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Volume IV.
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302

THE STRUGGLE FOR ATLANTA .

straggle, losing six hundred men; the others, coining to its help, captured andsecured a part of the enemy’s intrenchments. Hood assailed my left after3 p. m. The front attack was repulsed, but heavy columns came surgingaround Stanley’s left. Everybody, battery men and supporting infantry, did

wonders; still, but for help promptlyrendered, Sherman’s whole line, like theleft of Wellington’s at Waterloo, wouldsoon have been rolled up and displaced.But Colonel Morgan of my staff, wb°had been sent in time, brought up Will-iams’s division from Hooker’s corps aSquickly as men could march. Stanley’sbrave artillerymen were thus succoredbefore they were forced to yield theirground, and Hood, disappointed, re-turned to his trenches. The next day*the 15th, came Hooker’s attack. Haadvanced in a column of deployed bri-gades. Both armies watched with eagerexcitement this passage-at-arms. Thedivisions of Generals Butterfield, Will'iams, and Geary seized some trenchesand cheered, but were stopped beforea sort of lunette holding four cannon-The Confederates were driven from then’trenches; but our men, meeting continuous and deadly volleys, could not gelthe guns till night. A color-bearer named Hess, of Colonel Benjamin Har-rison ’s brigade, while his comrades were retiring a few steps for better cover,being chagrined at the defiant yell behind him, unfurled his flag and swungit to the breeze. He was instantly killed. A witness says: “ There wereother hands to grasp the flag, and it came back, only to return and wavefrom the very spot where its former bearer fell.”

While the main battle was in progress, Dodge had sent a division undeithe one-armed Sweeny, to Lay’s Ferry, a point below Resaca. Under thechief engineer, Captain Reese, he laid a bridge and protected it by a smallforce. Sweeny, being threatened by some Confederates crossing the rive*above him, and fearing that he might be cut off from the army, suddenlydrew back about a mile beyond danger. On the 15th, however, he mad®another attempt and was more successful; formed a bridge-head beyond theriver; threw over his whole force; and fought a successful battle again^Martin’s Confederate cavalry, before Walker’s infantry, which was hastilysent against him from Calhoun, could arrive. Besides Sweeny’s division,Sherman dispatched a cavalry force over the pontoons, instructing them t°make a wider detour. The operations in tins quarter being successful, themwas nothing left to the Confederate commander but to withdraw his whoarmy from Resaca. This was effected during the night of the 15th, while oui

MAJOR-GENERAL K. C. WALTHALL, C. ft. A.FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.