In the mean time the sixth corps was marching rapidly from Georgetown to the points supposed to be threatened. On the 31st it had reached Halltown, three miles west of Harper's Ferry. On the following day, orders were received to move in pursuit of Early, who was said to be ravaging Pennsylvania, and the whole force, now consisting of the sixth corps, part of the nineteenth corps, and the infantry of General Crook's command, with a great wagon train, marched for two days during weather so hot that some men were lost by sunstroke, in the direction of Frederick, where the army rested, no enemy having been found. The light brigade of General Johnson, which was the only portion of the enemy's force actually in Maryland, had in the mean time been raiding on the road from Hancock toward Cumberland, unpursued by Averill's command, which had been obliged to remain a while at Hancock to rest. On the 1st of August, at four in the afternoon, General Kelley, who was protecting Cumberland with his cavalry force, was attacked at Folck's Mill, three miles from the town. Skirmishing continued till after dark, but about eleven at night the enemy retreated to Oldtown, where Colonel Stough, who had been posted there with five hundred men, was attacked and routed, himself captured, and his force driven toward Cumberland. On the 4th, the Confederate force marched against New Creek, where there was a Federal garrison of about a thousand men, who made good their defence; and at about eight in the evening the enemy retired southward by the Romney road toward Moorefield, where General Averill overtook them on the 7th, and routed them, taking all their artillery, four pieces, many wagons and small-arms, and five hundred prisoners, and kept up the pursuit for many miles, till the enemy were driven over the mountains. A panic occurred on the 4th at Harrisburg, occasioned by another report of an invasion by Early in force, and Governor Curtin issued a proclamation calling out thirty thousand militia; but the alarm soon subsided. Thus ended Early's "second invasion." During its progress he had with the whole of his infantry remained quietly in the Valley of the Shenandoah getting in the crops. On the 7th of August, General Hunter was superseded by General Sheridan, to whom was assigned the command of the Middle Military Division, comprising the departments of Washington, the Middle Department, and the departments of the Susquehanna and southwestern Virginia. CHAPTER XXXVI. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign.--Numbers of his Armies.—General Johnston's Army.-Description of Atlanta.-Operations against Dalton.-Buzzard Roost.-Snake Creek Gap.-Kilpatrick wounded.-Johnston evacuates Dalton.— Operations against Resaca.-Johnston crosses the Etowah.-Occupation of Rome. -Johnston falls back on Allatoona Pass.-The March upon Dallas.-Battles of Pumpkin Vine Creek and New Hope Church.-Allatoona Pass turned.-General Blair joins Sherman with the Seventeenth Corps.-Garrisons left.-March to Big Shanty.-Kenesaw, Pine, and Lost Mountains.-Rebel Defences.-Georgia Militia.-Operations against Pine Mountain.-Death of General Polk.-Lost Mountain taken.-Continuous Rain.-Battle of Kulp House.-Assault on Kenesaw Mountain.-Death of General Harper.-Johnston abandons Kenesaw Mountain. Occupation of Marietta.-Nickajack Creek.-Advance to the Chattahoochee.-Johnston's Position again turned. --His Defences on the Chattahoochee. -Mills destroyed at Roswell.-Sherman crosses the Chattahoochee.-Johnston retires upon Atlanta. 1864. In accordance with General Grant's grand plan of operations, General Sherman had got ready in the beginning of May to move from Chattanooga simultaneously with General Meade from Culpeper Court House. The total force under his command, numbering 98,797 men of all arms, with 254 guns, was composed as follows: 1. The Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Major-General Thomas, comprising the fourth corps under General Howard, the fourteenth corps under General Palmer, and the twentieth corps under General Hooker, and containing 60,773 men, including 3,828 cavalry. 2. The Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Major-General McPherson, comprising the fifteenth corps under General Logan, the sixteenth corps under General Dodge, and later in the campaign the seventeenth corps under General Blair, and containing 24,465 men, including 624 cavalry. 3. The Army of the Ohio, commanded by Major-General Schofield, comprising the twenty-third corps, and containing 13,559 men, including 1,679 cavalry. On the morning of the 6th of May the position of the three armies was as follows: the Army of the Cumberland was at Ringgold, on the Western and Atlantic Railroad, twenty-three miles southeast of Chattanooga; the Army of the Tennessee was at Gordon's Mill, on the Chickamauga, eight miles west of Ringgold; and the Army of the Ohio near Red Clay, about ten miles northeast of Ringgold. The Confederate army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Joseph E. Johnston, lay in and about Dalton, fifteen miles south of Ringgold, on the railroad, his advance at Tunnel Hill, about midway between Ringgold and Dalton. The force under Johnston, consisting mostly of veteran troops, comprised the corps of Generals Hardee, Hood, and Polk, and General Wheeler's division. of about 10,000 cavalry, numbering in all not more than 60,000 men. In some respects the campaign before |