“The thanks of this army are due, and are hereby accorded, to General Corse, Colonel Tourtelotte, officers and men, for their determined and gallant defence of Allatoona, and it is made an example to illustrate the importance of preparing in time, and meeting the danger, when present, boldly, manfully, and well. “The army, though unseen to the garrison, was cöoperating by moving toward the road by which the enemy could alone escape, but unfortunately were delayed by the rain and mud; but this fact hastened the retreat of the enemy. “Commanders and garrisons of the posts along our railroads are hereby instructed that they must hold their posts to the last minute, sure that the time gained is valuable and necessary to their comrades at the front.” While General Hood was thus retracing his steps, capturing Dalton and threatening Chattanooga, General Sherman was on his track, pursuing him to the Tennessee. The lion-hearted Thomas was at Nashville, and, quite sure that he could “take care of Hood,” as the order ran, the great commander turned his face again southward. He had telegraphed to the Secretary of War that his army needed rest at Atlanta. It was true, but General Sherman did not intend to have it then. The rebels and the country were bewildered by his mysterious movements. Early in November he was between the Tennessee and Chattahoochie, his headquarters at Kingston, with Rome on the line to Atlanta. The deeply-laid game was played by the master hand in the dark to others. Preparations were at once made for a grander campaign than that which had just closed. On the 10th, when the evening darkened around the beautiful Rome of Georgia, the heavens glowed with its conflagration. A fearful storm had ceased, the advance was at hand, and it was necessary, in the stern demands of war, to make a torch and desolation of that place, in the wake of the march. The fire was kindled by General Corse, according to the orders of the commander. A spectator wrote of the scenes of that terrific conflagration: [Illustration: MARCHING TO SAVANNAH.] “All the barracks were laid in ashes, and a black veil of dense smoke hung over the war-desolated city nearly all day, arising from the smouldering ruins.