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overthrow of the Southern Confedera
cy. It was Sherman’s only channel
for supplies for his immense army, and,
during the campaign, he hugged it
with a tenacity which showed that he
considered it indispensable to success.
His flank movement through Snake
Creek Gap was to gain possession of it
at Resaca, in the rear of Johnston at
Dalton; his move against Calhoun,
south of Resaca, via Lay’s Ferry, had
the same end in view. Such, likewise,
was his object, in the skillfully-planned
and masterly march and strugglesabout
New Hope Church, and such was his
immediate aim in the movement south
west of Marietta, after the failure of
his grand and heroic assault upon Ken
nesaw Mountain.
One hundred and forty-five car loads
per day of supplies were needed for the
subsistence of his army during the cam
paign, and over this railroad they were
transported from Chattanooga.
To insure its preservation, as he
progressed farther and farther south
ward, he placed garrisons to protect
each bridge.
Johnston, too, was fully alive to the
supreme importance of this line to both
armies, and, while his constant endeav
or was to protect it behind him, it was
also, his most ardent desire to find
some means for breaking it in Sher
man’s rear; and thus forcing upon the
latter the alternative of retreat or star
vation. To this eud, he and the Gov
ernor of Georgia made the strongest
appeals to the Richmond government
for Forrest’s cavalry to be brought from
Mississippi and kept actively at the
work of destruction upon the railroad
bridges, etc.; using the argument that
it was better to take the risk of Feder
al raids in northern Mississippi than
to lose the opportunity of forcing into
disastrous retreat the invading army
which was driving its advance like a
wedge of steel into the very heart of
the Confederacy.
These entreaties, however, were with
out success, and the Western & Atlan
tic Railroad, despite Sherman’s con
stant apprehensions of the realization
of Johnston’s wish, remained the chief
means by which the invasion was sus
tained, and crowned with the fall of
Atlanta.
As a prominent Federal authority
said, after the war, to a Western &
Atlantic official, “The Union element
cannot be too thankful for the fact that
your road was in existence.”
“Then,” was the remark, “ the W.
& A. road should be the pride of every
true American, if by reason of its ex
istence the Union was saved.”
The Western and Atlantic Railroad
train No. 19, leaving Atlanta at 5:50
p. m., connects with the N. & C. train
which arrives at Nashville at 6:20 the
next morning and reaches Louisville at
2:20 p. m. that day. It also con
nects at Nashville with the train via
Evansville, arriving at Chicago at
10:50 a. m. the next day, and which
arrives at St. Louis at 8:00 p. m. the
next night after leaving Atlanta.
Jhe Kennesaw Route is the'quickest.
(Special to the Commercial Gazette.)
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA.
Veterans Visiting Old Battle-Fields.
The Old Soldiers’ Excursion to
Scenes Familiar to Them
Over Twenty Years
Ago.
Atlanta, Ga., September 22. —
This has been a day full of the keen
est interest and enjoyment to all taking
part in the veteran excursion. Leav
ing Chattanooga at seven o’clock, this
morning, the whole day has been spent
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upon the road between there and At
lanta. The weather, which early in
the morning was hazy, and with clouds
threatening rain, soon cleared up, and
became clear, fresh and bracing.
Stops of from half an hour to an
hour and a half were made at the
points of greatest interest along the
road. The Western and Atlantic ,
Railroad is the road along which Sher
man advanced in his march to At
lanta, and it passes through or near
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the scenes of nearly all the important
conflicts of that memorable campaign.
Among the places visited were Chicka
mauga Station, Ringgold, Buzzards’
Roost, Dalton, Resaca, Allatoona, Big
Shanty, Kennesaw Mountain and Ma
rietta.
At Chattanooga the excursion train
was taken charge of by C. E. Har
man, the General Western Agent for
the Western and Atlantic Railroad ;
and to his good management and cour
teous and affable demeanor was due
much of the enjoyment of the trip.
THE KENNESAW GAZETTE.
Part of those who had come from
i Cincinnati were left at Chattanooga,
but among those who continued the
trip were the representatives of thirty
regiments Os these regiments one
was from Massachusetts, eight from
Indiana, eighteen from Ohio, two of
the United States Regimental Cavalry,
and one from Georgia—the latter be
ing represented by a single Confederate
soldier of the First Georgia. Besides
these, there was a delegation of five
ladies, belonging to the Old Guard
Relief Corps, Post No. 121, of Dayton,
Ohio.
It has been remarked as a singular
and unaccountable circumstance that
at all gatherings of ex-soldiers, both
North and South, since the war, all
veterans are officers, and that the pri
vates, as a class, have become utterly
extinct. But this excursion is an ex
ception to the rule, and among all the
veterans present there are not half a
dozen commissioned officers, and of
these none were of higher rank than
Captain.
Dayton, 0., sends the largest dele
gation from any single place, among
whom are Lieutenant T. L. Steward
and wife and Privates E. B. Lyon,
John Mull and Henry Kissenger.
From Mansfield, Ohio., is Captain J.
S. Hedges, of the Fourth United
State Regular Cavalry, with his wife
and daughter.
Our only Confederate is Captain T.
J. Lyon, of Cartersville, Ga., whose
regiment served in General Toombs’
brigade of the Army of Northern
Virginia, He is a lawyer, the local
attorney of the Western and Atlantic
Rail road, and a gentleman, whose ser
vice in the rebel army and extensive
knowledge of war history from the
Confederate standpoint, make him a
most valuable addition to the party.
Although there was no great pitched
battles between the armies of Sherman
and Johnston during the Atlanta cam
paign, yet there were fierce conflicts
involving corps and divisions, terrific
assaults of intrenched positions, and
sharp fights between brigades and
regiments, while nearly every mile of
the distance had its skirmish or cavalry
fight. To many a veteran the peculiar
interest of the whole campaign cen
ters in some of these minor conflicts
not mentioned in the reports, and
which will never appear in history,
but where more of his comrades were
lost than in the great battles of the
war.
The first position of Johnston’s army
along Rocky Face Ridge, guarding
Buzzard Roost Gap, and covering Dal
ton, was fortified by works of the
most formidable character. The great
forts on each side of the gap can still
be plainly seen from the train, although
the view is somewhat obstructed by
the bushes which have grown up since
the war.
A single glance at the ridge, with
its precipitous sides, and the line of
works along its crest frowning down
upon you, is sufficient to show why
Sherman made no attempt to force the
position by assault. In front of the
Gap is pointed out the place where
Lieu tenant Steward, commanding Com
pany K, of the Eleventh Ohio, built a
bridge across Mill Creek under a ter
rific fire of both artillery and infantry,
losing several men in the work, only to
find it useless by reason of the com
manding position of the rebel bat
teries.
At Dalton is obtained one of the
finest views along the whole route.
From the summit of a large earth
work called Fort Hill, built, I believe,
by Union soldiers after the capture of
the town, you see to the northward
the reverse side of Rocky Face, with
its patches of white limestone cliffs
glistening in the sun. Running your
eye along the ridge to the westward
you see Dug Gap, famous almost as
the Buzzard’s Roost in the history of
the campaign, Twelve miles beyond,
where the ridge fades to a misty blue
line, you seethe point along whose fur
ther side is Snake Creek Gap, through
which McPherson marched with the
Army of the Tennessee, turning John
ston’s position and compelling its evac
uation.
Turning to the eastward, you see the
beautiful Cohutta Mountains, twenty
miles distant, and running off to the
northward in a series of alternate
peaks and depressions, scalloping the
blue of the horizon. A native of Dal
ton officiously informs you that the
fort upon which you stand was the
scene of the slaughter of a colored
regiment by a portion of Hood’s army
when he marched northward upon
Sherman’s line of communication, af
ter the fall of Atlanta. Failing to re
call the circumstances from your read
ing of war history, you wonder if this,
too, is some of the history of the war
that did not appear in the reports.
On to Resaca. As the train stops
the vets jump from the cars and start
for the hills to the west of the town,
each intent upon finding a point from
which he can locate the place in which
his regiment played its part in the
bloody conflicts which compelled the
abandonment of the town. The rebel
breastworks, which line the westward
slope of every elevation, and the artil-
Coneluded on
13