[284] one half, leaving Hood not over forty-eight thousand regular troops of all arms. Of militia, six thousand were collected at Atlanta, and about four thousand at Macon. Militia included, Hood probably could not muster over sixty thousand men previous to the late movement. I am pretty certain this will not vary five thousand from the morning reports of Hood's force. Their rations for many weeks have been confined to corn-meal, bacon, and occasional issues of fresh beef. The grumbling in their army on account of the scanty supply-table has been both loud and deep. About a mile of track was found destroyed near the city. Our indefatigable construction corps relaid it in a few hours. and at ten o'clock this morning two trains arrived, emptying their fiery lungs, as they thundered through the city to the depot, of one fierce, long-protracted, salutatory shriek, Captain John Blair's anaconda of bread and bacon, which follows up our conquests so closely that it has, figuratively speaking, been repeatedly ordered off the skirmish line, is ready to lard the lean depots of Atlanta with the riches of the United States supply-table. Just think of the aroma of coffee floating around the starveling atmosphere of the military store-houses of the Gate City, which are redolent now of musty corn-meal, rusty bacon, mingled with a vile, indefinable odor of general decay, which should be recognized as the national smell of the Confederacy. Captain Van Duzer, Superintendent of Military Telegraphs, as soon as he became convinced of the fall of Atlanta, ran through his lines to the city, and instructed an operator to transmit the glad intelligence to Washington, via Cumberland Gap β Wheeler having destroyed the wires between Nashville and Chattanooga. At one of the repeating stations the operator interrupted the message by asking βIs this another Furay?β The query was, in an electrical way, warmly resented. The despatch passed on, and an answer was received from the War Department four hours after our forces entered the city. We know of no more modest way, or one more likely to prove convincing to those who claim to think that the fall of Atlanta involves Sherman in fresh difficulties, than to permit the rebels themselves to express their opinion of the matter.
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[284] one half, leaving Hood not over forty-eight thousand regular troops of all arms. Of militia, six thousand were collected at Atlanta, and about four thousand at Macon. Militia included, Hood probably could not muster over sixty thousand men previous to the late movement. I am pretty certain this will not vary five thousand from the morning reports of Hood's force. Their rations for many weeks have been confined to corn-meal, bacon, and occasional issues of fresh beef. The grumbling in their army on account of the scanty supply-table has been both loud and deep. About a mile of track was found destroyed near the city. Our indefatigable construction corps relaid it in a few hours. and at ten o'clock this morning two trains arrived, emptying their fiery lungs, as they thundered through the city to the depot, of one fierce, long-protracted, salutatory shriek, Captain John Blair's anaconda of bread and bacon, which follows up our conquests so closely that it has, figuratively speaking, been repeatedly ordered off the skirmish line, is ready to lard the lean depots of Atlanta with the riches of the United States supply-table. Just think of the aroma of coffee floating around the starveling atmosphere of the military store-houses of the Gate City, which are redolent now of musty corn-meal, rusty bacon, mingled with a vile, indefinable odor of general decay, which should be recognized as the national smell of the Confederacy. Captain Van Duzer, Superintendent of Military Telegraphs, as soon as he became convinced of the fall of Atlanta, ran through his lines to the city, and instructed an operator to transmit the glad intelligence to Washington, via Cumberland Gap β Wheeler having destroyed the wires between Nashville and Chattanooga. At one of the repeating stations the operator interrupted the message by asking βIs this another Furay?β The query was, in an electrical way, warmly resented. The despatch passed on, and an answer was received from the War Department four hours after our forces entered the city. We know of no more modest way, or one more likely to prove convincing to those who claim to think that the fall of Atlanta involves Sherman in fresh difficulties, than to permit the rebels themselves to express their opinion of the matter.
Van Nostrand. New York, New York. 1868.
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