“For a half hour I watched him, and, though I looked for and expected to find them, no symptoms could I detect that the mind of the great leader was taxed by the infinite cares of a terribly hazardous military _coup de main_. Apparently it did not lay upon his mind the weight of a feather. A mail arrived. He tore open the papers and glanced over them hastily, then chatted with some general officers near him, then rode off with characteristic suddenness, but with fresh and smiling countenance, filing down the road beside many thousand men, whose lives were in his keeping.”
The truly great mind is magnanimous in the hour of victory; a selfish, narrow one is arrogant and oppressive. We ought to be devoutly grateful to God for leaders in this second life-struggle of freedom, who in general character emulate our unrivalled Washington, and do not tarnish the cause he loved by revengeful or unworthy deeds.
The Events which followed the Truce—General Hood’s Army in Motion —Battle at Allatoona Pass—He is left to the care of the gallant Thomas—The New and Magnificent Campaign of General Sherman—The Field of his Operations—Burning of Rome—The Advance—Atlanta partially Burned—The Rebel Fears and Hopes— The March.
DURING the truce which closed September 22d, General Hood had moved his army toward Macon, to protect that important town. But the startling rumor reached his ear that his bold antagonist would turn his front toward Mobile, away on the shores of the Gulf. This drew the rebel chief from his position, and brought him by a westward movement across the track toward the seaboard.
On Sunday, September 25th, at Macon, Jeff Davis addressed the soldiers, assuring them their feet would soon press the soil of Tennessee, spreading before them golden visions of conquest and abundance of supplies. To compel General Sherman to abandon his southern march, and follow him into Tennessee, the desperate leader of treason’s battalions wheeled about and recrossed the Chattahoochie River. Thus was abandoned the great State of Georgia, and the “hotbed of secession,” South Carolina, to the Union army. Generals Hood and Forrest began to cut railroad lines and burn bridges.
At Allatoona Pass the enemy made a furious assault on our garrison to regain this Thermopylæ of the campaign, but dashed in vain upon the valor of our unyielding ranks. The commander-in-chief of our forces, who had signalled General Corse from the top of Kenesaw Mountain to meet the enemy there, sent the “boys” his warm congratulations: