Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[383] incompetent lieutenant, Bragg, could not comprehend or would not acknowledge, and Johnston was ordered to surrender the command of the army to the more dashing, but less skillful soldier, General Hood. This was done at the time we are considering, while Sherman was giving his worn and wearied soldiers some rest on the borders of the Chattahoochee. When Hood took command, his army numbered about fifty-one thousand effective men, of whom ten thousand were cavalry.

The main armies remained quiet in their camps until the middle of July. Meanwhile, Sherman was busy in collecting stores at Allatoona, Marietta, and Vining's Station, between the latter place and the Chattahoochee,

J. B. Hood.

and in taking measures for making and keeping his communications perfect. When this was accomplished, he was impelled forward by considerations which could not be unheeded. “Atlanta lay before us,” he said, “only eight miles distant, and was too important a place, in the hands of an enemy, to be left undisturbed, with its magazines, stores, arsenals, workshops, founderies, &c., and more especially its railroads, which converge there from the four great cardinal points.” Accordingly, on the 17th of July, he resumed active operations, by throwing Thomas's army across the Chattahoochee, close upon Schofield's right, with directions to move forward by Buckland. Schofield was ordered to move by Cross Keys, at the same time, and with McPherson, who was on the extreme left, at Roswell, to march rapidly against the Augusta railway, at some point east of Decatur, and near Stone Mountain.

In obedience to these orders, the whole army made a right-wheel movement, and closed in upon Atlanta from the northeast. McPherson struck the railway seven miles east of Decatur, on the 18th,

July, 1864.

and with Garrard's cavalry and the infantry division of General M. L. Smith, broke up about four miles of the track. At about the same time, Schofield seized Decatur. McPherson entered it on the 19th, when the former marched in the direction of Atlanta. On the same day Thomas crossed Peachtree Creek, at several points, in the face of the Confederate intrenchments, skirmishing heavily at every step. Indeed, in all of these forward movements there were severe and almost incessant struggles.

At about this time Sherman was strengthened by the arrival of General Rousseau, with two thousand cavalry. He was in command of the District of Tennessee, and when Sherman planned a raid against the railway between Atlanta and Montgomery, one of Johnston's chief channels of supplies for his army, he asked permission to lead the expedition. It was granted, and when Johnston crossed the Chattahoochee and Sherman began maneuvering against Atlanta, the latter telegraphed orders to Rousseau to move. That active officer instantly obeyed. He left Decatur, Alabama, at the head of