Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel PrisonsDay, W. W. (William Worthy)
History
Fifteen Months in Dixie; Or, My Personal Experience in Rebel Prisons
Day, W. W. (William Worthy)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
Logan and his friends felt this deeply, but with true patriotic
instincts he, and they, continued to fight for the cause of Liberty and
Union. No satisfactory reason has ever been given for this act of
injustice on the part of General Sherman, but it is hinted that it was
because Logan was not a graduate of West Point. The action of General
Sherman in this matter is all the more inexplicable when we compare the
stupendous failure of Howard at Chancellorsville, but little more than a
year before, with the signal success of Logan at Atlanta on the 22d of
July. But time brings its revenge. Howard has passed into comparative
obscurity. We hear of him occasionally as a lecturer before a Chautauqua
Society in some small town or city, “only this and nothing more,” while
John A. Logan went down to his grave, loved and revered, as the highest
representative of the American Volunteer soldier. His name is inscribed
on the imperishable roll of fame by the side of the names of Sheridan,
Thomas, and Hancock.
But the victory of the Federals at the battle of Atlanta did not include
the surrender of the city. Sherman sent a cavalry corps under General
Stoneman to capture Macon, Ga. In this he failed, but he destroyed
considerable property, including railroad, rolling stock, bridges and
supplies and seriously threatened Macon, giving Winder, at
Andersonville, a terrible scare, which resulted in the General Order
which I have copied in a previous chapter. Sherman finding that Atlanta
was not to be captured without a fight more serious than he cared to
risk, moved by the flank to Jonesboro south of Atlanta, thus cutting off
the supplies for Atlanta. On the 1st of September he moved his army up
to within twenty miles of Atlanta, and on the 2d General Slocum moved
his forces into that city.
Great was the rejoicing all over the North when the news was flashed
over the wires that Sherman had captured the “Gate City” of the South,
and a corresponding feeling of gloom settled down upon the Southern
people when they found that Hood, with the assistance of the counsels of
Beauregard, could not cope with “Uncle Billy” and his veterans.
In the meantime the army under General Grant had not been idle. On May
3d and 4th the army of the Potomac moved from its camp on the north of
the Rapidan and commenced a campaign which was destined to result in the
downfall of the capital of the Confederacy, and ultimately of the
Confederacy itself. In the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania,
North Anna and Cold Harbor, our forces showed the aggressive spirit
inspired by their great leader, ably seconded by Meade, Hancock, the
lamented Sedgwick, Warren, Wright and Burnside. While the Confederate
forces under their favorite leader Lee, with his Lieutenants, Anderson.
Early and Hill, resisted the inroads of the Federal forces with a
bravery born of a determination to die in the visionary “last ditch.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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