William Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid

[274] supporting distance even—to do what the latter afterward failed to perform; and further, that when General Thomas insisted upon giving orders for an attack without waiting for Sherman, who was still delayed with the greater part of his troops, Grant assented, and Thomas actually accomplished that part of the battle assigned for the first day, before Sherman arrived; and lastly, that the Army of the Cumberland stormed and carried the whole line of Missionary Ridge hours before Sherman even received the news of the great success, he alone, of the three army commanders, having failed, though after splendid fighting, to carry the point assigned to him. While he contends that the failure to bring Johnston to battle at Resaca, was due to the timidity of General McPherson, the records show that this officer acted exactly in accordance with Sherman's own orders; and while the latter claims that from the outset of the movement, it was his intention merely to feign through Buzzard Roost on Dalton, and press the bulk of the army through Snake Creek Gap on Johnston's rear, the records show that for three days he ‘assaulted precipices’ in front of Dalton, with Thomas' and Schofield's armies, before he allowed McPherson to make more than a diversion on Johnston's rear, so that the latter, being warned in time, withdrew safely. At Kenesaw he assaulted impregnable works to teach his veterans that flanking was not the only means of attacking an enemy, and failed at a cost of two thousand men, claiming now that Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield agreed with him that the assault was necessary, when the records clearly reveal Thomas' stern dissatisfaction, and a bold extension to the right by Schofield, which plainly indicates that the latter looked for success in the direction from which it finally came, through their old and sure method of flanking.

He describes the battle before Atlanta, where McPherson fell, in such a manner that no reader would dream of its being a great surprise, and well nigh serious disaster; but the records disclose an army, plunged by the flank against an enemy in position behind heavy works, on the supposition