The Day Dixie Died: The Battle of Atlanta

Home > Other > The Day Dixie Died: The Battle of Atlanta > Page 33
The Day Dixie Died: The Battle of Atlanta Page 33

by Gary Ecelbarger


  5 Yeary, Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, pp. 85, 586.

  6 OR 38 (3), p. 373. The list shown on this page is confusing because the 64th Illinois losses are incorrectly placed as “Total” for the brigade. The error appears to be corrected in the “Grand Total” line at the bottom of the list. General Leggett reported the present-for-duty strength of the Army of the Tennessee at 27,593 on July 20 (Leggett, “Battle of Atlanta,” p. 27), but this number apparently included two brigades of men not present on July 22.

  7 OR 38 (3), p. 118.

  8 OR 38 (3), p. 550; OR 38 (4), p. 653; OR 38 (5), p. 318.

  9 Whaley, Forgotten Hero, p. 164.

  10 Ibid., pp. 167, 169–70.

  11 OR 38 (1), pp. 115–16; OR 38 (3), pp. 28–29; OR 38 (4), p. 316; OR 38 (5), p. 651.

  12 T. B. Roy, “General Hardee and the Military Operations Around Atlanta,” p. 367. Roy, Hardee’s chief of staff, claims this oddly exacting figure came from a letter Hardee wrote just two days after the battle, a letter yet to be discovered. The number is so close to the number of 3,297 killed and wounded (captured and missing not included) cited by the Medical Director of the Army of Tennessee for the month of July (see “Letters, Orders and Circulars Sent and Received, Medical Director’s Office, Army of Tennessee,” War Department Collection of Confederate Records, RG 109, NA) to appear more than a coincidence. Perhaps Roy confused the figures when he wrote his piece in 1880. A modern detailed and thorough analysis of Hardee’s total losses on July 22 suggests casualty figures of 4,500 (see Brown, To the Manner Born, pp. 277–78). That estimate is rejected as it appears the modern analysis was victim of a simple mathematical error that counted Walker’s full division loss to that of just one brigade and appears to have overestimated the losses in Bate’s division. Regardless, if the 3,299 is erroneous, a total casualty count for the corps between 3,300 and 3,800 is as close an estimate that can be obtained until more evidence comes to light.

  13 OR 38 (3), pp. 733, 741, 748; Maney’s killed and wounded division totals summarized in “Grand Summary of Casualties in Cheatham’s Division,” Cheatham Papers, TSLA.

  14 Brown, To the Manner Born, p. 278. This author’s claim of 4,500 losses for Hardee is rejected, and Hardee’s claim of 3,299 is suspicious. See endnote #12 on this page.

  15 SOR 7, pp. 119–129; Tower, ed., A Carolinian Goes to War, p. 229.

  16 The Third Battle of Winchester (September 19, 1864) and the Battle of Franklin (November 30, 1864) were single-day contests with casualties approaching 9,000 in each battle. Both fell below the number of losses at Atlanta.

  17 OR 38 (1), p. 116; OR 38 (3), p. 680.

  18 Roy, “General Hardee and the Military Operations Around Atlanta,” p. 367; Buck, Cleburne and His Command, p. 243; OR 38 (3), pp. 740–41.

  19 Losson, Tennessee’s Forgotten Warriors, p. 183; Hood, Advance and Retreat, p. 181.

  20 Stuart, Iowa Colonels and Regiments, p. 238; Warner, Generals in Blue, p. 535.

  21 Stephen Davis, “The General’s Tour—Atlanta Campaign: Hood Fights Desperately,” Blue & Gray Magazine Vol. 6, #6, (August, 1989), p. 26. The enmity between Dodge and Sweeny was long-standing. See Leslie Anders, “Fisticuffs at Headquarters: Sweeny vs. Dodge,” Civil War Times Illustrated, Vol. 15, no. 10 (February, 1977), pp. 8–15.

  22 OR 38 (5), p. 266; Castel, Decision in the West, p. 418.

  23 Dodge reminiscence reproduced in Mrs. John A. Logan, Reminiscences of a Soldier’s Wife: An Autobiography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), pp. 171–72; “Address of General W. T. Sherman,” Society of the Army of the Tennessee, Proceedings of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee at the Twentieth Meeting (Cincinnati: Published by the Society, 1893), pp. 471–72.

  24 OR 38 (5), p. 272; “A Noble Man,” Los Angeles Times, August 1, 1897.

  25 Castel, Decision in the West, pp. 424–36.

  26 Sherman to his wife, July 26, 1864, in Simpson and Berlin, eds., Sherman’s Civil War, p. 671.

  27 Alexander Spence to his parents, August 10, 1864, in Christ, ed., Getting Used to Being Shot At, p. 97; Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of the Tennessee, pp. 145–46.

  28 Hosea Garrett to his uncle, August 5, 1864, Special Collections, Atlanta History Center; Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of the Tennessee, p. 146; Alexander Spence to his parents, August 10, 1864, in Christ, ed., Getting Used to Being Shot At, pp. 97–98.

  29 Ulysses S. Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1990), p. 613.

  30 Waugh, Reelecting Lincoln, pp. 262, 264; Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher, eds., Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 441.

  31 Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing, 1882), pp. 434–35.

  32 David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), p. 529.

  33 Quote in OR 38 (5), p. 777. These famous six words are embodied within a 350-word dispatch from Sherman to Major General Henry Halleck.

  34 Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life Vol. 2 (Baltimore, Md.: John Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 688; Waugh, Reelecting Lincoln, p. 297.

  35 Special Orders No. 212, September 20, 1864, Logan Papers, LOC; Ecelbarger, Black Jack Logan, pp. 191–95.

  36 Waugh, Reelecting Lincoln, p. 354.

  37 “Atlanta on Canvass,” Atlanta Constitution, October 20, 1885; Wilbur G. Kurtz, The Atlanta Cyclorama: The Story of the Famed Battle of Atlanta (City of Atlanta, 1954), pp. 24–25.

  38 “What You Will Find at the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum,” and “Painting the Cyclorama,” printed by the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum, Atlanta, Ga.

  39 Kurtz, The Atlanta Cyclorama, pp. 13–23. Traditionally, this cyclorama supposedly debuted in 1887, but contemporary evidence easily refuted this to place its opening to July of 1886 in Minnesota. See “A Great War Picture: The Panorama of Atlanta Recently Placed on Exhibition in Minneapolis” (Albert Lea, Minn.) Freeport County Standard, July 21, 1886

  40 Kurtz, The Atlanta Cyclorama, pp. 24, 27. Tradition claims that General Logan commissioned the painting for $43,000 to boost his vice presidential candidacy in 1884. This is easily refuted by the fact that Logan was too strapped financially for such an extravagant expense and that no one would reasonably believe that the cyclorama could be studied and painted in the few months of Logan’s vice presidential candidacy in 1884 (he was not selected on the ticket with James G. Blaine until May and the painting would have done little to aid him unless it was released before the end of the summer). A more reasonable “correction” of the tradition is that Logan’s wealthy supporters commissioned the work to support a potential presidential bid in 1888. Contrary to another tradition, Logan was alive when the cyclorama was first put on display in Minneapolis, but no evidence exists that he ever saw the completed work.

  41 “Talk of the Day,” Atlanta Constitution, February 4, 1889; “Atlanta’s Battle Field. Union Officers Exploring the Old Lines,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, February 9, 1889.

  42 “Atlanta’s Battle Field. Union Officers Exploring the Old Lines,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, February 9, 1889.

  43 The McPherson marker standing today is markedly different from the one placed by the Society of the Army of the Tennessee in 1877. The base is more elaborate than the original and no cannonball plugs the upward facing cannon barrel. For a picture of the original, see Thomas H. Martin, Atlanta and Its Builders: A Comprehensive History of the Gate City of the South Vol. 1 (Atlanta, Ga.: Century Memorial Publishing Co., 1902), p. 402. The monument that stands today may be an entirely different cannon barrel than the 1877 original. The William Walker monument was placed based on one eyewitness testimony of his death, a suspect account challenged by several contemporary sources that place his death an hour or so later than tradition and with Gist’s brigade (near the current Walker Park in East Atlanta). For the story of the monument see Kurtz, “Civil
War Days in Georgia: Major-General W. H. T. Walker,” Atlanta Constitution Magazine, July 27, 1930.

  44 “What You Will Find at the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum,” and “Painting the Cyclorama,” printed by the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum, Atlanta, Ga.; “The Battle of Atlanta Is Here,” Atlanta Constitution, February 12, 1892.

  45 “The Blue and Gray,” Atlanta Constitution, July 23, 1894; “Firing of 11 Bombs Will Mark Battle of Atlanta Observance,” Atlanta Constitution, July 22, 1939; “Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh Marvel at Cyclorama,” Atlanta Constitution, December 16, 1939.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  MANUSCRIPTS

  Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Illinois.

  Lewis F. Lake Papers

  William E. Strong Papers

  William E. Titze diary

  Columbia University, Rare Books and Manuscript Department, New York.

  Peter W. Alexander Papers

  Duke University, Special Collections Library, Durham, North Carolina.

  Munford H. Dixon Papers

  Florida State Archives, Tallahassee.

  Washington Ives Papers

  Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.

  Manning F. Force Papers

  Abraham Lincoln Papers

  John A. Logan Papers

  Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minnesota.

  Christie Letters

  National Archives, Washington, D.C.

  RG 109: “Letters, Orders and Circulars Sent and Received, Medical Director’s Office, Army of Tennessee,” War Department Collection of Confederate Records.

  RG 393 Letters Received, 1864–1865, Department of the Army of the Tennessee

  Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio.

  Henry O. Dwight Sketch Album

  Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.

  Cheatham Papers

  Toledo-Lucas County Historical Society, Toledo, Ohio.

  McPherson Papers

  University of Georgia, Special Collections, Athens, Georgia.

  Robert G. Mitchell Papers

  United States Army Military History Institute. Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

  William W. McCarty diary

  John McKee diary

  Philip Roesch Journal, 1862–1865

  BOOKS

  Allardice, Bruce S. More Generals in Gray. Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1995.

  Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

  Bailey, George W. A Private Chapter of the War (1861–65). St. Louis, Mo.: G. I. Jones and Co., 1880.

  Bailey, Ronald H. and the editors of Time-Life Books. Battles for Atlanta: Sherman Moves East. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, Inc., 1985.

  Basler, Roy P., ed. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 8 vols. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1953–55.

  Belknap, William W. History of the Fifteenth Regiment Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry. Keokuk, Iowa: R. B. Ogden & Son, 1887.

  Bevins, William E. Reminiscences of a Private. Privately published, 1913.

  Beyer, W. F. and O. F. Keydel, eds. Deeds of Valor: How America’s Civil War Heroes Won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Stamford, Conn.: Longmeadow Press, 1993.

  Bonds, Russell S. War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta. Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing, 2009.

  Brooks, Noah. Washington in Lincoln’s Time. New York: The Century Company, 1895.

  Brown, Norman D., ed. One of Cleburne’s Command: The Civil War Reminiscences and Diary of Capt. Samuel T. Foster, Granbury’s Texas Brigade, C.S.A. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980.

  Brown, Russell K. Our Connection With Savannah: A History of the 1st Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters. Macon, Ga: Mercer University Press, 2004.

  Brown, Russell K. To the Manner Born: The Life of General William H. T. Walker. Mercer, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2005.

  Buck, Irving A. Cleburne and His Command. Jackson, Tenn: McCowat-Mercer Press, 1959.

  Buell, Augustus C. History of Andrew Jackson. 2 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904.

  Burlingame, Michael, Abraham Lincoln: A Life. 2 vols. Baltimore, Md.: John Hopkins University Press, 2008.

  Burlingame, Michael and John R. Turner Ettlinger, eds. Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997.

  Byers, Samuel H. M. Iowa in War Times. Des Moines, Iowa: W. D. Condit & Co., 1888.

  Calhoun, Charles W. Gilded Age Cato: The Life of Walter Q. Gresham. University Press of Kentucky, 1988.

  Candler, Allen Daniel and Clement Anselm Evans, eds. Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. 3 vols. Atlanta, Ga.: Staten Historical Association, 1906.

  Castel, Albert. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1992.

  Castel, Albert. Tom Taylor’s Civil War. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2000.

  Cate, Wirt A., ed. Two Soldiers: The Campaign Diaries of Thomas J. Key, C.S.A. December 7, 1863–May 17, 1865 and Robert J. Campbell, U.S.A. January 1, 1864–July 21, 1864. Chapel Hill, N.C., University of North Carolina Press, 1938.

  Chamberlin, William H. History of the Eighty-first Regiment Ohio Infantry Volunteers During the War of the Rebellion. Cincinnati: Gazette Steam Printing House, 1865.

  Chapman Brothers. Portrait and Biographical Album of Oakland County, Michigan. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1891.

  Chesnut, Mary Boykin. A Diary From Dixie (Ben Ames Williams, ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980.

  Christ, Mark K., ed. Getting Used to Being Shot At: The Spence Family Civil War Letters. Fayetteville, Ark.: University of Arkansas Press, 2002.

  Committee of the Regiment. The Story of the Fifty-fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. Clinton, Mass.: W. J. Coulter, 1887.

  Connelly, T. W. History of the Seventieth Ohio Regiment From Its Organization to Its Mustering Out. Cincinnati, Ohio: Peak Bros., 1902.

  Cox, Jacob D. Atlanta. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1882.

  Cunningham, Summer A. Reminiscences of the 41st Tennessee: The Civil War in the West. (John A. Simpson, ed.) Shippensburg, Pa.: White Mane Books, 2001.

  Curry, W. L. War History of Union County. Marysville, Ohio: 1883.

  Dana, Charles A. Recollections of the Civil War: With the Leaders at Washington and in the Field in the Sixties. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1966.

  Daniel, Larry J. Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

  Davis, George B., Leslie J. Perry, and Joseph W. Kirkley. The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War. New York: Gramercy Books, 1983.

  Dodge, Grenville M. The Battle of Atlanta and Other Campaigns, Addresses, Etc. Council Bluffs, Iowa: Monarch Printing Company, 1911.

  Dodson, W. C., ed. Campaigns of Wheeler and His Cavalry, 1862–1865. Atlanta, Ga.: Hudgins Publishing Co., 1899.

  Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

  Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing, 1882.

  DuBose, John W. General Joseph Wheeler and the Army of Tennessee. New York: Neale Publishing Company, 1912.

  Ecelbarger, Gary. Black Jack Logan: An Extraordinary Life in Peace and War. Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2005.

  Fehrenbacher, Don E. and Virginia Fehrenbacher, eds. Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996.

  Fleming, James R. The Confederate Ninth Tennessee Infantry. Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Co., 2006.

  Franklin, Ann York, comp. The Civil War Diaries of Capt. Alfred Tyler Fielder, 12th Tennessee Regiment Infantry, Company B 1861–1865. Louis
ville, Kentucky: Ann York Franklin, 1996.

  Frano, E. C., ed. Letters of Captain Hugh Black to his Family in Florida During the War Between the States, 1862–1864. Newburgh, Ind.: Published by the author, 1998.

  Freeman, Douglas Southall. Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command. 3 vols. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1942–44.

  Glatthaar, Joseph T. Partners in Command: The Relationships Between Leaders in the Civil War. New York: Free Press, 1998.

  Grainger, Gervis D. Four Years With the Boys in Gray. Franklin, Ky.: Published by the author, 1902.

  Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs and Selected Letters. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1990.

  Green, John William. Johnny Green of the Orphan Brigade: The Journal of a Confederate Soldier. Lexington, Ky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

  Gresham, Matilda. Life of Walter Quintin Gresham, 1832–1895. 2 vols. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1919.

  Gurowski, Adam. Adam Gurowski, Diary: 1863–’64–’65. Washington, D.C.: W.H. & O.H. Morrison, 1866.

  Hale, Will Thomas and Dixon Lanier Merritt. A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans. 8 vols. Chicago and New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1903–1913.

  Hedley, F. Y. Marching Through Georgia: Pen-Pictures of Every-Day Life. Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry, 1890.

  Heidler, David S. and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2000.

  Hewett, Janet B., ed. Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 100 vols. Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1994–1998.

  Hood, John B. Advance and Retreat. New Orleans, La.: G. T. Beauregard, 1880.

  Hughes, Nathaniel Cheairs Jr. General William J. Hardee: Old Reliable. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965.

  Hughes, Nathaniel Cheairs Jr. The Civil War Memoir of Philip Daingerfield Stephenson, D. D. Conway, Arkansas: UCA Press, 1995.

  Hughes, Nathaniel Cheairs Jr. The Pride of the Confederate Artillery: The Washington Artillery in the Army of Tennessee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.

 

‹ Prev