Sherman had, on August 12th, been made a Major-General in the Regular Army. It was possible now and even after to recall many dramatic and even humorous incidents of the campaign. At one point Sherman's soldiers, looking back, saw a line of bridges in flames over a stream they had just crossed. "Hello, Charley," exclaimed one, "Uncle Billy Sherman has set the river on fire." "Well," replied Charley, "if he has I reckon its all right." Their fun, even, showed their confidence. The Rebels also came to have a remarkable degree of confidence in Sherman's ability. The rapidity of his marches and the readiness with which his armies rebuilt roads and bridges bewildered them. It was after a time a current saying in the Rebel camp that there was no use in burning bridges, for Sherman carried a large assortment of duplicates along with him to replace them. Then, when Wheeler's Cavalry was sent north to cut Sherman's communications at the rear, a Rebel soldier remarked one day: "Well, the Yanks will have to git up and git, now, for I heard General Johnston himself say that General Wheeler had blown up the tunnel near Dalton and the Yanks would have to retreat because they could get no more rations." "Oh shucks," said another, "don't you know that old Sherman carries a duplicate tunnel along?" On September 6th, a writer in _The New York Tribune_, described the appearance of the captured city, at the entrance of the troops, as follows: "The Twentieth Corps is now located in the famous city, occupying the forts and earthworks so recently filled by the Rebels. The city was captured by Colonel Coburn, Thirty-third Indiana, on the 2d inst., who was sent by General Slocum from the Chattahoochee River on a reconnoisance. The same day the corps followed in. The works of the enemy are of the most formidable character, embracing a circuit of some twelve miles. The abattis, palisades, rifle pits, ramparts, lunettes, redoubts, redans and varied forms of earthworks, exhibit every variety of defensive expedient used in modern warfare. Nothing in military experience has surpassed the industry of the enemy, in this campaign, except that of our own. Here, he had some 1,500 negro men constantly at work, and marched them off, with tools on shoulder, when he left. The hills at all points around the city afforded good positions for such works. [Illustration: BATTLE OF ATLANTA. From painting by J. E. Taylor.]