which was still held by General Leggett's McPherson had also left his wagon train division. At about ten in the morning, near the time when this movement commenced, General Sherman, in company with General Schofield, was examining the enemy's lines, when he was joined by General McPherson, who described the condition of things on his flank and the disposition of his troops. General Sherman explained to him that if serious resistance were met in Atlanta, as seemed probable, he should extend to the right, and did not want much distance gained on the left. General McPherson then described the hill occupied by General Leggett's division as essential to the occupation of any ground to the east and south of the Augusta Railroad. General Sherman therefore ratified McPherson's disposition of his troops, and modified a previous order sent him in writing to employ General Dodge's corps in breaking up the railroad, and sanctioned its going, as already ordered by General McPherson, to his left, to hold and fortify the position there. McPherson remained with General Sherman till noon, when reports arrived indicating a movement of the enemy toward the left flank. He then mounted his horse and rode away with his staff. General Sherman had the day before sent General Garrard's cavalry to Covington, on the Augusta Railroad, fortytwo miles east of Atlanta, with instructions to send out detachments from that point to destroy the two bridges across the Yellow and Ulcofauhatchee' rivers, tributaries of the Ocmulgee. General at Decatur, under a guard of three regiments commanded by Colonel Sprague. Soon after the departure of General McPherson, sounds of musketry to the left and rear, rapidly growing into volume and accompanied by the roar of artillery, were heard, and about the same time the reports of guns in the direction of Decatur. There could be no doubt now as to what the enemy was about. Hood was throwing a superior force on the Federal left flank while he held the Federal forces with his forts in front, the only question being as to the amount of force at his disposal. Orders were immediately sent to all parts of the right and left centre to give full employment to the enemy along the whole line, and for General Schofield to hold as large a force as possible in reserve awaiting developments. Not more than half an hour had elapsed after General McPherson had parted from General Sherman, when his adjutant-general, Colonel Clark, rode up and reported him killed or a prisoner. He had ridden to General Dodge's column, moving as before described, and had sent off nearly all his staff and orderlies on various errands, and taken narrow road that led through the woods to the left and rear of General Giles A. Smith's division, which was on General Blair's extreme left. A few minutes after he had entered the woods. a sharp volley was heard from the direction in which he had gone, and his horse had come out riderless, with two wounds. General Sherman immediately dispatched a staff officer to General Logan, commanding the fifteenth corps, directing him to assume command of the Army of the Tennessee and hold the ground already chosen, especially the hill occupied by General Leggett's di vision. 22. Already the whole line was engaged in battle. General McPherson upon reaching the left had found the sixteenth corps going into position to prolong the flank, and at that time facing to the left in a direction perpendicular to the main line. Between the right of the sixteenth corps and the left of the seventeenth was a wooded space of about half a mile. July Shortly after twelve o'clock the enemy emerged from the woods in front of these corps in three columns, and attacked the sixteenth corps. Three desperate assaults were repulsed by General Dodge, in the last of which the enemy suffered severely from the Federal batteries. It was during the lull in the battle that now occurred that General McPherson had attempted to ride through the woods to General G. A. Smith's division on the left of the seventeenth corps, it having been reported that the enemy were about attempting to push a force through the gap above mentioned between the two corps. After sending the only remaining member of his staff with orders to obtain a brigade from General Logan's command and throw it across the gap, with a single orderly he struck into the road before mentioned. The enemy's skirmish line, however, had already advanced close up to the road, and before he was aware he was within fifty feet of it. A volley brought him to the ground, mortally wounded. Wangelin's brigade, the one ordered up from General Logan's command, arrived in time to partially check the enemy, but not soon enough to prevent a portion of their force getting in the rear of the seventeenth corps, while other masses of troops were pushed against the hill held by General Leggett, whose division, as well as that of General Smith, was attacked in front and rear, and obliged to fire alternately from behind their own breast-works and an abandoned parapet of the enemy. General Leggett's troops held firmly a fortified angle at the top of the hill, against which the rebels threw their columns with desperate but fruitless energy. In the mean time General Smith, who had been compelled to draw back his more exposed lines, and in doing so to abandon two guns, took up a new line, whose right connected with General Leggett, his left drawn back and facing toward the southeast. The enemy could make no impression on this new formation of the corps, whose deadly fire compelled them to recoil again and again, mowing down. whole ranks at a time and covering the ground and ditches with dead and wounded men. A portion of the force that had penetrated the gap before mentioned, renewed the attack on the right flank of the sixteenth corps, and captured on its first advance a six-gun battery which was moving unsupported along a narrow road through the woods. They were soon checked, however, by the divisions of Generals Sweeney and Fuller, and driven back with the loss of many prisoners. Several of General Sweeney's regiments had expended their ammunition, but charged with the bayonet, when the enemy broke and fled. At about half-past three the rebels desisted from their attack on the left flank, having sustained very heavy loss and gained no ground. works, kept the enemy at bay by welldirected discharges of twenty-pounder Parrott guns. Presently a second strong column of the enemy appeared, and rapidly and steadily approached, heedless of the fearful furrows made in its ranks by well-directed artillery. The attack had now become sufficiently formidable; but when a third column of the Confederates was seen pouring in on the rear through a deep cut in the Georgia Railroad, General Lightburn's troops, to avoid certain capture, retired in confu In the mean time two divisions of Wheeler's cavalry, with a section of artillery, had taken a wide circuit to the eastward and fallen upon Decatur un-sion to the second line of breast-works opposed as General Sherman had sent five hundred yards from the main line, General Garrard's cavalry to Covington, and the abandoned works with two as before stated—and attempted to cap- batteries fell into the hands of the ture the wagon trains; but Colonel enemy. The position lost was one of Sprague covered them with great skill the utmost importance, and General and success, sending them to the rear Sherman sent orders to General Schoof Generals Schofield and Thomas, and field-which, however, he had anticipated not withdrawing from Decatur till every-to make the fifteenth corps regain its wagon was safe, except three which the ground at any cost. To aid the moveteamsters had abandoned. ment, batteries from Schofield's corps A pause in the battle occurred about were so posted that by means of them four o'clock. General Hood was massing the enemy and their works beyond troops for an attack on the fifteenth might be shelled, and the approach of corps, now commanded by General M. reinforcements prevented. The enemy L. Smith, which, immediately adjoining were on the point of turning the capthe seventeenth corps, held the right of tured Parrott guns upon the inner the Army of the Tennessee, behind Federal line, when the fifteenth corps, strong breast-works. At half-past four, supported by some of Schofield's troops, while the attention of the extreme left advanced with loud cheers to the attack. was occupied by a pretended attack, a After a fierce struggle, in which the heavy force of the enemy, two lines fight was sometimes hand to hand across deep, marched directly on the left of the the narrow parapet, the enemy were fifteenth corps, driving in two regiments driven out of the works and the guns of skirmishers and capturing two guns. retaken. Repeated discharges of grape General Lightburn's brigade, which held and canister into their retreating masses this part of the line protected by breast-caused fearful carnage. Thus ended the |