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when, satisfied that he had marched westward over the
Sand Mountains, he proceeded
in preparations to put into execution his important plan, with a full understanding with
Generals Grant and
Thomas, and the approval of the
General-in-chief.
Stanley was ordered to proceed to
Chattanooga with the Fourth Corps, and report to
General Thomas, and
Schofield was directed to do the same.
To
General Thomas,
Sherman now delegated full power over all the troops under his command, excepting four corps, with which he intended to march from
Atlanta to the sea. He also gave him the two divisions of
General A. J. Smith, then returning from the business of driving
Price out of
Missouri;
1 also all the garrisons in
Tennessee, and all the cavalry of the
Military Division, excepting a single division under
Kilpatrick, which he reserved for operations in
Georgia.
General Wilson had just arrived from the front of
Petersburg and
Richmond, to assume the command of the cavalry of the army, and he was sent back to
Nashville, with various dismounted detachments, with orders to collect and put in fighting order all the mounted men serving in
Kentucky and
Tennessee, and report to
General Thomas.
Thus the latter officer was furnished with strength believed to be sufficient to keep
Hood out of
Tennessee; and he was invested with unlimited discretionary powers in the use of his material.
Sherman estimated
Hood's force at thirty-five thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry.
By the first of November,
Hood made his appearance near the
Tennessee River, in the vicinity of
Decatur, and passing on to
Tuscumbia, laid a pontoon bridge across that stream at
Florence.
Then
Sherman turned his force toward
Atlanta, preparatory to taking up his march for the sea. The Army of the Tennessee moved back to the south side of the
Coosa, to the vicinity of Smyrna Camp-ground.
The Fourteenth Corps moved to
Kingston, from which point all the sick and wounded, and all surplus baggage and artillery, were sent to
Chattanooga.
The garrisons north of
Kingston withdrew to the same place, with the public property and rolling stock of the railway.
Then the mills and founderies at
Rome were destroyed, and the railway was thoroughly dismantled from the
Etowah to the
Chattahoochee.
The army crossed that stream, destroyed the railroads in and around
Atlanta, and, on the 14th of November,
the entire force destined for the great march to the sea was concentrated around that doomed city.
The writer; accompanied by his traveling companions already mentioned (
Messrs,
Dreer and
Greble), visited the theater of the
Georgia campaign in 1834, from
Dalton to
Atlanta, in the delightful month of May, 1866.
We left
Chattanooga early on the morning of the 15th,
by railway.
After passing through the tunnel at the
Missionaries' Ridge, we crossed the Chickamauga River several times before reaching
Tunnel Hill, in
Rocky Face Ridge.
The country in that region was quite picturesque, but utterly desolate in appearance.
Over it the great armies had marched, and left the horrid foot-prints of war. At
Dalton, a once flourishing Georgia town, where
Bragg and
Johnston had their quarters for several months, we saw she first terrible effects of the campaign upon the works of man. Ruin
