The Atlanta (Georgia) Campaign: May 1 - September 8, 1864., Part I: General Report.
Maj. George B. Davis, Mr. Leslie J. Perry, Mr. Joseph W. Kirkley, Ed.

[391] to the right to relieve a portion of Colonel Sherman's brigade, which was occupying a part of the enemy's first line of works, which had been previously carried by the Twenty-third Corps. About 4 p. m. the Eighty-ninth Illinois was thrown forward to relieve a portion of this line, which position it held until dark, when the left of the regiment was thrown forward into closer connection with the right of the Thirty-fifth Illinois Infantry (which had been put in position on the right of the Forty-ninth Ohio) and strongly intrenched themselves on the line thus established. We engaged the enemy with a brisk musketry fire and succeeded not only in silencing his battery, but in completely commanding his works in our front. About 11 p. m. of the 15th the enemy made a vigorous but ineffectual charge upon our position, which we repulsed with great loss to him and but trifling damage to us. The same night the entire rebel army evacuated its position, crossing the Oostenaula River and retreating toward Kingston. On the afternoon of the 15th Brig. Gen. A. Willich, commanding this brigade, while observing the enemy from the parapet of the Thirty-fifth Illinois, was severely wounded in the arm and side by a rebel sharpshooter, and the command of the brigade was assumed by Col. William H. Gibson, Forty-ninth Ohio Veteran Volunteers. Our casualties at this point were: Killed, 15; wounded, 72; total, 87.

On the 16th about 9 a. m. this brigade, leading the division, followed the enemy, passing through his abandoned works, crossing the Oostenaula River on the wagon bridge at Resaca Station, moving south along and on the line of the railroad, passing through Calhoun toward Adairsville, where, on the evening of the 17th, the enemy was met in considerable force, this brigade being put in position on the right of the railroad, its right resting on the same and connecting on the left with General Hazen's brigade, to meet a threatened flank movement of the enemy, but did not become engaged, the enemy having fallen back during the night. The brigade continued its march with the division along the line of the railroad, passing through Adairsville on the 18th and Kingston on the 19th, to a point about one mile from Cassville, when the enemy was met in force. This brigade, being reserve for the division, was moved to different points that were threatened, but did not become engaged. The enemy having fallen back from this position on the night of the 19th, the troops remained in camp, taking rest and receiving necessary supplies, until the afternoon of the 23d, when, with twenty days rations in the supply train, it moved with the division and the entire army to the right, with a view to turning the enemy's position in the Allatoona Mountain, where he was strongly fortified. Moving nearly due west about seven miles, and crossing the Etowah River at Gillem's Bridge, thence moving on blind roads and over a broken country in a southerly direction toward. Dallas, Ga., crossing Euharlee Creek on the 23d and Pumpkin Vine Creek on the 25th, where heavy firing at the front was heard, caused by the enemy having hastily abandoned his position at Allatoona Pass and by a hurried march thrown himself near Dallas upon the advance of General Hooker's corps (the Twentieth), which was the leading column on this road, our troops were pressed forward as rapidly as possible, the road being partially obstructed by the troops of the Twentieth Corps, until 9 p. m., when this brigade bivouacked on either side of the road, being within less than a mile of the enemy's works, the men suffering from a drenching rain, which commenced falling about night-fall. May