Hearts Touched by Fire

by Harold Holzer

  Sherman made his calculations so as to protect most faithfully our line of supply which ran through Louisville, Nashville, and Chattanooga, guarding it against enemies within and without his boundaries, and against accidents. He segregated the men of all arms for this protection. Block-houses and intrenchments were put at bridges and tunnels along the railway. Locomotives and freight cars were gathered in, and a most energetic force of skilled railroad men was put at work or held in reserve under capable chiefs.

  SAVING A GUN.

  Besides an equal number of guards of his large depots and long line of supply, Sherman had an effective field force of 100,000,—50,000 with Thomas, 35,000 with McPherson, 15,000 with Schofield.

  Sherman was gratified at the number of his force; for two years before, he had been held up as worthy of special distrust because he had declared to Secretary Cameron that before they were done with offensive operations on the line from the Big Sandy to Paducah, 200,000 men would be required.

  A few changes of organization were made. Slocum’s corps, the Twelfth, and mine, the Eleventh, were consolidated, making a new Twentieth, and Hooker was assigned to its command. I went at once to Loudon, east Tennessee, to take the Fourth Corps and relieve General Gordon Granger, to enable him to have a leave of absence. Slocum was sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to watch the great river from that quarter; while Hooker, Palmer, and myself, under Thomas, were to control the infantry and artillery of the Army of the Cumberland. In a few days I moved Wagner’s (afterward Newton’s) division and T. J. Wood’s of my new corps to Cleveland, east Tennessee. Rations, clothing, transportation, and ammunition came pouring in with sufficient abundance, so that when orders arrived for the next movement, on the 3d of May, 1864, my division commanders, Stanley, Newton, and Wood, reported everything ready. This very day Schofield’s column, coming from Knoxville, made its appearance at Cleveland. There was now the thrill of preparation, a new life everywhere. Soldiers and civilians alike caught the inspiration.

  Ringgold and Catoosa Springs, Georgia, were the points of concentration for Thomas’s three corps. We of his army were all in that neighborhood by the 4th of May. It took till the 7th for McPherson to get into Villanow, a few miles to the south of us. Schofield meanwhile worked steadily southward from Cleveland, east Tennessee, through Red Clay, toward Dalton, Georgia. The three railway lines uniting Chattanooga, Cleveland, and Dalton form an almost equilateral triangle. Dalton, its south-east vertex, was the center of the Confederate army, under Joseph E. Johnston. Pushing out from Dalton toward us at Catoosa Springs, Johnston occupied the famous pass through Taylor’s Ridge, Buzzard-Roost Gap, and part of the ridge itself; and held, for his extreme outpost in our direction, Tunnel Hill, near which our skirmish-line and his first exchanged shots. His northern lines ran along the eastern side of the triangle, between Dalton and Red Clay.

  Johnston, according to his official return for April, had a force of 52,992. At Resaca, a few days later, after the corps of Polk had joined him, it numbered 71,235. Our three field armies aggregated then, in officers and men, 98,797, with 254 pieces of artillery. The Confederate commander had about the same number of cannon. McPherson had thus far brought to Sherman but 24,465 men.

  When the Army of the Cumberland was in line, facing the enemy, its left rested near Catoosa Springs, its center at Ringgold, the railway station, and its right at Leet’s Tan-yard. My corps formed the left. Catoosa Springs was a Georgia watering-place, where there were several large buildings, hotel and boarding-houses, amid undulating hills, backed by magnificent mountain scenery. Here, on the morning of the 6th, I met Thomas and Sherman. Sherman had a habit of dropping in and explaining in a happy way what he purposed to do. At first he intended that Thomas and Schofield should simply breast the enemy and skirmish with him on the west and north, while McPherson, coming from Alabama, was to strike the Atlanta railroad at least ten miles below Resaca. McPherson, failing in getting some of his troops back from furlough, was not now deemed strong enough to operate alone; hence he was brought to Chattanooga instead, and sent thence to Villanow, soon after to pass through the Snake Creek Gap of Taylor’s Ridge, all the time being kept near enough the other armies to get help from them in case of emergency. By this it was ardently hoped by Sherman that McPherson might yet succeed in getting upon Johnston’s communications near Resaca. Thomas here urged his own views, which were to give Schofield and McPherson the skirmishing and demonstrations, while he (Thomas), with his stronger army, should pass through Snake Creek Gap and seize Johnston’s communications. He felt sure of victory. Sherman, however, hesitated to put his main army twenty miles away beyond a mountain range on the enemy’s line, lest he should thereby endanger his own. He could not yet afford an exchange of base. Still, in less than a week, as we shall see, he ran even a greater risk.

  Early in the day, May 7th, the Fourth Corps, arranged for battle, was near a small farm-house in sight of Tunnel Hill. Two divisions, Stanley’s and Newton’s, abreast in long, wavy lines, and the other, Wood’s, in the rear, kept on the qui vive to prevent surprises, particularly from the sweep of country to the north of us. The front and the left of the moving men were well protected by infantry skirmishers. It was a beautiful picture—that army corps, with arms glistening in the morning light, ascending the slope. By 8 o’clock the few rifle-shots had become a continuous rattle. First we saw far off, here and there, puffs of smoke, and then the gray horsemen giving back and passing the crest. Suddenly there was stronger resistance, artillery and musketry rapidly firing upon our advance. At 9 o’clock the ridge of Tunnel Hill bristled with Confederates, mounted and dismounted. A closer observation from Stanley’s field-glass showed them to be only horse artillery and cavalry supports. In a few moments Stanley’s and Newton’s men charged the hill at a run and cleared the ridge, and soon beheld the enemy’s artillery and cavalry galloping away. “The ball is opened,” Stanley called out, as I took my place by his side to study Taylor’s Ridge and its “Rocky Face,” which was now in plain sight. We beheld it, a craggy elevation of about five hundred feet, extending from a point not far north of us, but as far as the eye could reach southward. Its perpendicular face presented a formidable wall and afforded us no favorable door of entrance.

  REPRODUCED FROM THE “MEMOIRS OF GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN” (NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO.). BY PERMISSION OF AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER.

  Thomas’s three corps, Palmer occupying the middle and Hooker the right, were now marched forward till my men received rifle-shots from the heights, Palmer’s a shower of them from the defenders of the gap, and Hooker’s a more worrisome fusillade from spurs of the ridge farther south. Thomas could not sit down behind this formidable wall and do nothing. How could he retain before him the Confederate host? Only by getting into closer contact.

  On the 8th I sent Newton some two miles northward, where the ascent was not so abrupt. He succeeded by rushes in getting from cover to cover, though not without loss, till he had wrested at least one-third of the “knife edge” from those resolute men of gray. Quickly the observers of this sharp contest saw the bright signal flags up there in motion. Stanley and Wood gave Newton all possible support by their marksmen and by their efforts to land shells on the ridge. The enemy’s signals were near Newton. He tried hard to capture them, but failed. In the night two pieces of artillery, after much toil, reached the top, and soon cleared away a few hundred yards more of this territory in bloody dispute. On May 9th Thomas put forth a triple effort to get nearer his foe. First, Stanley’s division reconnoitered Buzzard-Roost Gap into the very “jaws of death,” till it drew the fire from newly discovered batteries, and set whole lines of Confederate musketry-supports ablaze. At this time I had a narrow escape. Stanley, Captain G. C. Kniffin of his staff, several other officers, and myself were in a group, watching a reconnoissance. All supposed there were no Confederate sharp-shooters near enough to do harm, when whiz came a bullet which passed through the group; Kniffin’s hat was pierced, three holes were made in my coa
t, and a neighboring tree was struck.

  Thomas now made a second effort. Palmer sent Morgan’s brigade up one of the spurs south of the gap. It encountered the hottest fire, and suffered a considerable loss in killed and wounded. One regiment drove back the enemy’s first line, and, like Newton’s men, came within speaking distance of their opponents. Here arose the story to the effect that a witty corporal proposed to read to them the President’s Emancipation Proclamation, and that they kept from firing while he did so. Still farther south, with Hooker’s Twentieth Corps, and almost beyond our hearing, Thomas made his third push. In this action fifty were reported killed, and a larger number wounded; among them every regimental commander engaged. Similarly, but with easier approaches than ours, Schofield kept Johnston’s attention at the east and north. Such was the demonstration, while McPherson was making his long détour through Villanow, Snake Creek Gap, and out into Sugar Valley. He found the gap unoccupied; and so, with Kilpatrick’s small cavalry detachment ahead,3 followed closely by Dodge’s Sixteenth Corps, with Logan’s Fifteenth well closed up, he emerged from the mountains on the morning of the 9th, at the eastern exit.

  Immediately there was excitement—the cavalry advance stumbled upon Confederate cavalry, which had run out from Resaca to watch this doorway. Our cavalry followed up the retreating Confederates with dash and persistency, till they found shelter behind the deep-cut works and guns at Resaca. In plain view of these works, though on difficult ground, Logan and Dodge pressed up their men, under orders from McPherson “to drive back the enemy and break the railroad.” And pray, why were not these plain orders carried out? McPherson answers in a letter that night sent to Sherman: “They [probably Polk’s men] displayed considerable force and opened on us with artillery. After skirmishing [among the gulches and thickets] till nearly dark, and finding that I could not succeed in cutting the railroad before dark, or in getting to it, I decided to withdraw the command and take up a position for the night between Sugar Valley and the entrance to the gap.” At the first news Sherman was much vexed, and declared concerning McPherson’s failure to break the enemy’s main artery: “Such an opportunity does not occur twice in a single life,…still he was perfectly justified by his orders.”

  Our commander, believing that Johnston would now speedily fall back to Resaca, at once changed his purpose. Leaving me at Rocky Face with the Fourth Corps and Stoneman’s small division of cavalry to hold our line of supply, Sherman pressed after McPherson the armies of Thomas and Schofield. But Johnston was not in a hurry. He terrified me for two days by his tentative movements, till our skirmishing amounted at times almost to a battle. But the night of the 12th of May he made off in one of his clean retreats. At dawn of the 13th the formidable Buzzard-Roost Gap was open and safe, and our men passed through. Stoneman rushed into the village of Dalton from the north, and the Fourth Corps, eager and rapid, kept close to the chasing cavalry. Not far south of Dalton we came upon a bothersome Confederate rear-guard, which made our marching all that long day slow and spasmodic, yet before dark my command had skirted the eastern slope of Taylor’s Ridge for eighteen miles and joined skirmishers with Sherman, who was already, with McPherson, abreast of Resaca. Thus we ended the combats of Tunnel Hill and Dalton, and opened up Resaca.

  As soon as Johnston reached the little town of Resaca he formed a horseshoe-shaped line, something like ours at Gettysburg. He rested Polk’s corps on the Oostenaula River; placed Hardee’s next, running up Milk Creek; and then curved Hood’s back to strike the Connasauga River. After the Confederates had thrown up the usual intrenchments, and put out one or two small advanced forts with cannon, the position was as strong as Marye’s Heights had been against direct attack. We spent a part of the 14th of May creeping up among the bushes, rocks, and ravines.

  EXTREME LEFT (VIEW LOOKING SOUTH) OF THE CONFEDERATE LINES AT RESACA. FROM A WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPH.

  The cluster of houses includes the railway station, the railway running generally parallel with the earth-works here seen, which in the distance descend to the Oostenaula River. The railway and wagon bridges mentioned in the notes on this page are near the railway station.

  REPRODUCED FROM THE “MEMOIRS OF GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN” (NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO.). BY PERMISSION OF AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER.

  BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL BENJAMIN HARRISON. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

  Early that morning, while this was going on, Sherman, who had worked all night, was sitting on a log, with his back against a tree, fast asleep. Some men marching by saw him, and one fellow ended a slurring remark by: “A pretty way we are commanded!” Sherman, awakened by the noise, heard the last words. “Stop, my man,” he cried; “while you were sleeping, last night, I was planning for you, sir; and now I was taking a nap.” Thus, familiarly and kindly, the general gave reprimands and won confidence.

  McPherson rested his right upon the Oostenaula River, opposite Polk. Thomas, with the corps of Palmer and Hooker, came next; and then that brave young officer, Cox, commanding the Twenty-third Corps, against a storm of bullets and shells swung his divisions round to follow the bend in the enemy’s line. I watched the operation, so as to close upon his left. T. J. Wood’s division moved up in a long line, with skirmishers well out, and then Stanley’s carried us to the railway. Stanley’s chief-of-artillery arranged two or three batteries to keep the enemy from walking around our unprotected left. The air was full of screeching shells and whizzing bullets, coming uncomfortably near, while line after line was adjusting itself for the deadly conflict. Our fighting at Resaca did not effect much. There might possibly have been as much accomplished if we had used skirmish-lines alone. In McPherson’s front Logan had a battery well placed, and fired till he had silenced the troublesome foes on a ridge in his front; then his brave men, at a run, passed the ravine and secured the ridge. Here Logan intrenched his corps; and Dodge, abreast of him, did the same. Afterward, McPherson seized another piece of ground across Camp Creek, and held it. During the evening of the 14th a vigorous effort was made by Polk to regain this outpost, but he was repulsed with loss.

  The detailed account gives great credit to Generals Charles R. Woods, Giles A. Smith, and J.A.J. Lightburn. One hundred prisoners and 1300 Confederates hors de combat were on Logan’s list. This work forced Johnston to lay a new bridge over the Oostenaula. The divisions of Absalom Baird, R. W. Johnson, Jefferson C. Davis, and John Newton plunged into the thickets and worked their way steadily and bravely into the reëntrant angles on Hardee’s front. Schofield’s right division, under Judah, had a fearful struggle, losing six hundred men; the others, coming to its help, captured and secured a part of the enemy’s intrenchments. Hood assailed my left after 3 P.M. The front attack was repulsed, but heavy columns came surging around Stanley’s left. Everybody, battery men and supporting infantry, did wonders; still, but for help promptly rendered, Sherman’s whole line, like the left of Wellington’s at Waterloo, would soon have been rolled up and displaced. But Colonel Morgan of my staff, who had been sent in time, brought up Williams’s division from Hooker’s corps as quickly as men could march. Stanley’s brave artillerymen were thus succored before they were forced to yield their ground, and Hood, disappointed, returned to his trenches. The next day, the 15th, came Hooker’s attack. He advanced in a column of deployed brigades. Both armies watched with eager excitement this passage-at-arms. The divisions of Generals Butterfield, Williams, and Geary seized some trenches and cheered, but were stopped before a sort of lunette holding four cannon. The Confederates were driven from their trenches; but our men, meeting continuous and deadly volleys, could not get the guns till night. A color-bearer named Hess, of Colonel Benjamin Harrison’s brigade, while his comrades were retiring a few steps for better cover, being chagrined at the defiant yell behind him, unfurled his flag and swung it to the breeze. He was instantly killed. A witness says: “There were other hands to grasp the flag, and it came back, only to return and wave from the very spot where its former bearer fell.”

  Wh
ile the main battle was in progress, Dodge had sent a division under the one-armed Sweeny, to Lay’s Ferry, a point below Resaca. Under the chief engineer, Captain Reese, he laid a bridge and protected it by a small force. Sweeny, being threatened by some Confederates crossing the river above him, and fearing that he might be cut off from the army, suddenly drew back about a mile beyond danger. On the 15th, however, he made another attempt and was more successful; formed a bridge-head beyond the river; threw over his whole force; and fought a successful battle against Martin’s Confederate cavalry, before Walker’s infantry, which was hastily sent against him from Calhoun, could arrive. Besides Sweeny’s division, Sherman dispatched a cavalry force over the pontoons, instructing them to make a wider détour. The operations in this quarter being successful, there was nothing left to the Confederate commander but to withdraw his whole army from Resaca. This was effected during the night of the 15th, while our weary men were sound asleep. At the first peep of dawn Newton’s skirmishers sprang over the enemy’s intrenchments to find them abandoned.

  In the ensuing pursuit, Thomas, crossing the river on a floating bridge, hastily constructed, followed directly with the Fourth and the Fourteenth corps.

  Stanley had some sharp fighting with Stewart’s Confederate division, which was acting as Johnston’s rear-guard. It was, in fact, a running skirmish, that lasted till evening, at the close of which we encamped for the night near the enemy’s empty works at Calhoun. Meanwhile McPherson had been marching on parallel roads to the right toward Rome, Georgia, Jefferson C. Davis’s division from Thomas’s army sweeping farther still to the right, and Schofield, accompanied by Hooker, to the left toward Cassville.

  Our enemy, between these columns with his entire force, made a brief stand on the 17th of May at Adairsville, and fortified. About 4 P.M. Newton and Wood, of my corps, Wood on the right, found the resistance constantly increasing as they advanced, till Newton’s skirmishers, going at double-time through clumps of trees, awakened a heavy opposing fire. A little after this, while I was watching the developments from a high point, Sherman with his staff and escort joined me. Our showy group immediately drew upon it the fire of a battery, shells bursting over our heads with indescribable rapidity. Colonel Morgan’s horse was very badly lamed; Fullerton, the adjutant-general, was set afoot, and several horses of the escort were killed or crippled. Captain Bliss, of Newton’s staff, had one shoulder-strap knocked off by a fragment, which bruised him badly. The skirmishing of Newton and Wood kept increasing. In fact, both parties, though desiring to avoid a general battle, nevertheless reënforced, till the firing amounted to an engagement. It was not till after 9 o’clock that the rattling of the musketry had diminished to the ordinary skirmish, and the batteries had ceased, except an occasional shot, as if each were trying to have the last gun. The losses in my command in this combat were about two hundred killed and wounded. The morning of the 18th found the works in front of Adairsville with few reminders that an army had been there the night before. Hooker and Schofield had done the work. Johnston’s scouts during the night brought him word that a large Federal force was already far beyond his right near Cassville, threatening his main crossing of the Etowah; and also that McPherson was camping below him at McGuire’s Cross-roads, and that our infantry (Davis’s division) was already in sight of the little town of Rome, where, under a weak guard, were foundries and important mills. We began now to perceive slight evidences of our opponent’s demoralization. I captured a regiment and quite a large number of detached prisoners. The whole number taken, including many commissioned officers, was about four thousand.