Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V2 by Jacob Dolson Cox

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To complete the examination of the same return, it is necessary to
notice that the "aggregate present" is given at 82,413, or 12,500
more than the "present for duty." This includes "extra-duty men,"
such as clerks at headquarters of the organizations from Johnston's
own down to brigades and regiments, men permanently detailed for any
special service, men in arrest, etc. [Footnote: Hood's dispatch of
September 5, _Id_., pt. v. p. 1021; and his Order No. 19, vol.
xxxix. pt. ii. p. 835.] It is here that good administration in an
army seeks to reduce the number of those who are withdrawn from the
fighting ranks, and to make the "aggregate present" agree as closely
as possible with the "present for duty." I shall presently note the
result of such an effort.

Sherman's return of "present for duty" on May 31st, just after Blair
had joined him with the Seventeenth Corps, was the largest of the
campaign, being 112,819. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxviii.
pt. i. p. 117.] By the end of June it was reduced to 106,070, when
Johnston's was 59,196 without the reserves and militia. [Footnote:
_Id._, pt. iii. p. 679.]

When Hood assumed the command, Bragg visited the army a second time,
and gave new impulse to the effort to increase its effective force.
On July 27th, in a very full report to Mr. Davis, he says, "the
increase by the arrival of extra-duty men and convalescents, etc.,
is about 5000, and more are coming in daily. The return of the 1st
of August will show a gratifying state of affairs." [Footnote:
_Id._, vol. lii. pt. ii. p. 714.] This promise was fulfilled when
that return showed a diminution in the "present for duty," since the
10th of the month, of only 7403, [Footnote: _Id._, vol. xxxviii. pt.
iii. p. 680.] although the period included the bloody engagements of
Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, and Ezra Church.

The Confederate conscription included the whole able-bodied
population, and details as for extra duty were the means by which
physicians, clergymen, civilian office-holders, etc., were exempted
from service in the army. These lists were rigidly scrutinized, and
the laxity which had grown was corrected as far as possible. The
aggregate of Hood's army, "present and absent," on August 1st, was
135,000, though his "aggregate present" was only 65,000. [Footnote:
_Ibid._] It included, of course, prisoners of war, deserters, and
men otherwise missing, besides the class last mentioned. The extent
to which the efforts to bring back absentees succeeded, is shown by
the return for September 20th, when the aggregate of the "present
and absent" falls to 123,000, [Footnote: Official Records, vol.
xxxviii. pt. iii. p. 637.] though the "present for duty" are almost
as numerous as at the end of July. The difference of 12,000 shows
how many were added to the army in this way, and these are in
addition to the thousands which Bragg spoke of as gained by
transferring non-combatants present with the army to the list of
those present for duty.

It is only by examining Hood's returns in this way that they become
intelligible, for his rolls of those present for duty hardly
diminish at all during the whole month of August, being 51,793 on
the 1st, 51,946 on the 10th, and 51,141 on the 31st. [Footnote:
_Id_., pp. 680-683.] On September 10th he reports 46,149, and on the
20th 47,431, the first of these returns including his losses in the
final combats of the campaign and the fall of Atlanta, and the
latter indicating a gain by the exchange of prisoners with General
Sherman. [Footnote: _Id_., vol. xxxix. pt. ii. pp. 828, 850.] By
ignoring all the additions to his fighting force from the sources
which I have enumerated, Hood was able to claim that his total
losses while in command of the army were 5247. [Footnote: _Id_.,
vol. xxxviii. pt. iii. p. 636.] The absurdity was indicated by
Hardee, who replied in his official report that the losses in his
own corps, which was only one third of the army, "considerably
exceeded 7000" during the same period. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 702.]

Sherman's returns show a steady diminution of his available numbers
during July and August, though, as he himself has said, it was not
altogether from casualties on the battlefield and the diseases of
the camp. [Footnote: Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 134.] The term of service
of all the troops enlisted in the spring and summer of 1861 for
three years was now ended, and an interval occurred in which the new
levies under the law to enforce the draft had not yet reached the
field, and the army was depleted by the return home of the regiments
which had not "veteranized" in the last winter. He had present for
duty, on July 31st, 91,675 officers and men; on August 31st, 81,758.
Sherman's statement of his losses in battle and his comparison of
them with his opponents is a model of candor and fairness. With the
light we now have, he might properly have increased considerably his
estimate of Johnston's casualties. [Footnote: Memoirs, vol. ii. pp.
131-136.]

General Hood was quite right in arguing, in his memoirs, that the
wounded in a campaign are not all a permanent loss to an army,
"since almost all the slightly wounded, proud of their scars, soon
return to the ranks." [Footnote: Advance and Retreat, p. 217.] But
what I have said above shows that he was entirely astray when he
concluded that the difference in the returns of his effective force
at the beginning and end of the campaign would show the number of
killed and permanently disabled. The absence of data as to the
additions to his field force through the means which I have
analyzed, shows how absurd a result was drawn from his premises. The
reports of casualties are not unfrequently faulty, but with all
their faults they would be much more valuable if a complete series
existed which could be compared and tested. It would require a
minute examination of all returns, from companies to divisions, to
determine accurately how many men returned to duty after being
wounded or captured. The imperfect state of the Confederate archives
would prevent this, if it were otherwise practicable. The
statistical returns are conclusive for what they actually give, but
inferences from them must be drawn with care. As an illustration (in
addition to those already given) it may be noted that the
Confederate cavalry made no returns of casualties or losses, and
they do not appear at all in the Medical Director's report which
General Hood makes the basis of his own assertions. [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. iii. p. 687.] How grave an
omission this is will be partly seen from the fact that Wheeler's
corps, which reported 8000 men present for duty on August 1st (the
last return made), was in such condition when he reached Tuscumbia
after the raid in the rear of Sherman's army, that its
adjutant-general doubted if more than 1000 men could be got
together. [Footnote: Letter of General Forrest to General Taylor,
Sept. 20, 1864, Official Records, vol. xxxix. pt. ii. p. 859.]

The use of the cavalry in "raids," which were the fashion, was an
amusement that was very costly to both sides. Since Stuart's ride
round McClellan's army in 1862, every cavalry commander, National
and Confederate, burned to distinguish himself by some such
excursion deep into the enemy's country, and chafed at the
comparatively obscured but useful work of learning the detailed
positions and movements of the opposing army by incessant outpost
and patrol work in the more restricted theatre of operations of the
campaign.

From Chattanooga to the Chattahoochee, good work was done by
Stoneman and McCook in scouting upon the front and flanks of the
army, and by Colonel Lowe in vigilant guard of the railway close in
rear of Sherman's movements; but the use of mounted troops in mass
was not satisfactory, and as to the raids on both sides, the game
was never worth the candle. Men and horses were used up, wholesale,
without doing any permanent damage to the enemy, and never reached
that training of horse and man which might have been secured by
steady and systematic attention to their proper duties. Forrest, of
the Confederates, was the only cavalry officer whom Sherman thought
at all formidable, and he showed his high estimate of him by
offering, in his sweeping way, to secure the promotion of the
officer who should defeat and kill him. In another form he expressed
the same idea, by saying he would swap all the cavalry officers he
had for Forrest. [Footnote: The matter took an odd turn, when on the
report that General Mower had defeated Forrest in West Tennessee and
that the brilliant cavalry leader had fallen in the action, Mower
got his promotion, but it turned out that it was Forrest's brother,
a colonel, who was killed--"a horse of another color." Mower,
however, was worthy of promotion "on general principles." See
Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 471; vol. xxxix. pt. i. p.
228; _Id_., pt. ii. pp. 130, 142, 219, 233.]

High as was the National estimate of the importance of Sherman's
campaign, Southern men rated it and its consequences quite as high
as we did. In the conferences at Richmond, at which Mr. Hill had
represented the strong desire of Governor Brown and General Johnston
for reinforcements, Mr. Davis had made his apprehension of the
disastrous results which would follow the loss of Atlanta the reason
of his urgency for a more aggressive campaign. In closing the
interviews, Mr. Seddon, the Secretary of War, and Mr. Hill showed
their sense of the importance of the crisis by exchanging letters
which were diplomatic memoranda of the conversations. Mr. Hill
repeated his conviction that the fate of the Confederacy hung upon
the campaign. He said that the failure of Johnston's army involved
that of Lee; that not only Atlanta but Richmond must fall; not only
Georgia but all the States would be overrun; that all hopes of
possible foreign recognition would be destroyed; in short, that "all
is lost by Sherman's success, and all is gained by Sherman's
defeat." [Footnote: Official Records, vol. lii. pt. ii. p. 706.]
Governor Brown had accompanied Mr. Hill's effort by a dispatch in
which he declared that Atlanta was to the Confederacy "almost as
important as the heart is to the human body." [Footnote: _Id_., p.
680.] So far from taking exception to these strong expressions, Mr.
Davis based his action in regard to General Johnston upon the
absolute necessity of a military policy in Georgia, which would hold
Atlanta at all hazards. When the city fell, the whole South as well
as the North knew that a decisive step had been taken toward the
defeat of the rebellion.

CHAPTER XLI

THE REST AT ATLANTA-STAFF ORGANIZATION AND CHANGES

Position of the Army of the Ohio at Decatur--Refitting for a new
campaign--Depression of Hood's army--Sherman's reasons for a
temporary halt--Fortifying Atlanta as a new base--Officers detailed
for the political campaign--Schofield makes inspection tour of his
department--My temporary command of the Army of the Ohio--Furloughs
and leaves of absence--Promotions of several colonels--General
Hascall resigns--Staff changes--My military family--Anecdote of
Lieutenant Tracy--Discipline of the army--Sensitiveness to approval
or blame--Illustration--Example of skirmishing advance--Sufferings
of non-combatants within our lines--A case in point--Pillaging and
its results--Citizens passing through the lines--"The rigors of the
climate"--Visit of Messrs. Hill and Foster--McPherson's death--The
loss to Sherman and to the army--His personal traits--Appointment of
his successor.

At the close of the first week in September the Army of the Ohio
encamped at Decatur, and prepared for a month's rest. My division
took position on the east of the little town, Hascall's on the
south, and our division of cavalry under Colonel Israel Garrard was
east of us, with outposts and patrols watching the roads in that
direction as far as Stone Mountain. [Footnote: Official Records,
vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 828.] The Army of the Cumberland was
encamped about Atlanta itself, and the Army of the Tennessee was at
East Point. As Sherman cheerily announced in general orders, we
might expect "to organize, receive pay, replenish clothing, and
prepare for a fine winter's campaign." [Footnote: _Id._, p. 801.]

It was of course probable that Hood would use the interval, which
was even more welcome to him than to us, in similar preparation for
resuming the struggle, though the resources of the Confederacy were
so strained that the Treasury was in debt to the soldiers for ten
months' pay. He told the government that "it would be of vast
benefit to have this army paid," [Footnote: Official Records, vol.
xxxviii. pt. v. p. 1027.] but this expressed his desire rather than
a hope. Depression reigned in his camps about Lovejoy's Station, of
which the name was a mockery. Dissent was rife among his general
officers, and with the whole army he had lost prestige by the costly
failure of his campaign. A period of rest might relieve the
discouragement somewhat, and stringent means were to be used to
bring absentees and conscripts to the ranks. Hardee was transferred
to Savannah; Mackall, Johnston's devoted friend, was removed from
the head of the staff, and other changes of organization were made
with a view to give Hood the men of his own choice in important
positions. [Footnote: These were mostly in accordance with Hood's
recommendations to General Bragg when the latter visited him at the
end of July. See Bragg to Davis, _Id._, vol. lii. pt. ii. p. 713.]

Sherman was fully aware that he would have many advantages in
pushing after Hood at once, but besides his army's real need of
rest, he was clear in his judgment that he must, at this stage of
affairs, prepare for a campaign on a great scale to be continued
through the winter till great results should be achieved. If the
line of operations was to be extended toward Mobile, as was
contemplated by General Grant at the opening of the campaign, or if
Hood should retreat toward the east, in either case he must make
Atlanta a fortified base. Experience had proven that his long line
of communications was liable to interruption, and would be still
more so as he penetrated further into Georgia. He must have a
well-supplied and well-protected depot in the same relations to the
next forward movement that Chattanooga had been to the campaign just
finished. He wanted to get his share of the drafted men under the
conscription law now in operation, to fill up the places of
regiments whose terms had expired, and to be assured that Canby from
New Orleans would co-operate in a settled plan. He was already
revolving in his mind other problems which Hood might possibly open
for solution; but the probability seemed strong that the Confederate
army would bar the way to his advance, and must be beaten and driven
back again. His first task, therefore, was to prepare Atlanta for
his uses. "I want it," he said, "a pure Gibraltar, and will have it
so by October 1st." [Footnote: Dispatch to Halleck, September 9th.
See also that of September 4th, in which his ideas were fully
outlined. Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. pp. 794, 839.] This
use of the town made it necessary to remove the resident citizens,
sending north those who were loyal and ordering south those who
adhered to the Confederacy. As a fortified depot must be ready for a
siege, trade and free intercourse with the surrounding country could
not go on. The inhabitants, therefore, would be dependent on the
army for food, their industries must cease, and it was more merciful
to them, as well as a military necessity, to send them away.
[Footnote: Sherman to Hood, _Id_., p. 822.]

The temporary interruption of active campaigning was eagerly seized
upon as an opportunity for leaves of absence by those whose private
and family affairs urgently called for attention. The presidential
campaign was on, and in consultation with Governor Morton of
Indiana, Secretary Stanton selected half a dozen officers from that
State, which was politically a doubtful one, to vary their labors in
the field by "stumping the State" for a month. The form of the
request indicates the feeling as to the character of the civil
contest. "In view," said the Secretary, "of the armed organizations
against the Government of the United States that have been made
throughout the State of Indiana and are now in active operation in
the campaign for Jefferson Davis, this department deems it expedient
that the officers named should have leave to go home, provided they
can be spared without injury to the service." [Footnote: Official
Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 802. Among these appears the name
of Colonel Benjamin Harrison, 70th Indiana, afterward President.
Sherman's characteristic reply was sent from camp near Jonesboro, on
6th September: "The officers named in your dispatch of the 5th will
be ordered to report to the Governor of Indiana for special duty, as
soon as I return to Atlanta, which will be in a day or two unless
the enemy shows fight, which I am willing to accept on his own terms
if he will come outside of his cursed rifle-trenches." _Id_., p.
809. I don't recall any other instance of a regular military detail
for a political campaign.] Generals Logan and Blair also went North
for similar work in Illinois and Missouri.

In the middle of September General Schofield left the army for a
time, to visit Knoxville and Louisville, within his department, on
official business, and extended his absence for a brief reunion with
his family north of the Ohio. [Footnote: _Id_., vol. xxxix. pt. ii.
p. 379; pt. iii. p. 10.] This left me in command of the Army of the
Ohio, and Hood's later movement upon our communications prevented
Schofield's return till the end of our active campaign in October. A
liberal issue of furloughs to enlisted men, especially convalescents
in hospital, was made, so that we might get them back in robust
health and good spirits when the fall campaign should open. General
Hascall resigned and left us, and the command of his division passed
to General Joseph A. Cooper, who had been promoted from the
colonelcy of the Sixth East Tennessee. My own division was
temporarily commanded by General James W. Reilly, who had been
promoted on my recommendation from the colonelcy of the One Hundred
and Fourth Ohio. Hascall had commanded his division with marked
ability throughout the campaign, but had become discouraged by the
evidences that he need expect no recognition from the Indiana
governor, [Footnote: See _ante_, vol. i. pp. 406, 485; vol. ii. p.
253.] whose influence was potent if not omnipotent in the promotion
of Indiana officers. The recently announced promotion of Hovey over
him seemed to him equivalent to an invitation to resign, and he
acted upon it.

The resting-spell at Decatur was the natural time for such changes
in organization as had become necessary. The death of my
adjutant-general, Captain Saunders, in June, made it necessary to
fill that very important position, and my aide, Lieutenant Theodore
Cox, was promoted to it. His regiment (the Eleventh Ohio) was just
completing its term of enlistment, and he would be mustered out of
service with it, unless a new appointment were given him, fairly
won, as it had been, by two years of meritorious service. My request
was so cordially backed by Generals Schofield and Sherman that there
was no hesitation at Washington, and I secured for the rest of the
war an invaluable assistant, whose system, accuracy, and neat
methods made the business of my headquarters go on most
satisfactorily.

My inspector-general, Lieutenant-Colonel Sterling, felt obliged to
resign for business reasons connected with events in his father's
family, and I had to part with another faithful friend and able
officer. As the adjutant-general is the centre of the formal
organization, keeping its records, carrying on its correspondence,
and formulating the orders of his chief, so the inspector-general is
the organ of discipline and of soldierly instruction as well as the
superintendent of the outpost and picket duty, which makes him the
guardian of the camp and the head of the intelligence service when
no special organization of the latter is made. He should be one of
the most intelligent officers of the command, and a model of
soldierly conduct. It was no easy thing to fill Colonel Sterling's
place, but I was fortunate in the selection of Major Dow of the One
Hundred and Twelfth Illinois, a quiet, modest man, a thorough
disciplinarian of clear and strong intellect, and of that perfect
self-possession which is proof against misjudgment in the most
sudden and terrifying occurrences.

I had brought with me from East Tennessee, as my chief of artillery,
Major Wells, who had commanded an Illinois battery, and who directed
the artillery service of the division with great success. My medical
director was Surgeon-Major Frink, of Indiana, who, though he took
the position by virtue of his seniority in the division medical
staff, was as acceptable as if I had chosen him with fullest
knowledge of his qualifications. The topographer was Lieutenant
Scofield of the One Hundred and Third Ohio, educated in civil
engineering, and indefatigable in collecting the data by which to
correct the wretched maps which were our only help in understanding
the theatre of operations. He was a familiar figure at the outposts,
on his steadily ambling nag, armed with his prismatic compass, his
odometer, and his sketch-book. The division commissary of
subsistence was Captain Hentig, a faithful and competent officer who
worked in full accord with Captain Day, the energetic quartermaster
who had come with me over the mountains the preceding year.

A general officer's aides-de-camp are usually his most intimate
associates in the military family, and were sometimes selected with
too much regard to their social qualities. Those of a major-general
were appointed on his nomination, but a brigadier-general must
detail the two allowed him, from the lieutenants in his command.
When commanding a division, custom allowed him to detail a third.
They were the only officers technically called the personal staff,
the others being officers of the several staff corps, or merely
detailed from regiments to do temporary duty. Thus, no
inspector-general was allowed to a brigadier, but when commanding a
division or other organization larger than a brigade, he was
permitted to detail an officer of the line for the very necessary
and responsible duty. The aides are authorized to carry oral orders
and to explain them, to call for and to bring oral reports, and as
the general's confidential and official representatives they should
be of the most intelligent and soldierly men of their grade. All the
other staff officers may be called upon to act as aides when it is
necessary, but these are _ex officio_ the ordinary go-betweens, and,
if fit for their work, are as cordially welcomed and almost as much
at home with the brigade commanders as with their own chief.

My senior aide, after my brother's promotion, was Lieutenant
Coughlan of the Twenty-fourth Kentucky, a handsome young Irishman of
very humble origin, to whom the military service had been the
revelation of his own powers and a noble inspiration. He was lithe
and well set up, though by no means a dandy; would spring at call
for any duty, by night or by day, and delighted the more in his
work, the more perilous or arduous it was. He was captured in the
last days of our operations about Atlanta; [Footnote: Official
Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. v. p. 623.] but the exchange of prisoners
negotiated by Sherman gave me the opportunity to secure his return
after a month's captivity and imprisonment at Charleston. Two months
later he died heroically in the battle of Franklin. [Footnote:
_Id_., vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 356.]

Lieutenant Bradley of the Sixty-fifth Illinois was second on the
list, an excellent officer who was competent and ready to assist the
adjutant-general in his department when work there was pressing.

The third was Lieutenant Tracy of the One Hundred and Fourth Ohio, a
man of original character. Tall and angular, there was a little
stoop in his shoulders and a little carelessness in his dress. His
gait was a long stride, and he was not a graceful horseman. His
exterior had a good deal of the typical Yankee, and our Connecticut
Reserve in Ohio, from which he came, has as pure a strain of Yankee
blood as any in New England. But whoever looked into his sallow and
bony face was struck with the effect of his large, serious eye,
luminous with intelligence and will. Devotion to duty and perfect
trustworthiness, with zeal in acquiring military knowledge, were the
qualities which led to his selection for staff duty. When we were
preparing for the great swing of the army to the south of Atlanta,
my division had been advanced close to the enemy's position near
East Point, where, from a strong salient in their works, their line
curved back toward the east. Our position was to be the pivot of the
movement, and we intrenched the top of a forest-covered knoll
separated from the Confederate lines by a little hollow in which ran
a small affluent of Camp Creek. Our pickets were directed to advance
as close to the enemy as practicable, so that any attempt to make a
sally would be detected promptly. Tracy had been directed to
accompany the officer of the day and see that the outposts were in
proper position. Early next morning General Schofield visited me,
and desired to see in person the point most advanced. I called Tracy
for our guide, and from the trenches we went down the slope, through
the woods, on foot. A spur of the hill went forward, and as we
neared the edge of the forest Tracy signalled to go quietly.
Stooping carefully in the undergrowth, we noiselessly advanced to a
fence corner where a sentinel stood behind a tree. Halting a few
paces away, Tracy motioned to us to avoid moving the bushes, but to
approach the fence and look between the rails. Doing so, we found
the fence at the border of a little strip of hollow pasture in which
the brooklet ran, and across it on the other slope, frowning upon
us, was a formidable earthwork, an embrasure and the muzzle of a
great Columbiad looking directly at us. The enemy's sentinels had
been driven in, so that, where we looked, one was pacing his beat at
the counterscarp of the ditch. As we drew back to a distance at
which conversation was prudent, Tracy asked with a grim little smile
whether the picket line was sufficiently advanced. The whole was
characteristic of his thoroughness in the performance of duty and
his silent way of letting it speak for itself. He was struck in the
breast and knocked down by a spent ball in the assault by Reilly's
brigade at Utoy Creek on August 6th, but in a week was on duty
again, though he never wholly recovered from the injury to his
lungs. [Footnote: Being in delicate health after the war, he was
made Governor of the National Home for disabled soldiers at Dayton,
Ohio, and died in 1868 from an abscess of the lung caused by the old
injury.]