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cers I learned that rebel infantry had
been seen moving out of Atlanta and
towards the left Hank of the Seven
teenth corps, and they feared the ene
my was trying to get in the rear of the
armv, or was feeling for the break in
the line, with the hope to cut off the
Sixteenth corps. I at once returned
to Gen. McPnerson with this inf<_ rota
tion, finding him just where I had left
hirv.
“ Immediately the General started,
accompanied by myself, to look over
the gap between the two corps, and
with the intention of asking Gen. Lo
gan for a brigade of his corps (which
was in reserve), to till the position.
The only road which it was possible to
travel, in order to reach Gen. Giles
Smith’s command without making a
lengthy detour to the rear and cross
ing a number of ravines and streams,
ran nearly in prolongation of the line
of battle of the Sixteenth corps. The
General and staff had passed over this
road in the early morning, again short
ly before 12 o’clock, it had been passed
over constantly by the troops of our
army with safety since the early dawn
of the 224, and ten minutes prior to
the General’s death I hail ridden rap
idly over the same road, to and from
Gen. Blair- command without being
tired at. I accompanied Gen. McPher
son on this road 350 or 400 yards from
the open fields and until we had gained
about the center of the gap between
the flanks of the two army corps. The
General suddenly checked his horse
and left the road, looking the road over
carefully to the south of it, and follow
ing some distance a ridge which ran
parallel to the road, and which he said
was an excellent position for our troops.
Upon returning to the road again the
General stopped, and sent me back to
Gen. John A. Logan with the last
order he ever gave, and probably it
was the last time he ever spoke to any
one, unless to his Orderly. The sub
stance of this order was, to ask Gen.
to send Wangelin’s brigade of
AVood’s di vision, which had been held
in reserve near the Augusta Railroad,
to throw it across the gap and connect
the same with the Hank of the Six
teenth and Seventeenth corps, thus
making the line continuous I was to
guide the brigade to the point indi
cated, show it where to form, and then
return and join the General at Giles
Smith’s command. W hen McPherson
had given me this order he dashed up
the road towards the left of the Seven
teenth corps as rapidly as his horse
could earn him, and by the time he
could have ridden 150 yards he was
killed by the bullets of the enemy’s ad
vance lines.”
When returning, after executing
Gen. McPherson’s order, Gen. Strong
says:
“When within two hundred yards
of the timber, 1 saw McPnerson’s horse
staggering about and evidently wound
ed. The saddle and equipments bore
the marks of three bullets, while the
horse himself was struck in three places.
About the time 1 reached the horse a
wounded soldier came out of the woods
near by accompanied by another sol
dier, unhurt, who seeing me, asked if
I was an officer of McPherson’s staff.
I returned an affirmative reply, when
he informed me that the General wa«
dead, and that they had a few r minutes
previous left his body in the woods.
To corroborate their statement, they
gave into my hands an empty pocket
book, a knife, bunch of keys, and a
number of other articles, which J at
•once recognized as belonging to Mc-
Pherson. The wounded soldier was
George Reynolds, Company D, 15th
lowa Infantry, and the other was
Joseph Sharland, 64th Illinois In
fantry.
THE GREAT KENNESAW ROUTE GAZETTE.
“They volunteered to guide me to the
spot where the General’s body was then
lying, but said it wouid be impossible
io get to it from that direction, that
we would have to go back and go by
the road. I immediately retraced my
steps, accompanied by these two sol
diers, and soon reached the open field
where Gen. Wangelin’s brigade was
still in position awaiting orders. Here I
met a member of McPherson’s staff,
Capt. I). C Buel, Chief Ordnance
officer, who volunteered to make the
attempt with me to recover our Gen
eral’s remains. We secured a four
mule ambulance for that purpose, and
proceeded without delay to the road
through the woods, up which the Gen
eral was riding when killed. The fir
ing on this road had ceased at this
time, and we resolved to make a dash
in with the ambulance and bring off
the body, if possible. Our party con
sisted of Captain Buel and his Order
ly, myself and Orderly (George Tay
lor, Co. I)., 12th Wisconsin), George
Reynolds, Joseph Sharland and the
driver of the ambulance (name giot
known to me). Reynolds and Shar
land rode in the ambulance. We
dashed in on this road as fast as our
horses would carry us, and were soon
near the point where Reynolds thought
the body lay. The ambulance was
turned quickly about, and the mules
j. - . KIJ
i I
' it
, Twl
J 8 M C FFERSON \ A
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1. J i ' : fAtAA’
McPherson’s Monument.
Erected At Clyde, Ohio.
headed out. Buel and 1 dismounted, our
Orderlies holdi g our horses. Buel and
Sharland, revolvers in hand, walked
down from the ambulance some yards,
and promised to watch the road, and
protect the ambulance with their lives.
George Reynolds, weak and faint
though he was from loss of blood,
guided me through the dense thicket
and underbrush straight to the spot
where McPherson fell.
“Thirty-five or forty yards from the
main road we came upon the General’s
prostrate form, cold in death. He was
lying on his back, his head resting on
a blanket which Reynolds had previous
ly placed there, his hat, watch, sword
belt and field-glass were missing, and
the book which he carried in the side
pocket of his blouse, and which con
tained memoranda, papers and tele
grams, was also gone. His buckskin
gauntlets had not been removed and
a diamond ring of great value still re
mained on the little finger of his left
band. Raising the body quickly from
the ground and grasping it firmly un
der the arms, I dragged it, with such
assistance as Reynolds could offer,
through the brush to the ambulance,
and w ith the aid of the other members
of our party, deposited it therein, after
which we went out as we had come in,
‘on the keen run.’ But when we had
gained the open field, the ambulance
was stopped, and the General’s remains
were placed in a proper position, his
limbs being straightened, his arms
folded over his breast, and his head
tightly bandaged, and supported by a
folded blanket. Thus we carried to
Gen. Sherman’s headquarters at the
Hurt House all that remained to earth
of the gallant soldier and beloved com
mander of The Army of the Tennes
see.”
In describing the evacuation of At
lanta by his troops, which occurred
early on the morning of November
16th, Gen. Sherman says of himself
and staff: “We rode out of Atlanta
by the Decatur road, filled by the
marching troops and wagons of the
Fourteenth corps; and reaching the
bill, just outside of the old rebel works,
we .naturally paused to look back upon
the scenes of our past battles. We
stood on the very ground whereon was
fought the bloody battle qf July 22d,
and could see the copse of wood where
McPherson fell. Behind us lay At
lanta, smouldering and in ruins, the
black smoke rising high in air, and
hanging like a pall over the ruined
city.”
Some nine years ago, when head
quarters department of the South was
in Atlanta, and Gen. Roger in com
mand, the officers determined to place
a suitable memorial on the spot where
McPherson was killed. The spot was
accurately located and sufficient ground
obtained from the owner upon which
to erect the memorial. From an ac
count of a visit to the memorial, writ
ten by Major Sidney Herbert, eight
years ago, we extract the following:
“Recently, I paid a visit to this
once battle-scarred locality. Along
the main road, as we neared the place,
could still be seen the earthworks used
by the Confederate forces, in defense
of Atlanta, in July, 1864. The nu
merous wood-crowned ridges in that
vicinity, suggested to a military man,
that contending armies meeting there,
would be likely to do bloody work for
each other. When we reached the
spot, the morning sun was shining with
genial warmth, and it was near the
hour at which Gen. McPherson fell.
Nature has made it a lovely place, and
now that art has placed there its me
morial to chivalry, its attractions will
draw many visitors in that direction.
Mingled with an undergrowth of oak I
and maple, many waving pine trees
throw their shade over the open space
within which the memorial stands.
The enclosed lot is about ten feet
square, and is surrounded by a neatly
ornamented iron fence, the pickets be
ing single gun-barrels with spear-head
tops, and the corner-posts composed of
a cluster of gun-barrels surmounted
with a conical-shaped ornament. This
fence is placed upon a solid stone foun
dation, and is painted black, as is also
the cannon and presents a very hand
some appearance. In the center of
the lot is a granite base, some five feet :
square and eighteen inches high, from
the center of which rises the grim ■
‘twenty-four-pounder,’ in the mouth of
which is a cannon ball. The hill-side i
road, along which Gen. McPherson
was riding when killed, passes within
two or three feet of the enclosure,
while the more traveled road, which
crosses it at this point, is some twenty
-or thirty feet distant. On the side of-
the granite base, fronting this latter
road are the raised letters —‘McPher-
son’ —no other inscription being deem
ed necessary.”
Beside this appropriate memorial
th we has been erected in Washington,
I). C., in McPherson Square, a grand
equestrian statute of the General, and
at Clyde, Ohio, near the grave in
which he lies buried, has been erected
a handsome monument, an illustration
of which, as well as of the memorial
near Atlanta, we give, in connection
with this tribute to his memory.
Tlie Great Horseshoe Bend.
Between Allatoona and Cartersville,
and very near the latter point, is the
great horse shoe bend of the Wes
tern and Atlantic Railroad. The
Western and Atlantic, running north
ward, emerges from the Allatoona
Mountains and makes a bend in al
most the exact shape of a horseshoe
which is nearly one mile long from one
end to the other, the mountain pass
being at the southern end and the
Western and Atlantic’s iron bridge
over the Etowah River at the other
end.
Passengers crossing the bridge, or
emerging from the mountains respect
ively, frequently look across the nar
row neck of land which separates the
two ends of the horseshoe bend and ask
the train men, or others, what other
railroad that is that runs parallel to
theirs, and express some surprise when
informed that it is the same railroad
and that this is merely a big bend of
it.
It is interesting to know that one of
the principal engineering reasons as
signed for making this great bend,
through what appears to be almost a
level plain, was to secure an easy grade.
It is said that had a short cut been
taken from the bridge across the Eto
wah to where the road penetrates the
mountains on the south the grade would
have been double the thirty-five feet
per mile which it now is.
It can readily be seen, therefore,
that there was wisdom displayed in
making the great horseshoe bend.
The Western and Atlantic Railroad
runs through the wild and picturesque
scenery among the Allatoona Moun
tains after going northward through
Allatoona Pass.
There are few more charming spots
in the south, if you take the rugged
and striking landscape into considera
tion.
A wild country this is to travel
through in a palace car in times of
peace. How impressive, therefore, it
must have appeared to the tens of
thousands of soldiers who fought and
flanked each other through this coun
try in the days of ’64!
Marietta has superb hotels and board
ing houses, a fine livery stable, splen
did drives, beautiful scenery, pure
water, glorious atmosphere; and is on
ly twenty miles from Atlanta, with
about half a dozen trains per day each
way.
I he Kennesaw Route is the shortest.
