It is a pleasant, breezy afternoon in September, and as I sit here in my tent, on a beautiful grassy hill in the suburbs of the fall city, and watch our National colors floating gaily from its spires, I feel profoundly thankful that God has permitted me to pass safely through all the stern struggles of this long campaign, and that mine eyes are permitted to see the old flag floating over stil another stronghold of the enemy. I knew we would triumph; in the darkest hours of this campaign my faith in our ultimate success was strong; I did not expect the city would fall into our hands without terrible fighting, but I knew we could do the fighting, and had no fears of the result….
….I have been very closely engaged here since the enemy began shelling the city. He hauled off a few days ago and the army seemed as much elated as tho’ we had gained a great victory, whereas it was simply changing his mode of attack. Our works were formidable; he felt of them half a dozen times; his men could not be got to charge them. He then wisely fell back, massed himself 6 or 7 miles west so. west [west, southwest] of the town on the West Point Road R. Road, entrenched, and is gradually moving, entrenching as he goes, until he straddles the Macon road, cuts off our supplies, and compels us to fight him in his works or evacuate the place as soon as our rations are out.
In the mean time he places a corps on the Chattahoochee defending his line from Vining’s Station to Sand Town in his rear and thus protecting his line of communications. In fact, allowing for the topography of the country, it is precisely the Vicksburg movement acted over again, except we can get out when we want to and Pemberton could not. But we shall be equally unable to hold the place.
The enemy care nothing for Wheeler and his seven thousand cavalry in the rear. They did not obstruct his trains more than four days, if that; and Wheeler avoided all depots where there were as much as armed sutlers. He has been gone for three weeks. I cannot say he has done no good, for he has relieved the poor people of this part of the country temporarily from his plundering marauding bands of cowardly robbers. It is said he is in Tennessee….
This army of Tennessee is in a deplorable condition. Hood is getting ridd of Bragg’s worthless pets as fast as he can, but Davis supports a great number of them, and many other incompts. [incompetents] are sent from other places to take their commands. Hood I think the very best of the generals of his school; but like all the rest of them he knows no more of business that a ten year old boy, and don’t know who does know anything about it.
The longer the war last the more and more important it becomes to husband the resources of the country; but our are wasted with a wild recklessness….
Behold the prospect! This army has less than thirty thousand musketts present for duty, leaving out the militia who have under four thousand….
Robert Toombs, excerpts from a private letter to Alexander Stephens, August 30, 1864.
(Source: The Civil War: The Final Year Told by Those Who Lived It; Brooks D. Simpson, Editor, 2013, pages 333-335.)
Robert Toombs
Confederate Problems at Atlanta
Robert Toombs – former U.S. Senator from Georgia – didn’t paint a rosy picture when he wrote to a fellow Georgian – Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy. The situation which had been spiraling and stalemating over the summer was certainly not improving in Confederate favor.
General John Bell Hood had replaced General Joseph E. Johnston as the Confederate commander earlier in the summer but didn’t have significant successes. The Southern army was outnumbered. Vital supply lines into Atlanta were under constant threat from purposeful Union attacks.
If that wasn’t enough trouble, Confederate supplies to feed the army and civilians were lacking. Just having Wheeler’s cavalry in the area had strained the countryside’s provisions. The situation created a catch – have the army and the army eats your food. No army, and you’ll definitely have Yankees.
General W.T. Sherman
Atlanta Will Fall
After a series of battles and skirmishes climaxing at the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, General Sherman and his Yankees settled in for a siege-like wait for the next couple weeks; his artillery shelled Atlanta, and cavalry and raiding parties headed to the west and south, cutting vital supply lines to the Southern city. Here, the Confederate cavalry under Joseph Wheeler played a large and more successful role than Toombs gave them credit for.
The Confederates stubbornly held onto to Atlanta, forcing Sherman to revise his plans. The Union army swung around the city to the west, still angling to cut railroad connections. On August 31st, they successfully seized Jonesborough and the tracks to Macon, Georgia. Atlanta was about to be pulled from the Confederate’s grips.
Historical Musings
“The longer the war last the more and more important it becomes to husband the resources of the country…”
The Confederates knew it. The Union generals knew it. And within a few weeks, Sherman would act accordingly. If the resources of the country could be destroyed or used to sustain the Union army on a quick march toward the coast…
The stage was set. And both sides knew the possible danger and opportunity.
Made breastworks of logs, and by nine Oclock A.M. the Yanks artillery opened on us from our left, their shell enfalading our lines. They have heard us chopping down trees and building our works and have our range – and the woods are so thick we can’t see them. Their artillery are killing our men very fast – One company just to my left after finishing their works sat down to rest in a little ditch they had dug, when a shell came and took them at one end and killed and crippled every man in the ditch….
When the enemy first made his appearance at Resaca, there was only one brigade of Cantey’s Division consisting of three regiments and one battery there, though there were some guns placed in batteries on the heights overlooking the town. This force succeeded in checking the Yankees until reinforcements arrived, which by-the-way, did not come a moment too soon, for I verily believe that Johnston barely missed being caught in a bad box, and whatever may be said to the contrary, I shall always think that it was nothing more than sheer good luck and the lack of enterprise on the part of the Yankees that his communications was not cut off. I know that the wires were cut between Dalton and Resaca and all dispatches were sent by courier.
Gazette665 