Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[380]

Johnston to contract his lines and take a position of great strength, with Kenesaw as his salient. From this lofty height he could look down upon the entire host of his antagonist, and his batteries could hurl terrible plunging shot and shell. His right was bent back so as to cover Marietta, and his left was behind Nose Creek, in a position to cover the railway leading from Marietta to the Chattahoochee.

For three weeks, at the period we are considering, rain fell copiously, almost without intermission, drenching the contending armies, and flooding the whole country. “During our operations about Kenesaw,” said Sherman, “the weather was villainously bad,” the rain “rendering our narrow, wooded roads, mere mud gullies, so that a general movement would be impossible.” Yet he did not cease his labors, and every hour his army worked closer to the lines of his antagonist. McPherson watched Kenesaw, and worked his left forward. Thomas, in a sort of grand left wheel, swung round, with his left on Kenesaw, touching McPherson, while Schofield moved to the south and east along the old Sandtown road. Finally, when Hooker had considerably advanced his line, with Schofield on his right, General J. B. Hood, leading his own corps and detachments from others, sallied out and attacked the Nationals,

June 22, 1864.

with the intention of forcing a passage through Sherman's line, between Thomas and Schofield. Although his movement was sudden and unexpected, he was received with a terrible return blow, which made him recoil in great confusion, leaving, in his retreat, his killed, wounded, and many prisoners, in the hands of the Nationals. He had aimed his blow chiefly at the division of Williams, of Hooker's corps, and Hascall's brigade of Schofield's, in comparatively open ground. Those gallant troops so punished his audacity, that Sherman said he could not expect Hood to repeat his mistake “after the examples of Dallas and the Kulp House.” The struggle was brief and sanguinary, and is known as the battle of the Kulp House.

The repulse of Hood inspirited the Nationals. Taking advantage of that feeling, Sherman prepared to assault the Confederates. Both armies believed it was not his policy to assail fortified lines, as Grant was doing north of Richmond. They were soon undeceived. He regarded Johnston's left center as the most vulnerable point in his line, and on the 24th of June he ordered an assault to be made upon it there, on the 27th,

June.

with the hope of breaking through it and seizing the railway below Marietta, cut off the Confederate left and center from its line of retreat, and then, by turning upon either part, overwhelmn and destroy the army of his antagonist. The assault was made at two points south of Kenesaw, and was sadly disastrous. The Nationals were repulsed, with an aggregate loss of about three thousand men, among them General C. G. Harker and D. McCook killed, and many valuable officers of lower grade wounded. This loss was without compensation, for the injury inflicted upon the Confederates, who were behind their breastworks, was very slight.¹