Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4 The Acworth and Cartersville wag on road, as it came up the hill from the railroad depot, also curved to the southwest thence to the w T est, and be ing cut into the slope some four or five feet, afforded an excellent breastwork, which some of the Federal pickets for a while held, commanding the village and the storehouses. Concerning the last two redoubts referred to, General Corse, who visit ed Allatoona with the writer in 1886, stated that they were not made by the Federals nor occupied by his troops during the battle; but inasmuch as they both face southeast toward the railroad, General Corse was evidently mistaken about who constructed them. Furthermore he arrived after mid night, just before the battle, was bad ly wounded in it, and left for Rome within a few hours after the fighting ceased, and had no opportunity to go out there ; and the Confederate testi mony shows that they were there the day of the battle, and that the Feder als withdrew from them into the main works under pressure of the picket fir ing- Even at this time, twenty-six years after the battle, all of these ditches, embankments, and also the isolated rifle pits, can be plainly seen, —the two main forts on opposite sides of the railroad being in a particularly fine state of preservation; and o<e who studies them in their entirety is forced to the conclusion that the Federal gar rison, like intelligent soldiers, appear, in locating and constructing them, to have made the most of the advantages of what General Sherman termed this “natural fortres .” *** The artillery had opened on the torts at about seven a m. Disposi tion of the division for an attack on the place was now made. General French first ordered the brigade oi General Sears to descend into the val ley, north of the ridge on which the enemy were posted, and to move east erly, so as to attack from the north. The brigades of Generals Cockrell and Ector were formed, as well as the ground admitted, mostly across the ridge on the west, in the order named, —a portion of Ector's brigade extending as a skirmish line to the railroad on the south, —and were to move to the attack when the sound of musketry was heard from Sears’ troops on the north. It was now learned that Captain Taylor, of Roddy’s command, who had been sent from Acworth about sunset the previous day with the de tachment of fifteen men to tear up the railroad near the Etowah bridge, as has been stated, had inexcusably failed to perform that duty. This wilful neglect to make a break in the railroad left it in condition for Gener al Corse to reinforce the troops in the works on the morning of the sth with over a thousand men. As soon as it was reported to Gener al French that the track had not been destroyed, Lieut. Venet, of the engi neers, was sent with a few men to re move some rails and hide them in the woods, and cut the telegraph wires, al so, and these were done. Had Taylor performed his duty General Corse would have been checked some six or seven miles north of Allatoona, and the post, garrison, and stores would have certainly fallen into the hands of the Confederates. General Sears was over an hour in making the movement assigned to him, and sent back a dispatch to Gen eral French that his course was im peded by, what he termed, a bayou, the water in it being from five to eight feet deep,and that he had been compell- s'' ■ ■’ .A- - FROM THE SALLY-PORT OF THE “ STAR FORT,” LOOKING NORTH. The Mill Pond in the Distance, and the Federal Works Across the Pass, from which Sears’ Assault on the “ Star Fort” was Checked by an Enfilading Fire.—From a Photograph taken in 1864. ed to go to the upper end of this, and march his men in single file by it along the steep side of the ridge. This “bayou,” or rather, pond, was the back water from a mill-dam on Alla toona creek on the east side of the road ; the Federals having raised the dam from its original height of six feet to fourteen feet, so as to flood the ravine through which it ran, and thus strengthen the defenses of Allatoona. During the time that Sears was get ting into position General French sent Major D. W. Sanders, his Adjutant General, to the Federal fortifications, bearing a fl ig of truce, with* a sum mons for the surrender of the Federal forces. Lieutenant E. T. Freeman, Assistant Inspector General, of Gener al French’s staff, accompanied Major Sanders with a detail of sixteen men from one of the North Carolina regi ments. The summons was as follows: Around Allatoona Oct. 5, 1864. Commanding Officer, U. S. Forces, Allatoona, Sir: I have placed the forces under my com mand in such position tint you are sur rounded, and to avoid the needless effusion of blood, 1 call on you to surrender your forces at once, and unconditionally. Five minutes will be allowed you to decide. Should you accede to this, you will be treated in the most honorable manner as prisoners of wa-. 1 have the honor to be, Very respectfully yours, S. G. FRENCH, Maj.-Gen’!, Com’dg, Forces C. S. Major Sanders was instructed to wait as much as fifteen minutes for a reply. Although the whistle of a locomotive and the movements of a train were heard by the Confederates as they approached Allatoona, none were aware that the forts had been re inforced. General French was igno rant of the arrival of General Corse and his troops, and the summons was sent under the supposition that the three regiments under Colonel Tour tellotte constituted the sole garrison. General Corse, by the way, had re ceived Sherman’s order to reinforce this garrison and take charge of defense. He accordingly left Rome at about 8 p. m. October 4th and reached Allatoona at about 1 a. m. October sth, with the following com mands : 12th Illinois, officers and men 164 7th Illinois, officers and men. .. .299 50th Illinois, officers and men. .. .267 39th lowa, men 284 57th Illinois, men 61 Total officers and men 1,075 This does not include himself and the three members of his staff, nor the officers of the 39th lowa and 57th Illi nois. To these we must add Colonel Tour tellotte’s force, as shown by the regi- THE KENNESAW GAZETTE. mental and other official reports, viz : 93rd Illinois, officers and men 294 18th Wisconsin, “guns,” 150 4th Minnesota, “guns,” 450 sth Ohio Cavalry, men 16 Apparent total 910 To these must yet be added the force manning the 12th Wisconsin Battery of six guns. These must have approximated 60 or more men; but neither General Corse nor Col. Tour tellotte gives the number or anything suggesting it. Furthermore, inas much as Col. Tourtellotte enumerates only the “guns” of the 93rd Illinois and the regimental report shows a greater number as officers and men, the same may be the case with his other two regiments, since Major Ed son commanding the 4th Minnesota* says: “I had four hundred and fifty men engaged in this battle,” thus making no enumeration of officers, and the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Jackson, commanding the 18th Wis consin, does not show how many of ficers or men. The usual quota of of ficers would have added ten captains and twenty lieutenants to the 4th Minnesota regiment alone. Therefore Tourtellotte’s garrison must have approximated or exceeded 1,000 officers and men. The summons, as General Corse in formed the writer, Was delivered to an officer on the advanced line, (the works across the ridge some two hundred and fifty yards west of the pass) who start ed with it in quest of General Corse. He was told that the commanding offi cer was in the fort on the east side of the railroad, so thither he went to find him. In the meantime General Corse says he started to cross over to the west side of the railroad. Shortly af terward he was found by the officer having the summons. General Corse read it, and sat down on a stump and wrote the following reply : Major-General S- G. French, C. S. A., etc., Your communication demanding surren der of my command I acknowledge the re ceipt of, and respectfully reply, that we are prepared for the “needless effusion of blood” whenever it is agreeable to you. I am very respectfully. Your obedient servant, JOHN M. CORSE, Brigadier General Commanding Forces U .8. The officer took the answer from General Corse, and went over to the west side of the railroad to deliver it to Major Sanders ; but the latter, after waiting seventeen minutes and receiv ing no reply, supposed that the Feder als were consuming the time in arrang ing their forces and strengthening their works, and had returned to Gen eral French without having received any reply to the summons from the Federal commander. The writer has gone thus fully into detail about the receipt of and answer to the summons because the Confeder ates never saw the latter until after the war, aijd some of them have as serted to the writer that they believed that it was written after the battle, be cause it “would read pretty in history.” It was now about 9 a. m., and Gen eral French ordered the brigades of Cockrell and Ector* to make the at tack. A portion of their line stretched to the railroad on the south ; but the greater part of each brigade was formed upon the ridge and its north ern slope. They had but little room t<s deploy to the right or left of the ridge, by reason of the fallen timber; anu the ridge itself hardly admitted of a company front. Consequently when they drove in the most advanced troops and encountered the Seventh Illinois and Thirty-ninth lowa regi ments (with 299 and 284 men respec tively, who were soon reinforced by seven companies of the Ninety-third Illinois, about 200 men,) in the works near the fork of the Pumpkinvine and Cartersville roads they were brought to a halt until they could find means to ex tend their iront, connect with Sears, and out flank the enemy. The Federals claim that the Confed erates were repulsed here and subse quently rallied and charged again; but the Confederate reports and oral testimony are clear to the effect that the line was broken by the irregular shape of the ground, and that those in front lay down until the others picked their way through the ravines, etc., to proper alignment with them. When this was accomplished they moved again to the assault of this bas tioned line of entrenchments, called by the Federal writers, “rifle pits,” running across the ridge barely more tnau two hundred and fifty yards west of the main fort. This line was de fended, as has been shown, by a troub lesome abatis and other formidable ob structions, over which the Confederates had to slowly work their way under a close and severe fire from Springfield rifles and from Henry repeating rifles, which was only terminated by a most desperate hand-to-hand fight in which t fT\ USSK * As shown later, Cockrell’s brigade numbered less than 1,000 officers and men, and the jjortion of Ector’s which took part in the assault did not exceed 550. Even some of these were stretched around to the railroad on the south, in skirmish ng order.