PART OP THE BATTLE-FIELD OP RESACA.
PART OP THE CONFEDERATE INTRENCIIMENTS AT RESACA.
ply of artillery ammunition was so small that we were compelled to reserve it for battles and serious assaults.
In the new position each corps had two pontoon-bridges laid. Above the railroad bridge the Chattahoochee had numerous good fords. General Sherman, therefore, directed his troops to that part of the river, ten or fifteen miles above our camp. On the 8th of July two of his corps had crossed the Chattahoochee and intrenched themselves. Therefore the Confederate army also crossed the river on the 9th.
About tbe middle of June Captain Grant of the engineers was instructed to strengthen the fortifications of Atlanta materially, on the side toward Peach Tree Creek, by the addition of redoubts and by converting barbette into embrasure batteries. I also obtained a promise of seven sea-coast rifles from General D. H. Maury [at Mobile], to be mounted on that front. Colonel Presstman was instructed to join Captain Grant with his subordinates, in this work of strengthening the defenses of Atlanta, especially between the Augusta and Marietta roads, as the enemy was approaching that side. For the same reason a position on the high ground looking down into the valley of Peach Tree Creek was selected for the army, from which it might engage the enemy if he should expose himself in the passage of the stream. The position of each division was marked and pointed out to its staff-officers.
On the 17th we learned that the whole Federal army had crossed the Chattahoochee; and late in the evening, while Colonel Presstman was receiving from me instructions for the next day, I received the following telegram of that date:
“ Lieutenant-General .T. B. Hood has been commissioned to the temporary rank of general under the late law of Congress. I am directed by the Secretary of War to inform you that, as you have failed to arrest the advance of the enemy to the vicinity of Atlanta, and ex-
ening his right greatly, they were transferred to the second in the morning of the 5th. The cavalry of our left had been stipported in the previous few days by a division of State troops commanded by Major-General G. W. Smith.
As General Sherman says, ‘ ‘ It was really a continuous battle lasting from June 10th to July 3d.” The army occupied positions about Marietta tweDty-six days, in which the want of artillery ammunition was especially felt; in all those days we were exposed to an almost incessant fire of artillery as well as musketry — the former being the more harassing, because it could not be returned; for our sup-
to tlieir right had brought it nearer to Atlanta^than was our left, and had made our position otherwise very dangerous, two new positions for the army were chosen, one nine or ten miles south of Marietta, and the other on the high ground near the Chattahoochee.
Colonel Presstman was desired to prepare the first for occupation, and Brigadier-General Shoup, commander of the artillery, was instructed to strengthen the other with a line of redoubts devised by himself.
The troops took the first■ position in the morning of the 3d, and as General Sherman was strength-
A division of Georgia militia under Major-General G. W. Smith, transferred to the Confederate service by Governor Brown, was charged with the defense of the bridges and ferries of the Chattahoochee, for the safety of Atlanta. On the 16th Hardee’s corps was placed on the high ground east of Mud Creek, facing to the west. The right of the Federal army made a corresponding change of front by which it faced to the east. It was opposed in this manceuver by Jackson’s cavalry as well as 2500 men can resist 30,000. The angle where Hardee’s right joined Loring’s left was soon found to be a very weak point, and on the 17th another position was chosen, including the crest of Kenesaw, which Colonel Presstman prepared for occupation by the 19tli, when it was assumed by the army. In this position two divisions of Loring’s corps occupied the crest of Kenesaw from end to end, the other division being on its right, and Hood’s corps on the right of it, Hardee’s extending from Loring’s left across the Lost Mountain and Marietta road. The enemy approached as usual under cover of successive lines of intrenchments. In these positions of the two armies there were sharp and incessant partial engagements until the 3d of July. On the 21st of June the extension of the Federal line to the south, which had been protected by the swollen condition of Noses Creek, compelled the transfer of Hood’s corps to our left. . . .
In the morning of the 27th, after a cannonade by all its artillery, the Federal army assailed the Confederate position, especially the center and right■—• the Army of the Cumberland advancing against the first, and that of the Tennessee against the other. Although suffering losses out of all proportion to those they inflicted, the Federal troops pressed up to the Confederate intrenchments in many places, maintaining the unequal conflict for two hours and a half, with the persevering courage of American soldiers. At 11:30 a. M. the attack had failed. . . .
As the extension of the Federal intrenched line
EXTREME LEFT (VIEW LOOKING SOUTH) OF THE CONFEDERATE LINES AT RESACA.
The cluster oi houses includes the railway station, the railway running generally parallel with the earthworks here seen, which in the distance descend to the Oostenaula River. The railway and wagon bridges over the Oostenaula, used alternately hy the contending armies, are near the railway station.
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