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VIEW OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN FROM THE REDOUBT ABOVE ALLATOONA PASS.
On the High Hill above the Righthand end of the Western & Atlantic Railroad Embankment,
as shown in the Picture, was Stationed the Confederate Battery which Annoyed the
Federals so Greatly during the Battle, October 5, 1864.
replenish supplies to troops passing
there. And as a prominent Confeder
ate officer said in a letter to the writer
had even the private soldiers known
the truth they would have burnt these
stores without orders. They would
have made it a special object to
destroy them, and whether from
matches or from their guns they would
have obtained the necessary fire.
During the battle many of the Con
federates threw away their Belgian
muskets in exchange for the fine
Springfield rifles captured on the field
and taken from the prisoners. Some
of the United States troops were
armed with repeating rifles of Henry
pattern, as a number of them were
captured and brought away. The old
Belgian muskets were gathered up
and reported as the trophies of their
victory by the Federal commanders;
but they carefully omit to enumerate
the number of their Springfield and
Henry rifles which the Confederates
carried away instead'of those gathered
up as “trophies.”
Arriving at the wagon train, Gen
eral Cockrell was ordered on with the
division to the Allatoona bridge to
capture the block house there and
hold the position until General French
should arrive, for the latter had re
turned to the position where the artil
lery was during the battle. There he
remained with one battery of artillery
and a few men as a rear guard until
4: 30 p. m.
During all this interval between the
withdrawal of the Confederate forces
and 4:30 p. m. not a human being
was seen to venture outside the fort,
and General French there, in full
view of the works, remarked to the
officers with him as he turned away
from the scene, “Silence like the pall
of death rests over Allatoona. It is
as lifeless as a grave-yard at mid
night.”
Os course it may be fairly assumed
that the assault being over, the Feder
ate were busy ministering to their
wounded, and therefore were not run
ning around outside their breastworks.
But if General Corse’s famous dispatch
to Sherman that he “could whip all
hell yet” were true in the sense that
the average reader would take it, why
did his command, while he was in
great pain from his wound, permit the
Confederates to rest quietly on the
ridge in sight of their works from 1
p. m. until nearly 3 p. m., and a
single battery to remain in position in
their front until 4:30 p. m. with a
s mall support, after the division had
]eft for Allatoona bridge/? Why did
they not sally out after the confeder
ates when (as he reports) “they were
driven from every position and finally
fled in confusion bearing their dead
and wounded ; ” and when he further
says, “With a brigade of fresh troops
I would have captured French’s entire
division.”
It is very strange that with such
defiance there was at the same time
such indifference on the part of his
soldiers to pursuing, and, in fact, such
indifference to exposing one’s head
above the breastworks.
One of the leading officers in Cock
rell’s brigade in a letter to the writer
of this article, says :
It was difficult to withdraw, but my men
withdrew singly and in squads, under the
cover of our fire from the fort on the high
ground west of the main fort, and this fire
kept the enemy from seeing the soldiers
withdrawing. The troops were not demor
alized but very mad, —not whipped or cow
ed, but mad because withdrawn before
they were allowed to make the hist charge
and the hand-to-hand combat, in which
they all felt they would have been victors,
as the enemy could only have fired once as
our men leaped on the fort and into the out
er trench, while the enemy would have
been in a mass on the inside, thick as they
could stand.
But additional testimony on this
point is found in the statement of a
countryman by the name of W. M.
Denton, who was in the fort with the
Federate. He says that during the
latter portion of the morning the Fed
erate were very much out of heart;
they had no water, and could not get
it without going down under a heavy
fire, and their ammunition was nearly
exhausted (this statement is identical
with that made to the writer by a
prominent Federal officer who was in
the battle), that they were on the eve
of surrendering when to their surprise
the Confederate fire sensibly slackened
and gradually ceased. They could
scarcely believe the truth when, with
their own eyes, they saw the Confed
erates give up the assault and with-
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THE HORSE SHOE BEND AND WESTERN & ATLANTIC RAILROAD BRIDGE OVER THE ETOWAH RIVER.
THE KENNESAW GAZETTE.
draw from their shelter around the
forts, and afterwards march away.
It was a mystery to them why, when
they themselves had been so complete
ly exhausted and disabled, the enemy
should retire from the field.
The Confederates hastened to gain
the Dallas road. Colonel Adaire with
his Mississippi regiment and one piece
of artillery had destroyed the railroad
bridge over the Allatoona creek, and
burnt the timbers ready for a new one ;
but had failed as yet to capture the
blockhouse. General Cockrell order
ed the artillery to open on it. After
sustaining the fire of the guns for
sometime it surrendered. The unin
jured men, eighty-five in number, were
made prisoners. Their Springfield
rifles were appropriated by the Con
federates and a corresponding number
of old muskets thrown away by the
road side. These, of course, increased
the number of “trophies” for the Fed
erate.
General Sherman’s lieutenants were
tardy in their movements. The in
fantry column moving up from Big
.Shanty should have been in Acworth
(six miles distant,) by 12 m. and by 2
p. m. in sight of the Allatoona creek
block house (3 miles further,) on the
Dallas rogd over which the Confed
erates passed to New Hope Church.
But they moved cautiously, not know
ing the movements General Hood was
making. In fact, General Sherman,
as quoted later, says : “J was dread
fully impatient at the slow progress of
the relieving column.”
The Confederates captured in the
battle 205 prisoners, one U. S. flag
and the colors of the Ninety-third Illi
nois regiment, a number of horses, a
good supply of arms, etc.
The losses suffered by the two sides
are, after all the best evidences of the
desperate nature of the struggle
They are, as reported, as follows :
By the Confederates.
Killed. Wounded. Missing,
Cockrell’s brigade, 42 182 22
Sears'brigade,*... 37 114 200
Ector’s brigade,.. .. 43 147 11
Staff, 1
122 443 234
Making a grand total of 799.
By the Federals.
Killed. Wounded. Missing.
142 353 212
Making a grand total of 707.
These figures show that each side
lost over thirty percent of its number
engaged.
The Federate claim to have captured
411 prisoners, and that 231 Confeder
ates were found dead on the battle
field and in the adjoining woods.
This claim is not inconsistent with the
Confederate reports, inasmuch as a
number of those reported wounded by
the Confederates during the battle
may have died, and some of those re
ported as “missing” doubtless were
dead, and all of those too badly woun
ded to march back to the ambulances,
nearly a mile distant, were left in
charge of surgeons, as shown elsewhere
in this paper, and. of course, fell into
the hands of the Federate.
The casualties among officers on both
sides were remarkable, and are the
highest testimony of their dashing
and daring leadership.
On the Confederate side, Colonel
W. H. Clark, of the Forty-sixth Mis
sissippi regiment, Scars’ brigade, was
killed. He fell, leading his troops
near the Federal works, with the bat
tie-flag in his hand. He was a gal
lant, meritorious and distinguished of
ficer. Majors W. F. Carter and O.
A. Waddell, of the Missouri brigade,
were mortally wounded and soon died.
* Sears’ casualty report, made right after the
battle, shows 42 lulled, 127 wounded and 256 mis
sing. As the figures given above are in General
French’s report,* dated a month later, it is pos
sible that some of those included in Sears’ list
afterward came in and rejoined their commands.
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