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General Scott, commanding the Second Brigade, was
taken prisoner early in the action of the 22d. Colonel Wiles
took command of the Brigade in the midst of the hottest of the
engagement. His tall form could be seen at all times, everywhere
encouraging the men to stand firm. And firm they stood, like
immovable rocks; and nothing but the obstinate stand and desperate
determination to hold their position or die there, saved the Seventeenth
Army Corps. Never in the history of the war did troops do harder
fighting than the Second Brigade that afternoon.
A few days after the fight of the 22d, the Corps
abandoned the left and moved to the right of the army, where,
for several days in sight of Atlanta, they fought with the enemy
and kept pouring shells into the city.
They next abandoned their works on the right, and
moved with the whole army, except the Twentieth Corps, to the
rear of Atlanta, by way of Jonesboro, which gave us possession
of the city. In the fight at Jonesboro, George Harris, of Company
E, was killed. This was the only casualty. He was a brave soldier
and a most worthy man. He left a wife and one child to mourn
his loss.
In addition to those killed upon the battle-field
of the 22d, very many died of their wounds. Among those not mentioned
in the records who were killed on that day, are Francis Porter,
Orderly Sergeant of Company G, and private E. Gallagher, of Company
K, both men of marked bravery and popular favor, loved and esteemed
by all; they have gone to their reward, engaged in defense of
humanity and the great principles of national honor and liberty.
After the city fell into our hands
it was made a military depot, all the inhabitants were ordered
either North or South, about an equal number going each way.
Nothing but the tramp of the soldiers was heard by night or day,
in the shattered, bullet-riddled and desolated city. The Seventy-Eighth
encamped south of the city, and enjoyed three or four weeks rest.
The rebel General Hood feeling sore over the loss
of Atlanta, determined upon a bold move that would again give
him possession of the city. He therefore decided to march his
whole army into Tennessee, cutting Sherman's communications on
his way, destroying all his depots of supplies, and thus compelling
Sherman to leave Atlanta, and follow him into Tennessee. This
was just what Sherman desired, and he moved after him with the
Fourth, Fifteenth, Fourteenth and Seventeenth Corps, and drove
him as far north as suited his purposes in making the grand raid
through Georgia.
When he had driven Hood beyond harm's way, he returned
and made all haste to put his army in readiness for the march
to the sea.
On the morning of the 15th of November the army left.
All the business part of the city was destroyed; being set on
fire it was left to the mercy of the flames. No one was left
to oppose them or check the wide spreading ruin. There has been
nothing like it in the history of the world. A city deserted
by every inhabitant, the angry flames leaping heavenward and from
building to building, rejoicing in their mad reign, where man
and happiness once dwelt in fond embrace.
Considered as a spectacle, the march
of General Sherman's army surpassed, in some respects, all marches
in history. The flames of a city lighted its beginning; desolation,
which in one sense is sublime, market its progress to the sea.
Its end was a beautiful possession – a city spared from doom.
Underneath smiling skies, cooled by airs balmy as the breath
of a northern summer, the army of the West, slowly
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