[
396]
at
Allatoona, and appeared before
Dalton and demanded its surrender.
The little garrison there, under
Colonel Liebold, held the post firmly until
General Steedman came down from
Chattanooga and drove
Wheeler off. The latter then pushed up into
East Tennessee, made a circuit around
Knoxville by way of Strawberry Plains, crossed the
Clinch River near
Clinton, went over the
Cumberland Mountains by way of the
Sequatchie, and appeared at
McMinnville, Murfreesboroa, and
Lebanon.
Rousseau,
Steedman, and
Granger, in
Tennessee, were on the alert, and they soon drove the raider into
Northern Alabama by way of
Florence.
Although he had destroyed much property, his damage to
Sherman's communications was so slight, that the latter said, in writing from
Atlanta on the 15th of September:
“Our roads and telegraphs are all repaired, and the cars run with regularity and speed.”
1
Sherman and
Hood took advantage of the lull in the campaign, in September, to reorganize their respective armies for vigorous work, and it was ,at nearly the close of the month when active operations were resumed.
2 Then, convinced that
Hood intended to assume the offensive, and, in all probability, attempt to seize
Tennessee,
Sherman sent
General Thomas, his second in command, to
Nashville, to organize the new troops expected to assemble there, and to make preliminary preparations to meet such an event.
Thomas arrived at
Nashville on the 3d of October.
Meanwhile, the
Confederates had crossed the
Chattahoochee, and by a rapid movement had struck the railway in the vicinity of Big Shanty, not far from
Kenesaw, and destroyed it for several miles.
At the same time a division of infantry, under
General French, pushed northward, and appeared before
Allatoona,
where
Colonel Tourtellotte, of the Fourth Minnesota, was guarding one million rations with only three thin regiments.
Sherman was startled, and moved at once for the defense of his communications and stores.
Leaving
Slocum, with the Twentieth Corps, to hold
Atlanta and the railroad bridge across the
Chattahoochee, he commenced
a swift pursuit of
Hood with the Fourth, Four-teenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Twenty-third Corps, and two divisions of cavalry.
On the morning of the 5th,
Sherman was at the strong position around
Kenesaw, and his signal officers were soon at work upon its summit.
Expecting an attack on
Allatoona, and knowing the weakness of the garrison there, he had telegraphed (and now signaled) to
General Corse, at
Rome, to hasten thither with re-enforcements.
The order was promptly obeyed, and
Corse was there and in command when French appeared at dawn
with an overwhelming force, and invested the place.
After a cannonade of two hours the
Confederate leader demanded
