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Hooker as a disparagement of himself, and he resigned the command of the Twentieth Corps, which was assigned to
General H. W. Slocum.
The latter was then at
Vicksburg, and the corps was ably handled by
General A. S. Williams, until the arrival of his superior.
General Palmer resigned the command of the Fourteenth Army Corps,
and was succeeded
by that true soldier and most useful officer,
General Jefferson C. Davis.
The latter at once announced as his chief-of-staff,
Colonel A. C. McClurg, an active young officer of the
West, who had been the
adjutant-general of the Fourteenth Corps since soon after the battle of Missionaries' Ridge, in which he was distinguished.
General D. S. Stanley succeeded
General Howard as commander of the Fourth Corps.
Sherman began his new flanking movement by shifting
the Army of the Tennessee from his extreme left on the
Decatur road, to his extreme right on
Proctor's Creek.
General Howard had the chief supervision of the movement, which was made
en echelon.
Dodge's corps was on the left nearest the
Confederates.
Blair's was to come up on its right, and
Logan's on
Blair's right, refused as a flank.
By ten o'clock on the morning of the 28th, the army was in position.
The vigilant
Hood had penetrated
Sherman's design, but not until the change of the position of the Army of the Tennessee was substantially effected, and the men were casting up rude breastworks along their new front.
Hood acted promptly on his discovery.
Under cover of an artillery fire, he moved out from his works,
on the Bell's Ferry road, west of
Atlanta, with a
larger portion of his army, led by
Hardee and
S. D. Lee,
1 with the expectation of finding
Howard's forces in some confusion, on account of their shifting movements.
He was mistaken, and disastrous consequences followed his misapprehension.
His heavy masses were thrown swiftly against
Logan's corps, on
Howard's right,
