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| Battle-ground near Jonesboroa.1 |
Sept 2, 1864. |
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attack the strong defenses of Atlanta with only the Twentieth Corps.
Hood must be blowing up his magazines preparatory to his flight from that city.
With this impression, Sherman ordered a vigorous pursuit of Hardee.
He
was found at Lovejoy's, not far distant, strongly intrenched, with the Walnut Creek and Flint River on his flanks.
While Sherman was preparing with deliberation to dislodge him, rumors reached that leader that Hood was, indeed, evacuating Atlanta.
The truth was given him on the 4th by a courier from Slocum, and revealed the fact that his adversary, outgeneraled, and overwhelmed with perplexity, had blown up his magazines and seven trains of cars, destroyed the founderies and workshops in Atlanta, and fled; Stewart's corps hastening in the direction of Macdonough, while the demoralized militia were marched to Covington.
Slocum had entered the city unopposed, on the morning after Hood left
it, and was holding it as a conqueror.
Hardee's forces now became an object of secondary consideration to Sherman, and he turned the faces of his troops northward.
On the 8th they were all encamped around Atlanta, Howard in the direction of West Point, and Schofield near Decatur.
The commander-in-chief made his Headquarters at the fine brick mansion of Judge Lyon, not far from the Court-house, and prepared to give his army needed rest.
Atlanta, one of the chief objectives of the campaign, was won, and by the victory an irreparable injury, had been inflicted on the Confederates, in the loss of an immense amount of materials of war, as well as of prestige.2 Yet the Confederate army, shattered, it is true, but still formidable,
1 this is a view of the portion of the battle-ground near Jonesboroa, where the Confederate works crossed the railway and the common highway, about a mile and a half from the village, and gives the appearance of the place when the writer sketched it, late in May, 1866.
2 The losses, of the Confederates during this campaign, down to the capture of Atlanta, was estimated as follows:--In skirmishing from Chattanooga to Atlanta, 6,000; Battle of Resaca, 2,500; battles around Dallas, 3,500; Battle of Kenesaw Mountain, 1,000; battles of July 20, 22, and 28, near Atlanta, 22,500; other contests around Atlanta, 1,500; and battles near Jonesboroa, 5,000; total, 42,000. They lost more than twenty general. officers, and nearly fifty pieces of cannon (of which 8 were 64-pounders), and full 25,000 small-arms.
The losses of the Nationals during the campaign were estimated as follows:--In skirmishing from Chattanooga to Resaca, 1,200; Battle of Resaca, 4,500; skirmishing from Resaca to Allatoona, 500; battles around Dallas, 8,000; Battle of Kenesaw Mountain, July 27, 3,000; other contests around Kenesaw, 4,500; skirmishing between the Kenesaw and the Chattahoochee, 1,000; battles of July 20, 22, and 28, near Atlanta, 6,200; skirmishing afterward, 3,000; battles near Jonesboroa, 1,500; in cavalry raids, 2,000; total, 80,400. The Nationals also lost fifteen cannon, ten of them in the severe battle of the 22d of July. Notwithstanding Sherman lost nearly one-third of his army, re-enforcements had been so judiciously given, that on his arrival at Atlanta he maintained his original strength in men.
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