effectual and thorough, General Logan ordered General Lightburn forward with the Second brigade of the division.
The brigade, upon reaching the road, was deployed along the track, and made an excellent job of destruction by turning over the track, burning the ties, and bending the rails.
The troops withdrew by a cross-road and the infantry went into camp near Henderson's Mill.
In the morning the whole army was ordered forward to carry the position at Decatur.
The Army of the Tennessee moved in the following order: Eighteenth, Seventeenth, and Sixteenth in reserve; on its right was the Army of the Ohio.
The rebel cavalry was pursued and driven easily back to Decatur.
At that place a rebel force of a brigade of cavalry and two regiments of infantry was dislodged at once, the advance of the Fifteenth and Twenty-third corps reaching the valley about two P. M., nearly at the same time.
In the evening the rebels ran up a battery of rifled guns and opened upon our cavalry in front of the village, killing and wounded several mules and horses, and causing a little excitement.
They were speedily dislodged.
About five o'clock yesterday morning the whole army moved, under orders to carry or invest Atlanta.
On the left the Army of the Tennessee moved with the Fifteenth in advance, the Seventeenth moving up on its left, ours, the Sixteenth, in reserve.
Morgan L. Smith's division had the advance of the Fifteenth corps.
The rebel pickets were found about a mile west from Decatur.
The rebels were obstinate and contested every available position, but the advance drove them steadily, carrying several strong fortifications with great gallantry.
About two o'clock this afternoon the rebels made a stand with artillery and infantry.
The Fifteenth corps was then some distance in advance of Blair and Schofield; Logan was therefore ordered to halt until the lines could be completed by bringing up Blair on his left and Schofield on the right.
Toward evening the rebels opened with artillery inflicting some injury.
The Second division of the Fifteenth corps losing seven and the Fourth twenty-one men; two men of battery A--veterans of battery B--were hit, John Haddock, killed, and J. Delevan mortally wounded.
General Gresham, commanding the Fourth division of the Seventeenth corps, was severely wounded in the leg. I believe his leg was amputated.
Captain Hoover, of General Logan's staff, had his horse shot, and Adler, sutler at corps headquarters lost an arm. General Logan himself narrowly escaped the rebel shell.
The bringing up and straightening of the lines used up the day. The right and centre advanced across Peach-tree creek and within a short distance of Atlanta.
Briefly as I can state it that was the day's work.
There was heavy picket 