and took a line covering Atlanta, General Hood assuming command July 17th. Sherman crossed the Chattahoochee and then Hood retired to the intrenchments around the city. For several weeks there were manoeuvres and battles around Atlanta, until near the end of August, when Sherman had got behind the city, cutting the railways supplying it. On the night of September 1st, Hood evacuated Atlanta, and next day Sherman entered. In this great siege and in the previous contests from Chattanooga the losses of the two armies were sixty-six thousand men, each army having been repeatedly reinforced. This capture sealed the doom of the Confederacy, although there were subsequent battles and movements around Atlanta until November. Then Sherman, reinforcing General Thomas at Nashville, and leaving him to take care of Hood, ran back all the surplus property and supplies to Chattanooga, broke up the railway, cut the telegraph behind him, burnt Atlanta November 12th, and on the 15th started on his famous "March to the Sea," to cut the Confederacy in two, capturing Savannah in December. The destruction of Atlanta was almost complete, every building being burnt excepting a few in the centre, and a number of scattered dwellings elsewhere. After peace came, however, the restoration of Atlanta was rapid and thorough, and it is now one of the most progressive and wealthy Southern cities. It was Sherman's "March to the Sea" which furnished the theme for one of the most inspiriting songs of the Civil War, "Marching Through Georgia": "Bring the good old bugle, boys! we'll sing another song-- Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along, Sing it as we used to sing it fifty thousand strong, While we were marching through Georgia. _Chorus_--"'Hurrah! Hurrah! we bring the Jubilee! Hurrah! Hurrah! the flag that makes you free!' So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea, While we were marching through Georgia. "How the darkies shouted when they heard the joyful sound! How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found! How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground, While we were marching through Georgia.--_Chorus_, "So we made a thoroughfare for Freedom and her train, Sixty miles in latitude--three hundred to the main, Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain, While we were marching through Georgia."--_Chorus._