Part 4 (1/2)
After the siege of Atlanta was abandoned it was not long until our division, under General J. D. Morgan, arrived in the vicinity of Jonesboro, about twenty-two miles south of Atlanta. At this place, on the 1st of September, and at five o'clock p.m., our division was formed for a charge: the 2nd brigade on the right, the 3rd brigade in the centre, and the 1st brigade on the left, and advanced to the attack in two lines of battle. The Eighty-sixth regiment in this battle held a position in the second line. The enemy's works were handsomely carried, capturing a greater part of rebel General Gowan's brigade, including its commander, with two four-gun batteries. This brigade was among the choice men of the rebel army, having fought with a desperation worthy a better cause.
This charge came like a flash upon the enemy, who were not aware of our coming until we pounced upon them like an avalanche, and though they fought obstinately, they were completely conquered.
Our brigade was in the hottest of the fight, and among the first troops to scale the works and capture them.
The loss of the Eighty-sixth Regiment in this battle was two killed and sixteen wounded. The company loss was as follows:
KILLED. WOUNDED.
Company F 1 Company A 1 Company I 1 Company B 1 Total 2 Company D 2 Company G 4 Company I 1 Company H 5 Company E 1 Company K 1 Total 16 The night after the battle of Jonesboro an explosion of a tremendous character was heard in the direction of Atlanta, for the enemy were evacuating it and burning their magazines.
The disheartened and disorganized forces of the enemy now exerted all their energies to complete a successful withdrawal, and save themselves from utter annihilation. One wing of Hood's army fled precipitately down the Macon railroad, and the other retreated along the Augusta road.
Thus was Atlanta evacuated on the night of the 1st of September, after so long a period of time. Remaining a few days in the vicinity of Jonesboro, the 3rd brigade was put in charge of the prisoners and sent with them to Atlanta on the 4th. It kept a jealous eye to its charge, conducting them to the desired place with undue rapidity. The day was hot and water scarce. Many of the boys under their heavy loads gave out and laid down to rest. Rebel and Yank laid down together, and as best they could followed up after they had become rested.
The blame of this unmasterly march was laid to Colonel Langley, who was then in command of the brigade, Colonel Dillworth having been wounded in the late battle. When the command arrived in Atlanta, not more than one-half the men were with it, being left tired and worn out along the wayside. Many of the prisoners might have made their escape, for all were huddled and mixed up in all manner of ways.
There was much sympathy expressed by the citizens of Atlanta towards these prisoners as they were marched and counter-marched through several of the princ.i.p.al streets of the city. Weeping and moaning and lamentation was the princ.i.p.al order of the occasion. The prisoners were finally put in the ”bull-pen,” and the brigade permitted to go into camp. We were now in the great city for the first time, that place for which we had so long fought and labored to possess. It had been much impaired by the bombardment, the effects of our heavy guns being discernible in various parts. Thus ended the great campaign against Atlanta-the Gate City of the South-after one hundred and twenty days of the most trying scenes through which an army ever pa.s.sed. During this time we were under the almost continual fire of the enemy, amounting to little else than an incessant battle. The Eighty-sixth Regiment was in eight regular engagements of the most desperate and trying nature. Our dear comrades were daily falling around us and by us, but still we pressed on and finished the work in which they were so ardently enlisted.
At the fall of Atlanta the hopes of the nation revived and the cause of the Union was materially aided. The great anaconda of secession was palsied and made to fade! A new-born nation rejoiced in the beginning dawn of peace and liberty! The heart of a free, loyal people was made to leap for joy!
There were many thrilling and exciting incidents connected with this campaign, among which we will narrate the one respecting Captain Jo. Major. In the charge on Kenesaw, on the 27th of June, while only a few feet from the enemy's works, Captain Major was struck in the breast with a stone thrown by a rebel, which knocked him senseless for a time, and during this state the lines had fallen back, leaving him alone among the dead and dying. Regaining himself, by and by he ascertained his condition, but determining not to be a prisoner, he resolved to play the dying man. He lay, therefore, in a seemingly helpless state, closing his eyes and gasping as if the next breath was to be his last. Finally, a rebel came to where he lay, and took his sword and other valuables. The dying man made signs for water, and the rebel held a canteen to his mouth, but, poor man! he could not drink. After this, other rebels from their works shot at him, but he did not budge, and believing him really in the throes of death, they did not bother him any more. The day was extremely hot; it was one of those warm summer days peculiar to the South. He lay on his back in the burning sun-an impossible thing under other circ.u.mstances. Flies and ants swarmed his face, and bit and stung him, but he dared not move.
He was kept in this position from 9 o'clock a.m. until after dark; but night coming on, he took leg-bail for our works, reaching them without further adventure. He came to his company hatless, swordless, moneyless, but sound as ever-the same old Jo.
CHAPTER VI.
TO THE REAR.
The casualties of the Eighty-sixth Regiment, on the long and arduous campaign against Atlanta, was one hundred and seventy-nine men in killed, wounded and missing.
Besides this number, there were many who were taken sick and sent back to hospitals. Thus, when the campaign had ended, the regiment was materially reduced in numbers. It was now not much larger than two full companies; and then, the companies themselves were mere skeletons, some of them not exceeding a corporal's squad. These were certainly trying times with the soldiers, being attended with constant hards.h.i.+ps, privations and adventures, from the beginning of the campaign to its end. But still, those who did pa.s.s the fiery ordeal, stood up to it like men, with fine spirits and light hearts, doing all that men could do.
After some changing about, the brigade took up permanent quarters in the outskirts of the city on the south-west side near the railroad. The regiment now fixed up its camp in a substantial manner, and for a long time took the military world easy, spending most of its time in going to and from the city in pursuit of pleasure, and such.
There was not a little trading going on about this time with those who had a disposition that way; in fact, it seemed that Sherman's whole army had been suddenly metamorphosed into tobacco traders and other kinds of merchants.
Atlanta was overstocked with tobacco, held by private individuals, which was bought by the soldiers at low rates and peddled out with handsome profits. Thus pa.s.sed the time right briskly, all seeming to have forgotten the past and to be living for the present only.
Shortly after the occupation of Atlanta, General Sherman ordered all non-combatants to leave the city, going north or south as their inclinations and interests might lead them. This order fell on the ears of the inhabitants of Atlanta like a thunderbolt. Though they had lent all the moral and physical a.s.sistance in their power to the cause of the rebellion, they had begun to dream of the advent of the Federal troops as the commencement of an era of quiet. They had never imagined the war would reach Atlanta. Now that it had come, and kept its rough, hot hand upon them for so many days, they were beginning to look forward to a long period when they might enjoy at once the advantages of the protection of a just and powerful government, and the luxuries it would thus afford them. It was indeed a pitiful sight to see these reluctant people leave their homes and property, but such was the necessity in the case that it must be done.
Such are the cruel mandates of war, and they were obliged to abide its consequences, having waged and maintained it.
About the middle of September there was an armistice of some days to provide an exit south for these unfortunate people, and for the exchange of prisoners captured in the last campaign.
General James D. Morgan's division remained in Atlanta at its ease until the 29th of September, when it boarded the cars and was transported, via Chattanooga and Huntsville, to near Athens, Alabama. From this place it was sent on an expedition against General Forrest, who had been making demonstrations on our railroads, having destroyed much of the Nashville and Decatur road.
When the division arrived at Athens, Forrest was crossing the Tennessee at Florence, retreating out of our way as fast as possible. With rapid marches General Morgan reached Florence in two days, distant from Athens about forty-five miles. The creeks and rivers on the route were swollen, but he never stopped for them, for wading through, we went plodding on. The division arrived within a few miles of Florence on the evening of the 5th of October, and entered it on the 6th without opposition, the enemy having completed his crossing. The division could follow no further, and on the morning of the 10th began its return march, arriving back in Athens on the 12th, where it boarded the cars on its return to Chattanooga. The command arrived at Chattanooga in the night of the 14th, and went into camp where there was neither wood nor water. The march from Athens to Florence and back again was, under the circ.u.mstances, probably the severest the Eighty-sixth Regiment ever made; at least, it stands among the hardest. The rains fell in torrents, but notwithstanding, the command was rushed headlong on through the mad waters of Flint and Duck rivers, in many places up to the soldier's armpits.