Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V2 by Jacob Dolson Cox

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Before acting further the Confederate President sent out General
Bragg to Atlanta to examine on the spot and report upon the
condition of affairs. Bragg arrived on the 13th and reported that an
entire evacuation of Atlanta seemed to be indicated by what he saw.
The army was sadly depleted, he said, and reported 10,000 less than
the return of June 10th. He could find but little encouraging.
[Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 878.] On the
following two days he visited Johnston twice and was "received
courteously and kindly." "He has not sought my advice," Bragg added,
"and it was not volunteered. I cannot learn that he has any more
plan for the future than he has had in the past. It is expected that
he will await the enemy on a line some three miles from here, and
the impression prevails that he is now more inclined to fight. The
enemy is very cautious, and intrenches immediately on taking a new
position. His force, like our own, is greatly reduced by the hard
campaign. His infantry now very little over 60,000. The morale of
our army is still reported good." [Footnote: _Id._, p. 881.]

The receipt of this dispatch with Johnston's of the 16th seems to
have decided President Davis to make a change in the command of the
army, and on the 17th Hood was appointed to the temporary rank of
general in the Provisional Army and ordered to relieve Johnston.
[Footnote: _Id._, pp. 885, 887, 889.] Hood shrank from the
responsibility in the crisis which then existed, and suggested delay
till the fate of Atlanta should be decided; but Mr. Davis replied,
"A change of commanders, under existing circumstances, was regarded
as so objectionable that I only accepted it as the alternative of
continuing in a policy which had proved so disastrous. Reluctance to
make the change induced me to send a telegram of inquiry to the
commanding general on the 16th instant. His reply but confirmed
previous apprehensions. There can be but one question which you and
I can entertain: that is, what will best promote the public good;
and to each of you I confidently look for the sacrifice of every
personal consideration in conflict with that object." [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 888.]

Johnston magnanimously assisted Hood in completing the movements of
the army during the 18th to the Peachtree Creek position and
explained to him his plans. These were, first, to attack Sherman's
army when divided in crossing that difficult stream, and, if
successful, to press the advantage to decisive results. If
unsuccessful, to hold the Peachtree lines till Governor Brown's
militia were assembled;[Footnote: Johnston says ten thousand of
these were promised him instead of five. Narrative, p. 348.] then,
holding Atlanta with these, to draw the army back through the town
and march out with the three corps against one of Sherman's flanks,
with the confidence that even if his attack did not succeed, with
Atlanta so strongly fortified he could hold it forever. [Footnote:
Narrative, p. 350.]

In reading his more elaborate statement of the plans of which the
above is an outline, one cannot help thinking how unfortunate for
him it was that he did not give them to Mr. Davis as fully as he
gave them to Hood! In answer to the pressing inquiry of the 16th for
"your plan of operations so specifically as will enable me to
anticipate events," he had replied, "As the enemy has double our
number, we must be on the defensive. My plan of operations must
therefore depend upon that of the enemy. It is mainly to watch for
an opportunity to fight to advantage. We are trying to put Atlanta
in condition to be held for a day or two by the Georgia militia,
that army movements may be freer and wider." [Footnote: _Id_., p.
883.] A good understanding with his government was so essential,
just then, that the most reticent of commanders would have been wise
in sending in cipher the whole page in which he tells the specific
details of his purposes and their alternates as he gave them to
Hood. Had he done so, it is quite safe to say that he would not have
been removed; but reading, in the light of the whole season's
correspondence, the dispatch he actually sent, we cannot say that
Mr. Davis was unreasonable in finding it confirm his previous
apprehension. Had the general fully and frankly opened to Bragg the
same purposes, the latter could not have sent the hopeless message
which clinched the President's decision.

Johnston said in his final message to Davis that the enemy had
advanced more rapidly and penetrated deeper into Virginia than into
Georgia; and that confident language by a military commander is not
usually regarded as evidence of competency. [Footnote: Official
Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 888.] There was much force in both
points, but they do not touch the heart of the matter. Between Lee
and his government there was always a frank and cordial comparison
of views and perfect understanding; so that even in disaster it was
seen that he had done the best he could and was actively planning to
repair a mischief. On the other hand, they got from Johnston little
but a diarist's briefest chronicle of events with no word of hopeful
purpose or plan. It was not necessary that he should use "confident
language," but words were certainly called for which expressed
intelligent comprehension of the situation and fertility in purposed
action according to probable contingencies. His advice to Hood
showed that he only needed to be equally frank with the Richmond
authorities. [Footnote: Mr. Davis has discussed his relations to
Johnston in chapter xlviii. of his "Rise and Fall of the Confederate
Government," vol. ii. pp. 547, etc.; but the most succinct statement
of his views is found in a paper prepared for the Confederate
Congress, but withheld. See his letter to Colonel Phelan, Meridian,
Miss., O. R, vol. xlvii. pt. ii. pp. 1303-1311.]

The assignment of Hood to the command was, of course, in the belief
that he would take a more energetic and aggressive course. He seems
to have been free in his criticisms of his commander, and upon
Bragg's arrival had addressed to him a letter which it is hard to
view as anything else than a bid for the command. [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 880.] It said Johnston had
failed to use several opportunities to strike Sherman decisive
blows; that yet the losses of the army were 20,000; that under no
circumstances should the enemy be allowed to occupy Atlanta; that if
Sherman should establish his line at the Chattahoochee, he must be
attacked by crossing that river; that he had so often urged
aggressive action that he was regarded as reckless by "the officers
high in rank in this army, who are declared to hold directly
opposite views." He concluded by saying that he regarded it a great
misfortune that battle was not given to the enemy many miles north
of the present position.

When Johnston learned from Hood's report [Footnote: _Id._, pt. iii.
p. 628.](dated February 15, 1865) the nature of the latter's
statements and criticisms, he notified the Richmond government as
well as Hood that he should demand that the latter be brought before
a court-martial; [Footnote: Id., p. 637.] but it was then April, on
the very eve of the collapse of the Confederacy, and the discussion
was left for continuance in the private writings of the parties and
their friends. Johnston affirmed that in the only instances in the
campaign in which it could be said that a favorable opportunity for
battle had not been seized, Hood himself had been prominent in
protesting against an engagement or had himself failed to carry out
the orders given. In his service as commander of the army, Hood
became involved in disputes as to fact with Hardee and Cheatham as
well as with Johnston, and the result was damaging to his reputation
for accuracy and candor. [Footnote: Johnston's case is stated in his
"Narrative," chapters x. and xi.; Hood's in his "Advance and
Retreat," chapters v. to ix. In connection with these, Hardee's
Report of April 5, 1865, is of interest (Official Records, vol.
xxxviii. pt. iii. p. 697), and his letter to General Mackall (_Id._,
pt. v. p. 987).]

The change of commanders undoubtedly precipitated the ruin of the
Confederate cause; yet we must in candor admit that the situation
was becoming so portentous that human wisdom might be overtaxed in
trying to determine what course to take. Of one thing there is no
shadow of doubt. We of the National Army in Georgia regarded the
removal of Johnston as equivalent to a victory for us. Three months
of sharp work had convinced us that a change from Johnston's methods
to those which Hood was likely to employ, was, in homely phrase, to
have our enemy grasp the hot end of the poker. We knew that we
should be kept on the alert and must be watchful; but we were
confident that a system of aggression and a succession of attacks
would soon destroy the Confederate army. Of course Hood did not mean
to assault solidly built intrenchments; but we knew that we could
make good enough cover whilst he was advancing against a flank, to
insure him a bloody repulse. The dense forests made the artillery of
little effect in demolishing the works or weakening the _morale_ of
the defenders, and it was essentially an infantry attack upon
intrenched infantry and artillery at close range.

The action of the Confederate government was a confession that
Sherman's methods had brought about the very result he aimed at. The
enemy had been manoeuvred from position to position until he must
either give up Atlanta with its important nucleus of railway
communications and abandon all northern Georgia and Alabama, or he
must assume a desperate aggressive with a probability that this
would fatally reduce his army and make the result only the more
completely ruinous. This was the meaning of the substitution of Hood
for Johnston.

CHAPTER XL

HOOD'S DEFENCE OF ATLANTA--RESULTS OF ITS CAPTURE

Lines of supply by field trains--Canvas pontoons--Why replaced by
bridges--Wheeling toward Atlanta--Battle of Peachtree Creek--Battle
of Atlanta--Battle of Ezra Church--Aggressive spirit of Confederates
exhausted--Sherman turns Atlanta by the south--Pivot position of
Twenty-third Corps--Hood's illusions--Rapidity of our troops in
intrenching--Movements of 31st August--Affair at Jonesboro--Atlanta
won--_Morale_ of Hood's army--Exaggerating difference in
numbers--Examination of returns--Efforts to bring back
absentees--The sweeping conscription--Sherman's candid
estimates--Unwise use of cavalry--Forrest's work--Confederate
estimate of Sherman's campaign.

In advancing from the Chattahoochee, the arrangements Sherman made
for the supply of his army provided separate lines for the trains of
the three columns. McPherson' s wagons would reach him from Marietta
by way of Roswell and the bridge which General Dodge built there.
Schofield's had their depot at Smyrna and came by the wooden bridge
which we built at the mouth of Soap Creek to replace the pontoons.
The latter were of canvas, and whilst unequalled for field use, were
unfit for a bridge of any permanence, because the canvas would be
destroyed by long continuance in the water. As soon as they could be
replaced by a pier or trestle-bridge of timber, they were taken up,
cleaned and dried, and then packed on their special wagons for
transport. This train was in charge of a permanent detachment of
troops who became experts in the handling and care of the material
and in laying the bridge. The brigade of dismounted cavalry in my
division was left at the river as a guard for the wooden bridge
which was kept up till the railway bridge was built and opened for
use. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 163.]
Thomas's troops, who were more than half the army, drew their
supplies from Vining's Station byway of bridges at Power's Ferry
(mouth of Rottenwood Creek) and Pace's Ferry, a mile below.

Grant sent warning of rumors afloat that reinforcements would be
sent Johnston from the east, and in advancing from the Chattahoochee
by a great wheel to the right, Sherman extended his left so that
McPherson should move to the east of Decatur and break the Georgia
Railroad there, whilst Garrard with his division of cavalry should
continue the destruction toward Stone Mountain and make the gap as
wide as possible. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 158.]

This movement made the distance travelled by McPherson and Schofield
a long one, and extended their front largely, whilst Thomas was much
more compact. But when once the railway should be so broken that
Johnston's direct communication with the east would be interrupted,
McPherson and Schofield would both move toward their right, and in
closing in upon Atlanta, come into close touch with Thomas.
[Footnote: _Id_., p. 167.]

It was whilst this movement was progressing, on the 20th of July,
and was near its completion, that Hood made the attack already
planned by Johnston, upon Thomas's columns, crossing Peachtree Creek
by several roads converging at Atlanta. It involved the right of
Howard's corps, the whole of Hooker's, and the left of Palmer's. It
was a fierce and bloody combat, in which the Confederates lost about
6000 men in killed and wounded, whilst the casualty lists of
Thomas's divisions amounted to 2000. Again, on the 22d, the second
part of Johnston's plan was tried, and Hardee's corps, moving by
night through Atlanta and far out to the southward of Decatur,
advanced upon the flank of McPherson's army, whilst Cheatham at the
head of Hood's own corps advanced from the Atlanta lines and
continued the attack upon the centre and left of McPherson and upon
the right of Schofield. A great battle raged along five miles of
front and rear, but at evening the worsted Confederates retired
within the fortifications of the city, a terrible list of 10,000
casualties showing the cost of the aggressive tactics. The losses on
the National side were 3500, heavy enough, in truth, but with very
different results on the relative strength of the armies and their
_morale_. But the end was not yet. On the 28th McPherson's army, now
under the command of Howard, was marching from the left wing to the
right, to extend our lines southward on the west side of Atlanta,
when once more Hood struck fiercely at the moving flank at Ezra
Church, but again found that breastworks grew as if by magic as soon
as Howard's men were deployed in position, and again the gray
columns were beaten back with a list of 5000 added to the killed and
disabled. Howard had less than 600 casualties in the action. It was
only a week since Johnston had been relieved, and matters had come
to such a pass in his army that the men stolidly refused to continue
the assaults. From our skirmish line their officers were seen to
advance to the front with waving swords calling upon the troops to
follow them, but the men remained motionless and silent, refusing to
budge. [Footnote: For details of these engagements, see "Atlanta,"
chaps, xii.-xiv.]

During the first half of August Sherman extended his lines
southward, until my own division, which was the right flank of the
infantry lines, was advanced nearly a mile southeast of the crossing
of the Campbelltown and East Point roads on high ground covering the
headwaters of the Utoy and Camp creeks. We were here somewhat
detached and encamped accordingly in a boldly curved line ready for
action on the flanks as well as front. It was now the 18th of August
and Sherman devoted the next week to the accumulation of supplies,
the removal of sick and wounded to the rear, getting rid of
impedimenta, and general preparation for a fortnight's separation
from his base. My position had been selected with reference to this
plan, as a pivot upon which the whole of the army except the
Twentieth Corps should swing across the railways south of Atlanta.

[Illustration: Map of the Atlanta, GA area, showing the Federal and
Confederate lines.]

The movement began on the 25th, and we stood fast till the 28th,
when we began our flank movement on the inner curve of the march of
the army, taking very short steps, however, as we must keep between
the army trains and the enemy. On the 30th Schofield moved our corps
from Red Oak Station, on the West Point Railroad, a mile and a half
directly toward East Point, so as to cover roads going eastward
toward Rough-and-Ready Station on the Macon road. We were hardly in
position before our skirmishers were briskly engaged with an
advancing force of the enemy's cavalry, and we felt sure that it was
the precursor of an attack by Hood in force. It proved to be nothing
but a reconnoissance, and showed that Hood was strangely
misconceiving the situation. Its chief interest to me at the moment
was in the experiment it enabled me to make of the speed with which
my men could cover themselves in open ground in an emergency. The
division was astride the East Point road, the centre in open fields
where no timber could be got for revetment, and only fence rails to
give some support to the loose earth. Giving the order to make the
light trench of the rifle-pit class, where the earth is thrown
outward and the men stand in the ditch they dig, in fifteen minutes
by the watch the work was such that I reckoned it sufficient cover
to repel an infantry attack, if it came. It would be an
extraordinary occasion when we did not have more warning of an
impending attack; and the incident will illustrate the confidence we
had that in forcing the enemy to assume aggressive tactics, the
campaign was practically decided.

On the 31st, as Sherman's left wing, we held the Macon Railway at
Rough-and-Ready Station, Howard, as right wing, was across Flint
River, closing in on Jonesboro, whilst the centre under Thomas
filled the interval. Hood had sent Hardee with his own and Lee's
(late Hood's) corps to defeat what was supposed to be a detachment
of two corps of Sherman's army, and a sharp affair had occurred at
the Flint River crossing, where Howard succeeded in maintaining his
position on the east side. On hearing of our occupation of
Rough-and-Ready, Hood jumped to the conclusion that it was
preliminary to an attack on Atlanta from the south, and ordered
Lee's corps to march in the night and rejoin him at once. Getting a
better idea of the situation before morning, he stopped Lee and
prepared to evacuate Atlanta. On September 1st Sherman closed in on
Jonesboro, his latest information indicating that two corps of the
enemy were assembled there. Late in the day he learned of the
disappearance of Lee's corps, but assumed that Hood was assembling
somewhere near. He tried hard to concentrate his forces to prevent
Hardee's escape, but his scattered army could not be united till
nightfall.

In the night Hood blew up the ordnance stores at Atlanta, and
hastening to join Lee by roads east of Sherman's positions, he
marched on Lovejoy Station. Hardee evacuated Jonesboro also, and
before morning the Confederate army was assembled again upon the
railroad, five miles nearer to Macon. Atlanta was occupied by the
Twentieth Corps on the 2d, and Sherman ordered his army to return to
the vicinity of that city for a period of rest. Hood's conduct for
the past three days had been the result of complete misapprehension
of the facts; but its very eccentricity had been so incomprehensible
that no rule of military probabilities could be applied to it, and
before Sherman could learn what he was doing, the time had passed
when full advantage could be taken of his errors.

The condition of Hood's army at the close of the campaign was
anything but satisfactory to him. His theory was that his offensive
tactics would keep up the spirit and energy of his men and
constantly improve their _morale_. When he found that they were, on
the contrary, discouraged and despondent, and could not be induced
to repeat the assaults upon our positions which had followed each
other so rapidly in the last days of July, he querulously laid the
blame at the door of his subordinates. He called the attack upon
Howard's advance at Flint River "a disgraceful effort" because only
1485 were wounded, and asked to have Hardee relieved and sent
elsewhere. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. pp.
1021, 1023, 1030. Hardee had before asked to be relieved. (_Id_.,
pp. 987, 988.) For Hood's final, urgent request and the result, see
vol. xxxix. pt. ii. pp. 832, 880, 881.] True, he had telegraphed
Hardee that the necessity was imperative that the National troops
should be driven into and across the river, and that the men must go
at them with bayonets fixed; but it was his own old corps, now under
Lieutenant-General S. D. Lee, that made the principal attack and was
repulsed. Lee was not one of the officers who might be presumed to
be discontented with Johnston's removal, but had been brought from
the Department of Mississippi, at Hood's suggestion, to take the
corps when the latter was promoted, and had won Davis's admiration
by his zeal. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 892, and vol. lii. pt. ii. p.
713.] It would be hard to find better proof that the trouble lay in
the consciousness of the men in the line that they were asked to lay
down their lives without a reasonable hope of benefit to their
cause. The discouragement pervaded the whole army, and is seen in
Hood's own dispatches hardly less than in others. [Footnote: Hood to
Davis, September 3, two dispatches, _Id_., vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p.
1016. In another, p. 1017, he repeated an earlier suggestion to
remove the prisoners from Andersonville. When Johnston had done
this, it was made one of the charges against him. See Davis to Lee,
_Id_., vol. lii. pt. ii. p. 692. For Hardee's opinion of the
situation, see _Id_., vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 1018.] In a labored
letter to Bragg on September 4th, he unconsciously shows how his own
total misunderstanding of Sherman's movements was the prime cause of
his disaster, whilst the shame at the result leads him to charge it
upon others. As to the spirit of the army, nobody has given more
telling testimony, for he says, "I am officially informed that there
is a tacit if not expressed determination among the men of this
army, extending to officers as high in some instances as colonel,
that they will not attack breastworks." [Footnote: Official Records,
vol. lii. pt. ii. p. 730. This letter seems to have come to light
since the first publication of the records of the campaign, and is
found in the supplemental volume.]

In the correspondence between Johnston and the Confederate
government regarding the numerical force of his army, he naturally
emphasized his inferiority to Sherman in numbers as an explanation
of his cautious defensive tactics and his retreating movements. The
introduction into the Southern returns of a column of "effectives"
as distinguished from the number of officers and men "present for
duty," [Footnote: _Ante_, vol. i. p. 482.] led to a habitual
underestimate by their commanding officers. On several occasions
Johnston defended his conduct of the campaign by asserting that his
army was less than half the size of Sherman's, [Footnote: Official
Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. iv. p. 795.] and this necessarily led to
an examination of his returns. These regular numerical reports are
of course the ultimate authority in all disputes, and we find the
Richmond government doing just what the historian has to
do,--comparing the estimates of the general with his official
returns. Officers of all grades and of the highest character fall
into the error of memory which modifies facts according to one's
wish and feeling. Thus at the beginning of this campaign we find
General Bragg, speaking for the President, saying that General
Polk's "estimates and his official returns vary materially."
[Footnote: _Id._, vol. lii. pt. ii. p. 659.] Nobody could be freer
from intentional misstatement than the good bishop-general. We find
the same discrepancies at the East as well as the West. Lee,
Jackson, Longstreet, and their subordinates fall into the same
error. It is therefore the canon of all criticism on this subject,
that nothing but the statistical returns in the adjutant-general's
office shall be received as proofs of numbers, though, of course,
the returns must be read intelligently.

Conscious of straining every nerve to reinforce the great armies in
the field, Mr. Davis naturally asked what it meant when the army in
Georgia was said to be so weak. General Bragg assisted him with an
analysis of Johnston's last returns. Writing on June 29th, he refers
to the last regular return, that of June 10th, which is the same now
published in the Official Records. In using it, therefore, we agree
with the Confederate government at the time in making it conclusive.
It shows that Johnston's army had present for duty 6538 officers and
63,408 enlisted men, or, in round numbers, was 70,000 strong.
[Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. iv. p. 805; _Id_.,
pt. iii. p. 677.] The "effectives" are given as 60,564; but this, as
we know, is the result of subtracting the number of the officers and
non-commissioned staff from the aggregate present for duty. But in
addition to the troops named, Bragg very properly adds that Johnston
"has at Atlanta a supporting force of reserves and militia,
estimated at from 7000 to 10,000 effective men, half of whom were
actually with Johnston near Marietta." We thus have from Confederate
authorities the proof that the army was nearly 80,000 strong on June
10th, after the first month of the campaign had closed, including
the engagements at Dalton, Resaca, New Hope Church, Dallas, and
Pickett's Mill.