Chapter 2

On the West side of the railway cut, and almost on its verge, stood the other redoubt, about 90 feet in diameter, occupying an elevation from which the ground fell in all directions. Westwardly, after a moderate dip, the ground rose again to a second elevation or spur, on which stood a house, distant from the redoubt about 170 yards. Beyond this the ground again fell, and the road ran West and Southwest, undulating with the roll of the ground. The exterior defences of the West side, in addition to the ditches surrounding the redoubt, were a short line of entrenchments near the crest Southwest of the redoubt, and a longer line of rifle-pits lying completely across the ridge, beyond the house and about 260 yards distant from the redoubt. These rifle-pits, held by the 39th Iowa and the 7th Illinois, were later the scene of one of the most savage encounters in the history of war.

About three-quarters of a mile out on the road, occupying an open elevation, were still other small works and rifle-pits, not, however, any portion of the regular defences. They had low parapets and were supposed to have been constructed by Johnston's army when it occupied the locality in June previous. It was from these outer works, which there was, of course, no serious attempt to hold, that our outposts were driven in by the arrival of French's troops on the morning of the 5th.

Tourtellotte was made aware on the 3rd that the enemy was operating on the railroad South of him, and on the 4th was signalled by Sherman through Kenesaw that the enemy was moving upon him, and that he must hold out, but not till the evening of the 4th was any direct demonstration made on Allatoona.

Feeling the paucity of his isolated force, he had worked night and day to construct and strengthen his defences and mature his plans.

The two redoubts were well located for mutual support, each being able to take in flank an enemy assaulting the other from the North or South. The relative disadvantage of the West redoubt, irrespective of its exposure to the probable brunt of an attack, was the fact that higher elevations to the West and Southwest partly commanded it. Tourtellotte therefore built the rifle-pits across the crest of the ridge to the Westward with the object of holding off the enemy as long as possible, and if the crest were taken, of retiring to the redoubt, to reach which the enemy must cover a distance of some 220 yards without shelter. In addition, he partly enclosed the West redoubt with a stockade, at the junction of the outer slope and the surrounding ditch, to prevent escalade if the enemy should reach it, slashed such timber as remained for abattis, and collected some cotton bales with which to close the entrance.

His gunners in the East redoubt, and the infantry as well on the East side of the cut, were charged to watch the flanks of the West redoubt, and direct their fire so as to cover the slopes to the North and South of it.

His garrison was depleted by his orders to maintain a force to guard the block house at the bridge across Allatoona Creek, about two miles South of the post, where three companies of the 18th Wisconsin were stationed.

They were summoned by French on his way to Allatoona to surrender, but refused, and held the block house, but as French was sullenly withdrawing after the battle, the post was heavily shelled and set on fire, and when the roof was blazing and the men suffocating with the heat and smoke, they surrendered; 4 officers and 80 men being taken prisoners. These men, though included in the return of casualties of the 18th Wisconsin, were not concerned in the Battle of Allatoona.

Tourtellotte, on the evening of the 4th, apprehending a night attack, which would impair the advantages of his position, strengthened his grand guard, barricaded as well as he might the roads to the South and West, and made arrangements to fire a house or two so as to illuminate the site of the little village and the storehouses; but about midnight was immensely relieved by the arrival of Corse, which more than doubled the strength of the garrison and made it possible to man the defences with some measure of effectiveness.

THE MORNING OF THE BATTLE.

There was but little delay in getting down to work. By 2 in the morning a rapid fire was opened on the skirmish lines South of the post, as though the enemy were pushing up the railroad straight at the stores. Tourtellotte immediately dispatched the 18th Wisconsin to reinforce the outposts in that direction, and an hour later Corse threw out a battalion of the 7th Illinois in further support. Five companies of the 93rd Illinois were also sent out to the Westward near the outlying works already referred to.

At daybreak, under cover of a strong skirmish line, Corse withdrew the troops from the open ground in the vicinity of the village to the summit of the ridge, placing the 4th Minnesota and the 12th and 50th Illinois in the redoubt, and intrenchments on the East side of the railway cut, under the immediate command of Tourtellotte, and himself occupying with the rest of his force, under the immediate command of Rowett, the Western side, upon which it was evident the weight of the attack must fall. The 7th Illinois and the 39th Iowa, on the left and right respectively, facing West, were ordered to occupy the line of rifle-pits crossing the ridge about 250 yards in advance of the redoubt. As no defences intervened between this line and the ditch encompassing the redoubt itself, it was of vital importance to hold it and keep the enemy in check to the last moment, and the two regiments were instructed to maintain their position at all hazards. The event proved with what fidelity and devotion the trust was discharged.

Three companies of the 93rd Illinois were stationed in the rifle-pits adjacent to the West redoubt, and the remainder of the troops were distributed forward on skirmish and outpost duty. The six guns of the battery were equally divided, two being stationed in each redoubt, with the third outside behind a low parapet.

The day broke calm and clear, with the crisp air and bright warm sun of that superb mountain region. Sherman, on Kenesaw, takes occasion to record it as a "beautiful day" with some vague consciousness in his mind, perhaps, of the contrast between the shining peace that reigned above and the devil's work that in smoke and fury waged below. At half-past six a rebel battery of 12 pieces opened from an elevation three-quarters of a mile South and East of Allatoona, and for two hours maintained a furious cannonade, that, concentrated upon the two redoubts, filled the air with smoke and fragments of shell, and deafened the ear with almost incessant detonations. Meanwhile French's skirmish lines were vigorously pushed round to the West and North until, with the exception of the steep and timbered valley of Allatoona Creek on the extreme East, the garrison was completely invested.

At 8:30, amid a temporary lull of the uproar that had prevailed, a flag of truce was sent in bearing the following message: It was dated

Around Allatoona, Oct. 5, 1864, 7 A. M.

Commanding Officer, U. S. Forces, Allatoona.

Sir:

I have placed the forces under my command in such position that you are surrounded, and to avoid a needless effusion of blood, I 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 war. I have the honor to be

Very respectfully yours,

S. G. FRENCH, Maj.-Gen'l C. S. A.

In making his report subsequently, French endorses on a copy of this summons, the following:

Maj. Sanders, the bearer of this communication, was attacked while bearing the flag of truce. He delivered the communication to an officer and told him he would wait outside the works fifteen minutes for an answer. None came; none was sent, and so the attack was made.

S. G. F., Maj.-Gen'l, Commanding.

Whatever may have been the external conditions that led to this view of the matter on the part of General French, there is no question that Corse did reply, and promptly and to the point. He wrote his answer on the top of a neighboring stump, and a splinter or two may have gotten in it:

Maj.-General French, C. S. A., etc.:

Your communication demanding surrender of my command, I acknowledge receipt 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 U. S. Forces.

When this reply had been dispatched, Corse remarked, "They will now be upon us," and nothing remained but to notify the several commands of the purport of the correspondence, and to prepare for the bloody work that lay before them.

* * * * *

French commanded a division in the corps of Lieutenant-General Stewart, which had been dispatched by Hood Eastward from Dallas to destroy the railroad, as witnessed by Sherman from the summit of Kenesaw, and his report, dated Nov. 5, from which the following particulars of his movements are derived, is of great interest.

Stewart had struck the railroad at Big Shanty, four miles North of Kenesaw on the evening of October 3rd, and his three divisions labored all night at their task, completing it as far as Acworth. This work accomplished, French's division was sent Northward under direct orders from Hood, which are given in French's report, and have some peculiar features. Both orders are dated October 4th, and were handed to French at Big Shanty by Stewart at noon. The earlier one said that French "Shall move up the railroad and fill up the deep cut at Allatoona with logs, brush, dirt etc." Also that when at Allatoona, French was, if possible, to move to the Etowah Bridge, the destruction of which would "be of great advantage to the army and the country." The second order again urged the importance of destroying the Etowah Bridge, if such were possible, and that as the enemy (Sherman), could not disturb him before the next day, he was to "get his artillery in position and then call for volunteers with 'lightwood' to go to the bridge and burn it."

The curious points about these instructions are, in the first place, the absurdity of a wearied body of troops undertaking such a task as that of filling up a railway cut 65 feet deep and some 300 or 400 yards long, in the way described, with "logs and dirt" and the futility of doing it, if it were possible. It would have taken French several days to fill up that cut, even assuming him to be uninterfered with, and one day's labor would open it again.

The second point is the absence of any reference to a garrison at Allatoona, or to the accumulation of stores there. French was a good soldier, and after stating in his report that as both he and Stewart knew the facts in the case and were aware of the large amount of stores, they considered it important that the place be captured, contents himself with saying, dryly, "It would appear, however, from these orders, that the General-in-Chief was not aware that the Pass I was sent to have filled up was fortified and garrisoned." The fact is that it requires something more than mere courage to command an army, and it seems likely that a few such specimens of leadership cost Hood the confidence of his subordinates, and thoroughly justified Sherman in a disparaging remark he made respecting him a day or two later.

Stewart gave French 12 pieces of artillery under Major Myrick and at 3:30 P. M. of the 4th he marched away to Acworth, but was detained there until 11 at night by lack of rations. The night was dark, the roads bad, and he didn't know the country. From Acworth he reports seeing night signalling between Kenesaw and Allatoona, and fearing that reinforcements might be sent from the Northward, he dispatched a small cavalry force to reach the railroad as close to the Etowah as possible and take up the rails. It was a wise precaution, but undertaken too late, as Corse was at Allatoona by midnight. French arrived there about 3 in the morning, and, as he writes, "Nothing could be seen but one or two twinkling lights on the opposite heights and nothing was heard except the occasional interchange of shots between our advance guards and the pickets of the garrison in the valley below." He placed his artillery in position at Moore's, 1300 yards south and east of the Post, an admirable location for the purpose intended, having an open view of the defences across the intervening hollow, left with it the 39th North Carolina and the 32nd Texas, of Young's brigade, as supports, and sought to gain the ridge west of the fortifications, intending to attack at daybreak, but after floundering in the Egyptian darkness of the forest, with no roads and over a rugged country, and unavailingly seeking, notwithstanding the aid of a guide, to get upon the ridge westward of the works, was compelled to wait for daylight. Finally at 7:30 the head of the column arrived about 600 yards distant from the West Redoubt, and here French got his first view of the works, which impressed him at once as much more formidable than he had anticipated. Instead of one small redoubt on each side of the railroad cut, as he had been led to believe, he declares he saw no less than three on the west side and a "Star Fort" on the east, with outworks and approaches, defended to a great distance by abattis, and nearer the forts by stockades and other obstructions. It may have been the weariness of a long night march, or perhaps the too early morning air, that conjured these formidable defences to French's eyes, or possibly, it is the exterior aspect of these works that to a covetous and hostile apprehension enlarges their numbers and proportions.

It must be admitted that from the interior standpoint they shrunk mightily from French's description, and the defenders at least would have been hugely gratified could they have had the privilege of occupying what French thought he saw.

He rapidly made his dispositions for assault, sending Sear's Mississippi Brigade round by the left to gain the north flank of the works, while Cockerell's Missouri Brigade formed line across the ridge, with Young's Texas Brigade behind it to support and follow up the attack. Myrick had been ordered to open up with his guns and continue his fire until the attacking troops were so close up to the works as to prevent it. Sears, having the longer distance to traverse, was to begin the assault when Cockerell would immediately move forward. Sears was delayed by the ruggedness of his route to the north side of the works, and in fact for a time lost his bearings among the wooded hills, and was not in position until 9 a. m. by French's time. French says that when he sent his summons to surrender, the Federal officer entrusted with the missive was allowed 17 minutes within which to bring the answer, and this time expiring, Maj. Sanders returned without any. Nothing is said in the report as to the firing upon him, noted in the endorsement on the copy of the summons already mentioned.

THE ASSAULT.

Cockerell was at length ordered forward and the attack began. According to French's account, everything went as successfully as possible. He represents the triple lines of intrenchments and Redoubts on the west side as being captured one, after another, his troops resting but briefly at each to gather strength and survey the work before them, and again rushing forward in murderous hand-to-hand conflict that left the ditches filled with dead, until they were masters of the "Second Redoubt," and the "Third or Main Redoubt" was filled with those driven from the captured works and further crowded by the refugees from the eastern fort and its defences, who had been driven out by the attack of Sears. He represents the Federal forces, their fire almost silenced, as being herded into the one Redoubt on the west, of which French's troops occupied the ditch and were preparing for the final attack.

At this critical moment, with the garrison and the precious stores, as it were, in the hollow of his hand, French received word that General Sherman, who had been "repeatedly signalled during the battle," was close behind him with his whole army, and within two miles of the road he would have to take to rejoin his corps.

On this point of Sherman's proximity to French as his reason for leaving, we have not only full knowledge of the exact position and movement of our troops to show that such was really not the case, but a brief piece of testimony from the other side in the shape of a dispatch from Major Mason, Hood's adjudant-general, from which it is evident that French, becoming hopeless of success, had sought in advance to justify at headquarters the failure of his enterprise. The date and hour of this dispatch, which reads as follows, are of interest:

"CARLEY'S HOUSE, Oct. 5, 1864. 8:15 p. m.

_Lt. Gen'l Stewart, Com'd'g Corps._

General French's dispatch, forwarded by yourself, is just received. Gen. Hood directs me to say that he does not know where a division could march at this time to give any assistance to Gen. French, but that you will endeavor to send some scouts to him, and direct him to leave the railroad and march to the West, to New Hope Church.

Gen. Hood does not understand how Gen. French could be _cut off_ at the point he designates in his dispatch, as he should have moved directly away from the railroad to the West, if he deemed his position precarious.

A. P. M."

It is of course obvious from the map that if French found Sherman approaching from the South, he had only to follow westward the road up which he had been charging at Allatoona all day and free himself from danger in an hour. It would be of interest to see this dispatch of French's and observe the hour when sent, but it is not forthcoming. The hour of the reply is significant. It need not have taken a mounted man three hours to get word to Stewart, then near a junction with Hood and to Hood himself, less than 15 miles away. The reply, made at once, is written at 8:15 p. m., and French's message must certainly have been sent later than 4 p. m. French had probably been gone from Allatoona an hour or more when he bethought him to send the request for a division to extricate him.

The facts are, that it was not until the night of Oct. 5th that the nearest troops of Sherman's went into camp at Brushy Mountain, 11 miles distant in an air line, and none reached Allatoona until the 7th.

But to return to French. It was really an immense pity that he should feel obliged to leave just when he had but to put forth his hand to snatch the prize; but then it would not do to have his division cut off from the army, and on the whole it might be well to start, and if so, why not at once?

So about 1:30 he says an order was sent to Sears and Cockerell to withdraw. The ground was too rough to carry badly wounded men over it, so that those who could not get away on their own feet had to be left.

The artillery, unable to operate effectively with the assaulting column close up on the works, had already been in part ordered to take the road, and after the assaulting troops had left, French went to the two regiments who had supported it, and sent a battery to the block house at the railway crossing of Allatoona Creek, fired fifty shots at it, knocked it about the ears of the garrison, and setting fire to it, smoked them out and marched them off as prisoners.

French's report of this affair, written a month later, from which the above is condensed, is very interesting and dramatic, and regarded as a literary composition, of no mean merit. He has certainly made the best of a bad business, and if his facts do not quite tally with those of his opponents, at least the discrepancies were not officially noticed at headquarters, nor probably would a gloomier account of the affair have been considered more inspiriting. Those rations would have been extremely convenient, could they, or even a part of them, have been hauled away for distribution among the hungry Confederates, and if that were impracticable, it would have been at least a noble stroke to have destroyed them. On this head French's report is silent; nor does he endeavor to explain how it happened that so vital a part of his own program was omitted. In effect, the play had been badly broken up by the attentions of the gallery, and Hamlet had slipped out of it.

French is without excuse for his fear of Sherman's approach, baseless as we know it to have been. Armstrong is responsible for despatches to him suggesting it. All the same, the evidence is conclusive that French was beaten, that he knew it, and that he had to withdraw quite independently of Sherman's movements.

A Confederate historian, K. S. Bevier, writes as follows on this point: "The men of French's Division had now become so much scattered that it was impossible to gather a sufficient number to give any hope of successful assault on the Fort."

What can wholly be pardoned to French is the unstinted commendation he bestows on the gallantry of his men.

These poor fellows, ragged and hungry, with but a handful or two of parched corn in their haversacks, had marched all day on the 3rd; had worked all that night destroying the railroad; had worked and marched all day on the 4th; had marched to Allatoona during that night, and had fought nearly all day on the 5th. Nor is it forbidden to those who felt the vigor of their dashing onset and the undaunted determination with which they rallied again and again to the assault of the intrenchments, or who witnessed the hand-to-hand encounters with sword and bayonet, with butts of guns, and even with loose pieces of rock, to appreciate the intrepidity and resolution with which they hung to their bloody and fruitless task.

Brave men may honor bravery the world over. We can in all sympathy and common brotherhood say: "They were of our blood and race. Peace to their ashes. Give us the like to stand side by side with us, and we could fear no quarrel, were it with the whole round world."

THE DEFENCE.

Having glanced at the situation from French's standpoint, let us step over to the other side, as we may safely do at this lapse of time, and see how it actually fared with the beleaguered garrison which we left in momentary expectation of attack; and since General French has been heard, it is no more than fair to quote from the graphic reports of the federal commander.

After narrating his preliminary movements, and the stations of the troops, he proceeds:

"I directed Col. Rowett to hold the spur on which the 39th Iowa and 7th Illinois were formed, * * * and taking two companies of the 93rd Illinois down a spur parallel with the railroad and along the bank of the cut, so disposed them as to hold the north side as long as possible. Three companies of the 93rd, which had been driven from the west end of the ridge, were distributed in the ditch South of the Redoubt, with instructions to keep the town well covered by their fire, and to watch the depot where the rations were stored. The remaining battalion of the 93rd, under Major Fisher, lay between the Redoubt and Rowett's line, ready to reinforce wherever most needed.