Newspaper accounts from Georgia.
A correspondent of the
Atlanta Confederacy gives the following further particulars of the engagement at
Resaca on Friday morning:
‘
It became necessary for
Gen. Johnston to move his army from
Dalton from the fact that the enemy concentrated his entire force on, and passed
Gen. Johnston's left, making a demonstration on
Resaca.
’
At 1 o'clock P. M. Tuesday he made an attack on the place,
Gen. Johnston's left resting upon the banks of the Oostenaula, near
Resaca.
commanded by
Gen. Cheatham.
After a slight skirmish our men fell back, apparently in confusion, but in order to more effectually draw the enemy after them.
The enemy run up their artillery to within about six hundred yards of our guns, when we opened on them with such fury that, instead of outshelling our batteries, we made them stampede.
We were not expecting the enemy so near us so suddenly.
All our commissary stores were lying in heaps at the depot, our sick were being put on the train, our wagons manœuvering over the place, and a vast multitude of negroes scattered promiscuously over the whole region, so that it looked as though a shell could not pass without being destructive to lives.
But we repulsed them so soon that but little damage was done to us.
We are told by a gentleman who left
Resaca after the affair that our loss was fifteen killed and about the same amount wounded, and that the enemy's loss was 400 killed.
Gen. Johnston's army is in fine health and spirits, and are sanguine of success.
They now have the enemy out in the open field, away from his fortifications, where it is as fair on one side as the other.
One of the special reporters of the
Atlanta Appeal returned from
Resaca on Sunday evening. He gives the following news concerning matters transpiring there:
‘
The enemy are massing a large force in
Sugar Valley, on the west side of the
Western and Atlantic road, and their advance is within sight of
Resaca.
’
The main body of our forces have been moved to corresponding positions, and the two armies now confront each other in such proximity that a general engagement is imminent, and may be looked for at any moment.
The wires are so crowded with Government dispatches that but little can be sent by telegraph.
Sunday afternoon, at 3 o'clock,
Stevenson's division, of
Hood's corps, felt of the
Yankees, and brought on a sharp fire of musketry and shells, which was kept up until night closed on the scene.
A shell passed through the telegraph office at
Resaca a little after 4 o'clock, causing quite a commotion among the operators.
The working of the line, however, was interrupted only for a few minutes.
Among the prisoners brought in by our forces Saturday was a correspondent of the Cincinnati
Times, who was taken near
Resaca.
He says he found himself suddenly in the midst of the
Confederates, and he thought it better to surrender than to have a ball put through his body.
He had no idea when he came into that place that he was getting so near the rebels.
He says that the
Yankees had become well apprised of one thing, which was that they are not fighting
Bragg now.
The position of the
Yankees is on the west side of the Oostenaula river and west of
Snake creek, which runs into it. What force they have there is not known.
Our troops are most eager for the fray, whooping and yelling all the time, and sanguine of the result.
They say, to a man, that they are "going to whip the fight."
[from the Savannah News.]
If private letters from the front be correct, remarks the Macon
Telegraph, a most interesting and desperate game of strategy has been going on in the past few days, which probably found its solution yesterday, or will find it within a few hours.--The movement of
Hooker's corps by way of
Villanow, through Snake Creek Gap, if at first intended by the enemy as an isolated raid in
Johnston's rear to take possession of
Resaca and destroy the
Oostenaula bridge no longer maintains that form.
Immense columns of the enemy, with their trains of artillery and wagons, were on the 11th plunging down the valley west of the
Chattanooga Ridge, and entering by Snake Creek Gap the plateau west of
Resaca and the line of the railroad and joining
Hooker's corps, already there.
This gap has been left open to the enemy for a number of days.
It is seventeen miles southwest of
Dalton, and the next gap above it, in the same ridge, is Dug Gap, which we hold, and where the enemy has made repeated assaults in vain.
Dug Gap is about four miles southwest of
Dalton.
It will thus be seen that the enemy has transferred the bulk of his force from our right and front and pushed them seventeen miles to our rear through Snake Gap.
Meanwhile,
Gen. Johnston has skillfully brought up a powerful supporting force to the defence of
Resaca and made a corresponding change in his line, which now runs nearly north and south, the right resting on
Rocky Face and the left upon his supports at
Resaca.
Here, then, in the rather narrow compass of
Sugar Valley, with Snake Creek Gap the only available outlet of escape if defeated, in his rear are gathered the host of the enemy in a grand desperate neck-or-nothing effort to flank
Johnston and cut his communications.
It will be recollected that Dug Gap is in our hands, twelve miles above Snake Creek Gap, and this is the avenue, if
Johnston has chosen to avail himself of it, through which to make a flank movement in rear of the
Snake Creek Gap and shut off the enemy's retreat.
Johnston has but to swing his right around, push it through Dug Gap, and the deed is done.
The enemy are apparently bottled up for preservation, unless he succeeds in driving
Johnston's left, getting possession of
Resaca and the railroad, and opening a free passage generally.
Such is said to have been the situation on the 11th, and it is pretty clear that
Sherman has pursued a policy which must eventuate in a great Federal success or a terrible failure.
[from the Augusta Constitutionalist, May 18th.]
By the flanking movements of
Sherman the two hostile armies in our front are gradually shifting into a new situation.
By private dispatches we were yesterday morning informed of the change of the telegraph office from
Resaca to
Calhoun.
Our own correspondent writes from
Calhoun, under date of Sunday, that "all the trains, hospitals, and supplies are being moved to
Cassville.
The enemy are still attempting to flank, and it would be difficult even to conjecture where the next heavy encounter may take place."
The impression is universal that
Gen. Johnston has his adversary exactly in the position for him.
Sherman evidently believes that
Johnston is running, and the latter knows precisely what the enemy and himself are about.
If excuse or explanation were requisite to solve the mysterious motives of our reticent
Commander in-Chief, in shifting with the enemy, it could be made patent to the simplest understanding that he desires the very developments that are now being made on the part of the
Yankee General.
Every advance by the left flank exposes the more the flank and rear of the enemy; every advance carries him so much further from his depot of supplies, which, if the road has been destroyed, would materially inconvenience the campaign of the invading party.
It is an accepted principle in military science that a river is much safer in one's front than in his rear.
When the enemy has crossed the
Oostenaula he will be in imminent danger of destruction, for we believe
Johnston will hurl his army
en masse upon him.
We have conversed with many intelligent soldiers among the wounded who came down last evening.
When they left the field Sunday night, the Oostenaula river was our line.
Our army was on this side of the river, and that of the enemy on the other.
It was said that one corps of the enemy, perhaps, had crossed at the ford west of
Calhoun.
The
Resaca bridge was burned Sunday morning. In the fighting on Sunday our whole army was not engaged.
Indeed the greater portion of it has not yet been under fire, having been held in reserve for some purpose known only to the God of battles and
Joseph M. Johnston.
Our men fought all day Sunday behind the works they had thrown up Friday night and had strengthened the night previous.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday there was a general charges on our part, in which the divisions of
Cheatham.
Stewart, and
Stevenson participated.
The enemy came up in line, were scattered by heavy volleys from our entrenchments, and as they fled our men were ordered to charge, and, leaping over the works, they drove the
Yankees a quarter of a mile, when they ran up on the reserve line of the enemy, and were compelled to fall back to their original line.
In this charge most of the men were wounded who came down yesterday.
The loss of the enemy since the fight opened on Friday last is calculated at five to one.
They were charging against our entrenched lines from the beginning, and the slaughter of Yankees is said to have been terrible.
They were literally mowed down as they came up, and were repulsed every time a charge was attempted.
We conversed with an intelligent officer who assures us that the spirit of the men is unparalleled in the history of the Army of Tennessee.
He declares that it
Gen. Johnston will let the men loose they will whip the
Yankees on ground of their own choosing.
The
Yankees have already been punished severely, and the fearful losses of the last few days will be calculated to diminish a little of the pluck which seems to have characterized their recent charges upon our entrenchments.
There was no fighting of consequence in the neighborhood of
Calhoun yesterday morning when the train left.
P. S.--Later.--There was a heavy attack made upon our lines on Sunday night about 10 o'clock, which was repulsed with heavy losses to the enemy.
