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| Allatoona Pass.1 |
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the surrender of the post.
It was refused.
Then he assailed it furiously, but was met with fires so murderous from two forts on the ridge that his columns were continually driven back.
The battle raged fiercely.
From the top of Kenesaw, Sherman could see the smoke of conflict and hear the thunder of the cannon, though eighteen
miles distant.
He had sent General J. D. Cox, with the Twenty-third Corps, to assist the garrison by menacing French's rear in the direction of Dallas; and he was enabled to say to the commander at Allatoona, by signal flags from Kenesaw, “Hold out, for relief is approaching.”
2 And when Sherman was assured that Corse was there, he exclaimed: “He will hold out!
I know the man!”
And so he did. He repelled assault after assault, until more than one-third of his men were disabled.
Then the assailants, apprised of the approach of Cox, hastily withdrew and fled toward Dalton, leaving behind them two hundred and thirty of their dead, and four hundred made prisoners, with about eight hundred muskets.
Corse lost seven hundred and seven men, and was severely wounded in the face.
Among the many badly hurt were Colonels Tourtellotte and Howell.
When Davis visited Hood at Palmetto,3 he instructed him to draw Sherman out of Georgia, for his presence there was causing alarming disaffection to the cause of the conspirators.4 In obedience to these instructions, Hood now moved
1 this shows the appearance of Allatoona Pass when the writer sketched it in May, 1866. the railway there passes through a cut in a ridge, on the summit of which, to the left of the picture, looking up from between the two houses, is seen Fort Hammond, so called because of a house standing there then, belonging to Mr. Hammond, a proprietor of the Allatoona iron works. The house on the ridge, at the right of the railway, belonged to Mr. Moore, and a Fort on the extreme right was called Fort Moore.
2 The value and the perfection of the signal system employed in the army, under the general superintendence of Major Albert J. Myer, was fully illustrated in the event recorded in the text, when from hill to hill, at a distance of eighteen miles, intelligent communication was kept up by the mere motion of flags, discerned by telescopes. An account of the method of signaling, perfected by Major Myer, may be found in the Supplement to this work.
3 See note 8, page 896.
4 At this time there was great disaffection to the Confederate cause in Georgia. Governor Brown, Alexander H. Stephens, and others, seemed to have been impressed with the utter selfishness and evident incompetency of Davis, and were disposed to assert, in all it strength, the doctrine of State supremacy. Davis's speech at Macon, already noticed, did not help his cause. The people were tired of war — tired of furnishing men and means to carry out the ambitious schemes of a demagogue — and three days after that speech, a long letter from Governor Brown was received [Sept. 26, 1864.] at the Confederate “War Department,” in which he absolutely refused to respond to Davis's call for militia from that State. He said he would not encourage Davis's ambitious projects “by placing in his hands, and under his unconditional control, all that remains to preserve the reserved rights of the State.” He bitterly and offensively criticised Davis's management of military affairs, in not re-enforcing Johnston and Hood. Georgia, he said, had then fifty regiments in Virginia; and he demanded their return to their own State, for its defense, if re-enforcements were not sent to Hood for that purpose.--[See Rebel War Clerk's Diary, II., 892. It was this practical application of the principles of State sovereignty, so destructive of National unity in Georgia, that caused Davis to visit that State.
In recording the fact of Davis's absence at that time, A Rebel War Clerk said, in his diary: “ ‘When the cat's away, the mice will play.’ I saw a note of invitation to-day, from Secretary Mallory to Secretary Seddon, inviting him to his house, at 5 P. M., to partake of ‘pea-soup’ with Secretary Trenholm. His ‘pea-soup’ will be oysters and champagne, and every other delicacy relished by epicures. Mr. Mallory's red face and his plethoric body indicate the highest living; and his party will enjoy the dinner, while so many of our brave men are languishing with wounds, or pining in cruel captivity. Nay, they may feast, possibly, while the very pillars of the Government are crumbling under the blows of the enemy.”
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