"Far off to the centre and right, Palmer with his strongly marked face and Thomas-like proportions, and the handsome, 'fighting Joe' Hooker, always a law unto himself, bore their part in the opening ball, closing up speedily to the rocky face barrier, and estopping that mouth of Georgia, whence issued stranger, screeching, whizzing birds than those which gave the gaping mouth its name of Buzzard's Gap. One such savage bird in the shape of a minie-ball flew between Howard and Thomas, wound its way through their group of staff officers, grazed the limb of a tree and fell upon the ground, tearing in its flight a general's coat in three rents, and pecking an uncouth hole through the rim of a staff hat. Mean while Newton and his brave men, against bloody resistance, were dragging cannon to the very hostile crest northward; and Hooker was ascending the mountain against heavy odds southward of the old Buzzard's formidable roosts." CHAPTER XXII. ATLANTA. THE TURNING OF ROCKY FACE--RESACA--GENERAL HOWARD'S NARRATIVE-- ADAIRSVILLE--CROSSING THE ETOWAH--SHERMAN ON FAMILIAR GROUND-- DEALING WITH BREACHES OF DISCIPLINE--ALLATOONA PASS--THE SIEGE AND TURNING OF KENESAW--SMYRNA AND PEACH TREE--HOOD SUCCEEDS JOHNSTON--DEATH OF McPHERSON--HOWARD IN COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE--EZRA CHURCH--OPERATIONS AROUND ATLANTA--THE RUSH TO JONESBORO--CAPTURE OF ATLANTA. Sherman moved forward on May 6th toward Dalton, where lay the enemy. A direct attack on this position, however, was impossible. Dalton lay behind a precipitous mountain ridge, called Rocky Face, which it was impracticable to scale. The only passage way was through a narrow gap called Buzzard's Roost, through which ran a railroad and a small stream known as Mill Creek. The enemy had strongly fortified the place, and Sherman quickly decided that it would be folly to try to force his way through. He therefore gave orders to McPherson to move rapidly southward to Snake Creek Gap, at the southern extremity of the Rocky Face Ridge, where there was an easy passage through to Resaca, at the railroad crossing over Oostanaula River, eighteen miles south of Dalton. Thomas, on May 7th, took up a strong position on Tunnel Hill, almost directly facing the Buzzard's Roost Gap, while Schofield steadily approached Dalton from the north. Two days later, to keep Johnston occupied, Thomas made a feigned attack upon the Gap, driving the enemy's cavalry and skirmishers through it. The day was very stormy, but the troops rushed on in high spirits and with enthusiastic determination. A division of Howard's troops under Newton actually surrounded the narrow ridge and carried a part north of the Gap, but the crest was too strait for them to make much progress there. South of the Roost some of Hooker's men also made a rush for the summit, but found the enemy's works too strong to take and hold.