Joseph T. Derry , A. M. , Author of School History of the United States; Story of the Confederate War, etc., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 6, Georgia
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[313] were now required by the State to enter the military service. Three thousand in number, they were organized into two brigades by Adjt.-Gen. H. C. Wayne. Those not elected officers were required to take places in the ranks on pain of being sent to the conscript camp of the Confederate army. Still later, the men of the State up to fifty-five years were called out, and the boys down to sixteen, armed with such firearms as were to be obtained. Under the command of General Wayne, part of the militia guarded the crossings of the Chattahoochee from Roswell to West Point, while 1,000 were in camp of instruction at Atlanta. On June 1st, Maj.-Gen. Gustavus W. Smith, who two years before had had the duty of commanding the army before Richmond during the brief interim between Johnston and Lee, was elected by the militia as their major-general.

On June 8th, up to which time there had been constant but not extensive skirmishing, especially by the cavalry along the railroad, Johnston's army was formed on a line extending across the railroad north of Kenesaw mountain. Hardee's left was at Gilgal church, Bate's division occupying the summit of Pine mountain, a hill about 300 feet high and considerably to the front of the main line; Polk's right was near the Acworth and Marietta road east of the railroad, covered by Noonday creek; and Hood was massed on the right of the Acworth road. The cavalry extended this line to the right and left. Between the 1st and 4th of June, Wheeler's troops captured about 100 prisoners. After a succession of skirmishes, they drove the enemy before them beyond Big Shanty.

Sherman, meanwhile, was establishing a secondary base at Allatoona, building a bridge over the Etowah and completing the railroad in order to bring up supplies. On the 8th of June, Gen. Frank P. Blair arrived at Acworth with about 9,000 men of the Seventeenth corps and a brigade of cavalry. ‘This accession of force,’ said Sherman, ‘about compensated for our losses in battle, ’