Rome, Georgia - History (part 6 of 17)

Some of our contemporaries are determined that the royal ape of Washington shall have his proper cognomen of "Hanks," and "Hanks" let it be, and thereby free the respectable name of Lincoln from the odium attached to it from his bearing it. It is said that old Hanks has started the old pegging system of tactics. If so, we suppose the recent raid to Rome was one of the pegs driven in and broken off. - Thursday, May 14, 1863.

The Meeting on Thursday - A large number of the citizens of Floyd and the surrounding counties met in this city on Thursday last to consult together on the best means of defending our city and the approaches to the State road, against raiding parties of the public enemy. Major John Rush was chosen president and Mr. John M. Berry fccretary. Col. Fouche explained the object of the meeting, and moved the appointment of a committee of five, who were himself, Col. D. R. Mitchell, Maj. J. G. Yeiser, Rev. J. W. Glenn and Col. Alfred Shorter. During the absence of the committee, Hon. John W. H. Underwood was invited to address the meeting, but declining to do so, called on Dr. P. C. Winn, of Alabama, who entertained the audience with a spirited plea for home defense. The committee reported stirring resolutions, which were unanimously adopted.

We would appeal to every boy and man who has the pluck to defend his home, to join some military company. We know of but three excuses which any man could offer for not joining: utter physical inability, innate, incurable cowardice and old age. But the man should be so old that he would not think of marrying again if his wife should die. If any man will come out and establish his right to plead any of those three excuses, let him be perpetually exempt from all military service; but let all others shoulder arms and fall into ranks for the defense of their native soil. - Saturday, May 16, 1863.

To Arms, Ye Romans! - We find the following astounding telegram to the Associated Press, which, if true, it is time Romans were looking to their laurels :

Atlanta, May 16. - Quartermaster Polk's Corps arrived and passed through this morning. We have reports that 7,000 or 8,000 of the enemy are approaching Rome. All the available force here is ordered to be held in readiness.

There is a grape-vine telegram afloat that Jackson, Miss., has been taken by the enemy, and that our forces have them surrounded and cut off. - Tuesday, May 19, 1863.

Nineteen Dwellings Of Many Types

To All People WJw Are Able to Bear A.rms! - The question can no longer be blinked. You must either fight, run or take the oath of allegiance to Lincoln. This call is made to the fighting men, young and old. If there be any of the other classes, we don't want them; the sooner they take care of themselves, the better. Daily developments convince all thinking men of the immediate necessity of a strong military organization for self-defense. The people are invited, perhaps for the last time, to meet at the court house in Rome on Tuesday morning next, May 26 at 10 o'clock a. m., to learn what has been done, and to determine, under a proper organization, what they will do in defense of their property, their wives and their children. We beseech you to come and to come ready to make all needed sacrifices for your country! - J. M. Gregory, mayor; S. Fouche, D. R. Mitchell, "j. G. Yeiser, A. Shorter, J. W. Glenn, Committee. - Tuesday, May 26, 1863.

Rev. George Pierce, son of the bishop of that name who served the Rome district after the war, had intended to preach at one of the Methodist churches on the Sunday Forrest appeared, but he qtiickly caught the war fever and shouldered a gtni.*

According to WiHiani Hardin and Jas. O. Winfrey, the wellknown Confederate veterans, Col. Streight cried over his plight, and it was said on good authority at the time that he tried to get a pistol to shoot himself. He was described by all who knew him as an intrepid soldier.

Col. Hathaway, original commander of the raiders, was shot through the neck and killed at the foot of Owl Mountain, near Turkeytown, Etowah County, Ala., while eating breakfast. Two young sharpshooters, brothers named Hall, had climbed to the top of

***Authority : Edward C. Peters, of Rome. Since the total casualties are 1,547 by this estimate, there is a discrepancy of 4.53 men, the number at the start having been 2,000.

The news that Streight was approaching spread like prairie fire, and more activity was shown in Rome than for a long time. By noon the town was fairly well garrisoned by men and boys of all ages. The bridges were blocked with cotton bales, and the floors covered with straw saturated with oil. Every cellar and garret had been ransacked for arms and weapons of any kind. Col. J. G. ^Yeiser obtained two old honey-combed cannon, and placed the dangerous ends toward the enemy. These, with old rusty flintlock rifles and a few pistols, were all the defenders had, but they were sufficient to turn back Streight's advance guard.

Rome was so hilarious that Gen. Forrest could hardly attend to his duties; and it has been said by one who was present that the brave general would have been bald had he given locks of his hair to all the ladies who made the request.**

Forrest's losses were said to have been ten killed and 40 wounded. Streight's losses from Apr. 27 through May 3, 1863, from Tuscumbia to Rome (including Day's Gap, Apr. 30, Black Warrior Creek, May l,and Blount's Farm, May 2) were twelve killed, 69 wounded, 1.466 captured. The captives were the 51st and 73rd Indiana Volunteers, the 3rd Ohio, the 80th Illinois Mounted Infantry and two companies of the First Alabama Cavalry who were mostly deserters from the Confederate ar-

Streight's men were worn out from their forced marches and loss of sleep, and when Forrest came up, many were sleeping on their arms, and their commander could make them fight no longer.

In order to get the facts of Wisdom's ride, Capt. W. P. Lay, of Gadsden, visited Mr. Wisdom at Hoke's Bluff, Ala. Capt. Lay related the story to Walter Harper, who presented it July 29, 1909, in the Gadsden Daily Times-News, a day after Mr. Wisdom died:

John H. Wisdom, long a citizen of Etowah County, Alabama, and formerly of Rome, Ga., died at his home at Hoke's Bluff, ten miles east of Gadsden, on July 28, 1909. He was 89 years of age and one of the substantial citizens of the county. He was extremely modest and for that reason but little has ever been said or known about the crowning exploit of his life, which saved a city, resulted in the capture of a host of Federal soldiers and placed him in the class of heroes of the Civil War.

John H. Wisdom and Emma Sanson were jointly responsible for the saving of Rome, Ga., and the capture of Col. Abel D. Streight's raiders by Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, yet neither of these heroes was aware of the part the other was playing at the time.

Shortly after Emma Sanson had directed Gen. Forrest over Black Warrior Creek, Mr. Wisdom, then a mail carrier and 43 years old, left his home at Gadsden on a mail trip, and after crossing the Coosa river went several miles beyond. In the afternoon of the same day he returned to Gadsden, to find that the Federals under Col. Straight had been in the town and were proceeding toward Rome. The enemy had cut a hole in the bottom of the ferry boat of which he was the proprietor and had set it loose to drift down the Coosa. Consequently, Mr. Wisdom did not recross the river, but called to a neighbor to tell his family that he had gone to warn Rome of its danger. Still in his trusty buggy, he dashed toward Rome. This was at 3:30 p. m. By changing steeds he made the 67 miles a few minutes before midnight, or a little less than eight hours and a half. Deducting an hour and a half for changes of horses and other delays, he negotiated the hilly, river-crossing journey in about seven hours, or at the rate of 9.6 miles per hour.*

In the early Revolutionary days Paul Revere rode from Boston to Concord, Mass., a distance of 18 miles, to warn the citizens of the approach of the British soldiers.** His act has been the subject of song and story for more than 100 years, while the much more difficult and daring feat of John H. Wisdom is known to but a comparative few in Alabama and Georgia.

Following is the story in Mr. Wisdom's own words, beginning when he returned to the Coosa River at Gadsden on the afternoon of Saturday, May 2, 1863:***

"It occurred to me at once that I could beat them to Rome and sound the alarm. I called across the river that I was going, and whipped my horse toward Rome. This was about 3:30 p. m. I dashed by Hoke's Bluff, Gnatville, Goshen and Spring Garden, and at the last-named place turned into the Rome and Jacksonville stage road, which I had traveled often as driver of a stage from Rome to the Alabama town.

"The first iap' of the ride was from the east bank of the river at Gadsden to Gnatville, 22 miles, which I drove in my buggy in a little more than two hours. Here my horse became exhausted and I left him and the buggy with the Widow Hanks,**** who offered me a lame pony on my promise to ride it only five miles, to Goshen, where I thought I could get another horse. On account of the pony's condition, I was obliged to leave him at Goshen, where I found Simpson Johnson coming in from his farm. He saddled two horses and let me ride one, and sent his son with me on the other horse to bring both back. I was delayed at Goshen only a short while, but it was not dark and I realized I must lose more time changing steeds.

"We rode the Johnson horses in a swift gallop eleven miles to the home of Rev. Joel Weems, above Spring Garden, Ala., where I was delayed some time, but finally managed to get a fresh horse.

"On the next 'lap' I stopped several times, trying to get a new animal. At one place I woke up a farmer and told him what I wanted. He replied gruffly that I couldn't get any of his horses, so I rode eleven miles farther to John Baker's, one mile south of Cave Spring, and after a short delay mounted another horse and asked him to keep for the owner the one I had discarded. I was now in Georgia, and Cave Spring loomed ahead, then I raced through Vann's Valley. While going down a long hill in a sweeping gallop, Mr. Baker's horse stumbled and fell, throwing me in an ungraceful sprawl ahead of him. I got up quickly, remounted and made off. After proceeding twelve miles, to within six miles of

***Mr. Wisdom lived prior to the war in a cottage with his mother at Second Avenue and East Third Street, where B. T. Haynes* home now stands.

Rome, I changed horses for the last time. A gentleman whose name I do not remember loaned me a horse and I lost little time entering on the last 'lap.' This horse carried me safely into Rome, where I arrived at four minutes before midnight, May 2, 1863. I thus made the ride of about 67 miles in slightly less than eight and a half hours, including delays. Lost time amounted to about an hour and a half.

"On arriving in the city I galloped to the leading hotel, the Etowah House, then kept by Mr. G. S. Black, and told him the Yankees were coming. At his request, I rode through the streets, sounding the alarm and waking the people. Everybody jumped out of bed, and the excitement was great. The people ran in all directions, but under the command of their leader got down to the business of piling cotton bales in breastwork style on the Rome ends of the bridges.

"There were few men in Rome at the time, most of them having gone away to war, but those who were left soon hauled out all the old squirrel rifles, shot guns and muzzle-loading muskets that could be found, and divided them among those able to bear arms.

"The little railroad from Rome to Kingston fired up the engines and ran them every 30 minutes in and out of the city, carrying the news into the country districts and bringing to town the farmers with their old battle pieces.

"The handful of convalescent Confederate soldiers in Rome took charge of the home guard and lined them up behind the breastworks of cotton. The Bridge Street (Fifth Avenue) bridge across the Oostanaula River, a wooden structure, was filled with hay which was saturated with turpentine so it could be fired in case of defeat and a retreat.

"About sunrise next morning, May 3, (Sunday) six hours after my arrival, Streight's advance guard appeared on Shorter's Hill, one mile west of Rome. Through their field glasses they saw the 'fortifications' and the bustling activity in the town. An old negro woman, asked if there were any Confederates around, replied, 'Yassir, boss, de town am full of sojers!'

"So impressive was the scene that the advance guard retreated without any attempt to take the bridge. A few shots were fired between the sharpshooters.

"About 3 or 4 o'clock that afternoon Forrest marched into Rome with Streight's command as prisoners. When the Yankees found out there had been no real soldiers in Rome, and that they had been captured by Forrest's inferior force, they became very angry, and it was feared that they would revolt, but Gen. Forrest's foresight in separating officers and men, imprisoning the officers in the court house and putting the privates under guard at the forks of the rivers, averted trouble.

"It has been erroneously stated that I was sent to Rome by Gen. Forrest. I knew nothing of Gen. Forrest's pursuit of the raiders until he marched into Rome with them.

"The people of Rome made me a present of a silver service valued at $400, which I now have and prize very highly. They also gave me $400 in money and sent the Widow Hanks $400 for giving me the use of her lame pony."

According to the official reports of Col. Abel D. Streight, made after his escape from Libby prison to Union headquarters, Aug. 22, 1864, John H. Wisdom was directly responsible for his surrender to Gen. Forrest. The following from Col. Streight's report is significant:

"After some maneuvering, Forrest sent in a flag of truce, demanding surrender, so I called a council of war. I had previously learned in the meantime, however, that Capt. Milton Russell had beert unable to take the bridge at Rome. Our condition was canvassed, and although personally opposed to surrender, and so expressmg myself at the time, yet I yielded to the unanimous voice of my regimental commanders, and at about noon of May 3 we surrendered as prisoners of

Col. Streight continued with the statement that he had dispatched Capt. Russell with 200 picked men to take the Rome bridge, and this officer had reported that it was held by a formidable force of Confederates, and in his opinion could not be captured by the forces available.

In one part of an original account in his own hand-writing-. Col. Wisdom stated that in addition to five horses, he used one mule. He recited that Miss Emma Sanson, daughter of the Widow vSanson, who lived near Black Warrior

Creek bridge, two miles west of Gadsden, got up behind Gen. Forrest on his horse and directed him to ford the creek after Streight had burned the bridge. Streight's rear guard sent a fusillade of bullets toward the double-mounted horse, and Forrest and Miss Sanson were forced to dismount and hide behind a bank. The general finally rode back to the farm house with the brave girl, then crossed the ford with his men.

During the delay, Streight's men had entered Gadsden and begun burning and plundering. They discovered Col. Wisdom's smoke house, in which had been stored a quantity of bacon by a crowd of refugees from Tennessee. While Streight's men tried to find the key to the smoke house and made preparations to batter down the door, Forrest's men arrived, chased them and devoured the bacon.

According to Col. Wisdom, Streight surrendered at Lawrence's Spring, four miles east of Cedar Bluft", Cherokee County, Ala., and 24 miles west of Rome. He confirms the statement that spirituous liquor flowed pretty freely in Rome that Sunday: "I thought a lieutenant would ride his black mare to death. He kept riding up and down the Oostanaula from Battey's Shoals to town and back, to keep the Yankees from crossing. They said he was 'tight.' "

Gen. Forrest hurried down into Alabama to engage in a new chase, without waiting to attend the picnic Romans had planned for him. While awaiting orders in Rome for about four days, Forrest maintained headquarters at the Choice House, where the Hotel Forrest now stands, and the hospitality of the Temple of Justice a block to the east was enjoyed by the officers he had corralled.

Jno. H. Wisdom'S Ride

Starting Point - Gadsden, Ala. Destination - Rome, Ga. Place Reached - Rome, Ga. Distance - Sixty-seven miles. Time - Eleven hours (8I/2 riding). Miles per Hour - Eight. How Traveled - Buggy, horseback. Object to Save - Rome, Ga. Start of Ride - About 3:30 p. m. End of Ride - Two-thirty a. m. Horses Used - Five (one mule). Road Condition - Rough. Riding by Dark - Seven hours. Riding by Light - Four hours. Country - Hilly.

HE climax to Rome's military successes and failures was Gen. Wm. Tecumseh Sherman, United States army, of Ohio. In a chase after Gen. Jos. E. Johnston from Dalton and Resaca, the right wing of his army (14th and 16th corps), under command of Gen. Jas. Birdseye McPherson,* also of Ohio, sent its scouts into Rome May 17, 1864, after an artillery duel for a day with Gen. Stuart's defenders.**

Virgil A. Stewart, a sharpshooter who helped defend Rome, states that a spirited resistance was maintained for a day through the artillery but the superiority of the Federal force was so great that the Confederates were forced to retire, burning the Fifth Avenue and Broad Street bridges as they went. From him, Horry Wimpee, Wm. M. Hardin and others we get the following general description of activities :

Gen. Sherman had sent Garrard's Cavalry*** doKvn the Oostanaula River from Resaca, and Gen. Jefferson C. Davis' division of McPherson's Army of the Tennessee in support of it. The Federals were advised that only a small garrison defended Rome, so they chose to go against the point: of greatest resistance rather than lose the time involved in circumvention. They proceeded down the right or north bank of the river to Armuchee creek, where they found the Confederate skirmishers. Shots were exchanged and one man was killed, probably a Confederate.

Virgil A. Stewart. This Stuart was undoubtedly not Gen. J. E. B. Stuart. The Weekly Courier of Thursday, Aug. 31, 1865, says May 17 was the day of investment. The diary of Reuben S. Norton says May 18. It is likely that the main body of the troops entered on the latter date.

Jackson, the city pumping station site, on the top of a high hill in North Rome, then known as Fort Norton; on the ridge crossing the Summerville road one mile northwest of the courthouse, at the rock quarry, then known as Fort Attaway, overlooking Little Dry creek; and on the crest of Myrtle Hill cemetery, then known as Fort Stovall. At the foot of Fort Norton a redoubt was built to impede the progress of the enemy in any attempt to scale the heights for a hand-tohand encounter. In front of the present Second (or Fifth Avenue) Baptist church, on a slight ridge where John Ross used to live, was a trench to which the Confederate infantrymen fell back after their outposts had been driven in and Ft. Attaway silenced.****

The second fort to withdraw its fire was Fort Norton, and its garrison unit withdrew to points in the city and assisted the remaining unit on Fort Stovall (cemetery hill) to hold out.

Gen. Davis had planted his artillery on the ridge above and southwest of Shorter's Spring, being the site of the new Shorter College, and particularly the location of the Selkirk home, now known as "Maplehurst," the residence of the president of the institution.

The cannonading had started about daybreak. A column of Confederate cavalry had skirmished with the Federals around Little Dry creek, but these retired before the hosts of Garrard. All but 42 of the non-combatant population had taken bag and baggage and selves away from Rome. The others preferred to remain and embrace whatever fate awaited them, for it might be worse farther down, and home was home. One of those who remained was as staunch and militant a "Rebel" as ever lived - Mrs. Lizzie Roach Hughes, dressmaker and milliner and resident of the Fourth Ward. "Miss Lizzie," as she was called all over Rome, used to do a lot of sewing for the soldiers, and the day was never too wet or cold or the night too dark for her to go foraging for "sumpin' feat." Her activities caused many a gray-jacketed heart tO' throb gratefully. However, there were always people of low enough conscience and purpose to tell the invaders what Romans were the most unflagging in support of the Southern cause, and those who were informed upon were forced to suffer. The Union troops cultivated "Miss Lizzie," and nxade life unbearable for her. Their first meeting came when the soldiers entered West Rome. Gen. Davis and several officers "requested" "Miss Lizzie" to go with them to the top of the hill to see if any more Confederates were on cemetery hill. The Confederates recognized "Miss Lizzie" through their field glasses, and waved a flag at her.

In a minute there came a cannon ball screeching overhead, too close for comfort. "Miss Lizzie," inad as a wet hen, shouted, "So THAT was why you invited me up here! Evidently, Gen. Davis, some of our men ARE left, and they have the nerve to express themselves!"

Grabbing up her skirts, "Miss Lizzie" ran home, there to find that the invaders had ransacked everything had stolen her fowls and her eggs, and made her brother-in-law a prisoner. The man was placed in the custody of "Miss Lizzie" on her assurance that his wife was very ill, and on her promise to make him behave. After the occupation of Rome, "Miss Lizzie" got even with the "Yankees" by charging them top prices for fancy hats and flowers to send home to their wives. From an astute old woman of Rome "Miss Lizzie" had learned to make feathers into artificial flowers. Hidden out at Coosa were a few white ganders and at Floyd Springs some guineas and a peafowl or two, so "Miss Lizzie" went to these places after material. If she could get a horse, all right, and if not, she would walk, five miles, ten miles - it made no difference. Once she indignantly refused to let a Northern soldier help her mount a steed. This exhibition of lese vuijeste caused the soldier to call the corporal of the guard, who escorted her with an armed squad to Gen. Davis' headquarters on Fourth Avenue. Some more of her privileges were taken away, including her liberty for a day, but this only served to make her increase the price of her wares.

"Miss Lizzie" was also suspected of furnishing "underground telephone" information to the Confederates; she was undoubtedly guilty, as were most of the other women, and proud of it, but the "Yankees" couldn't get a thing on her, so she remained a privileged

The cannon of the enemy were trained almost exclusively on the defending forts, and practically all the buildings and houses escaped destruction at that time. No doubt many a shell could be found buried in the various hills.* The figures as to losses are not available, but it is believed that the casualties were few. While the bombardment was at its height, B. G. Salvage, foreman of The Courier composing room, who had succeeded Capt. Dwinell as editor while the latter laid aside editorial pellets for the real kind, was busy grinding out the last issue of the paper that Romans were to receive before Aug. 31, 1865. The makeshift editor pied his type and took to swamps and hills. The May 16, 1864, issue is not available, hence much that took place on that stirring occasion is forever lost.

However, we are told by the survivors mentioned above that the Confederates withdrew from the last fort (Stovall) under cover of the darkness of May 16, and took up sniping positions on Cantrell's Ridge, South Rome; on Tubbs' Mountain and other vantage points; also that the invading skirmishers cautiously entered on May 17 after having crossed the Oostanaula at or near Battey's Shoals, and by noon had advanced their line to Maiden Lane (now Third Avenue). On the following day. May 18, after awaiting orders and packing up. Gen. Davis' hosts, said to have been parts of the 14th and 16th Army corps, numbering perhaps 30,000 men, crossed the Oostanaula at Printup's wharf, midway between the Second Avenue and Fifth Avenue bridges, six abreast and on pontoon bridges made partly of church pews. Their heavy wagons and artillery went over safely. Gen. Wm. Vandever tarried a short time, but soon pushed on to Kingston, and left Gen. John M. Corse in charge of the garrison of 1,054 men.

The most serious infantry and cavalry engagement took place at Fort Attaway, lasting from 3 to 5 p. m. of May 16. As the Confederates withdrew, they took with them everything that could possibly be used, and destroyed all that might benefit the enemy. A Texas regiment is said to have removed $150,000 in provisions and clothing from Broad Street stores.

The new "tenants" finished the job. The few pigs, chickens and cows that were left were eagerly seized and killed, and it was "every Roman for himself." Things of no military value were smashed or burned. "Bulls" got into the "china shop" of the Buena Vista Hotel and had a lively time.

Dr. J. M. Gregory had been mayor the year before. He had refugeed, but his good wife and her mother, Mrs. Hutchings, the kindly proprietress, wrung her hands vainly in protest.

Mrs. John Choice remained behind, cheering the retreating Confederates as they passed. For the offense of keeping two buckets of water sitting at the front of her place to slake the thirst of the boys in gray, Mrs. Gregory's home was set on fire. The flames spread over the lower floor, and her aged mother had to be carried down a ladder from the second story. The colored maid, later a resident of Chicago, followed her just as the fire was entering the room.

Mrs. Samuel Stewart's home on Eighth Avenue could be seen from afar, and clothing hung up in a certain way on the back porch gave signals to the Confederates. Union soldiers went to this home and carried away everything of value, and poured ink on Mrs. Stewart's wearing apparel.

A lot of munitions of war and a cannon or two were thrown into the Oostanaula above Fifth Avenue by the Federals, who had more than they could carry. A little gunpowder and a few shells found in the arsenal at Myrtle Hill were destroyed. Zach Mooney, who had been employed to help make cannon at the Noble Foundry, took two old pieces and did away with them; one went "kerchug!" into the Etowah nearby, and another splashed into an old well.

The Lumpkin-Holmes-Morris home on Eighth Avenue was used as a hospital for the wounded Union men. The Spullock home was made the headquarters of Gen. Corse, and Gen. Vandever occupied first the Hood-Cumming - Featherston - Rixie home on Broad, and then the Chas. H. Smith ("Bill Arp") home on Fourth Avenue, which was used successively by Gens. Jeft'erson C. Davis and Wm. T. Sherman. A Gen. Cox is also mentioned as having had charge for a short time at Rome.

Horry Wimpee and many others unite in praising Gens. Vandever and Davis as kind - hearted gentlemen whose treatment of Romans was all that could have been expected. Gen. Sherman appears not to have engaged in any atrocities at Rome. As for Gen. Corse, he was not possessed of the amenities bestowed upon the others; early in his career at Rome he caused the handsome Hawkins home on the Lindale road to be burned because a crowd of his foragers were ambushed at that spot. He was a stubborn fighter, however; when nearly overwhelmed by Gen. S. G. French at Allatoona, he signalled Gen. Sherman: "I am short a cheek bone and part of an ear, but am able to whip all hell yet!"

Gen. Sherman entered Rome from Kingston Oct. 12, 1864, on a chase after Gen. Hood, who, after the fall of Atlanta Sept. 2, rambled all over the old Cherokee nation in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, and proved as elusive as a Jack-o-Lantern. Hood had marched down the south bank of the Etowah, passing through or close to Cave Spring, and crossing the Coosa at Veal's Ferry, near the village of Coosa. He flitted through Texas Valley on the northwestern side of Lavender Mountain, with the purpose of destroying the W. & A. railroad and cutting off Sherman's supplies from Chattanooga. Fart of Hardee's corps went to Mt. Pleasant Methodist church (now Oreburg) , turned to the left at Farmer's bridge, Armuchee Creek, and then went through Floyd Springs to Chattooga County, and hauled up near Dalton ; Gen. Stuart's* corps penetrated Robinson's gap, Lavender Mountain, then went through Texas Valley and crossed Little Armuchee Creek at Echols' Mill. A junction of some of the units was effected near Resaca and Hood demanded the surrender of the garrison there, but was refused.

Hood had crossed the Coosa Oct. 10 and left a part of Harrison's Brigade (being the 8th and 11th Texas Regiments, the 3rd Arkansas and the 4th Tennessee) strung from Lavender Mt. to Veal's Ferry; also Stuart's corps of four regiments at Sardis church, Coosa. A feint on Rome Nov. 12 from 1,200 to 1,500 of these troops so alarmed Gen. Sherman that he wired Atlanta that Hood was turning back on the Hill City, and ordered 50,000 men from Atlanta rushed to his aid!** This order was countermanded later when Sherman learned that H/ood's main force was bearing down on Resaca. Sherman went on to Resaca the night of Oct. 12 and left Corse in charge at Rome; and Corse scouted into the Coosa Valley and brought back some prisoners and guns.

Gen. Sherman returned to Rome the night of Oct. 28 with his staff, and again perched himself on Fourth Avenue; and for four days and a half, until the morning of Nov. 2, directed operations from that point. On this occasion ihe was returning after a chase with Hood which had taken him down the Chattooga Valley to Gaylesville, Ala. The grizzled West Pointer exhibited considerable chagrin that he had been unable to corner the Southern army and wipe it out with his superior force. On the retreat from Dalton, Gen. Johnston had scarcely lost a prisoner or a gun, nor had he left behind many loaves or fishes for the Federals to feed upon. As for Hood, his baggage was so light that he moved like the wind. Finally Sherman gave up the chase, and set his course for the sea. The evacuation of Rome started Nov. 10, 1864, and was completed by 9 a. m. of Nov. 11. Acting on orders from Sherman, then at Kingston, Gen. Corse burned all the mills and factories and some other establishments that might be of use to the Confederates.

The burning took place on the night of November 10. Never had a scene of such wantonness and misery been presented to Rome. Dry goods boxes and trash were piled high in stores and set off, and the crackling of the timbers furnished a melancholy echo to the wails of women and children. Soldiers ran from place to place with firebrands in their hands, setting the places designated here, and perfectly harmless places there. Necessarily the stores and shops next to the condemned improvements went up in smoke. With hundreds of bayonets bristling, the 40 steadfast male Romans could do nothing but watch and allow their souls to fill with regret.

Here are some of the Broad Street or central establishments which were destroyed; both depots, Cunningham's cotton warehouse, the bank, David J. Meyerhardt's store house, Daniel R. Mitchell's houses, the Etowah Hotel (then at Howard Street, or Second Avenue). Cohen's gr'jst mill on Silver Creek, between East Rome and South Rome burnt merrily. The great brick smoke stacks of the Noble Foundry were blown up with powder blasts, and the buildings then fired. Only isolated structures escaped, until there was no place much to do business, and less business to do than places. A livery stable caught, and the odor of burning horseflesh could be detected for several blocks. The whinnies of the horses told of their awful plight.

With this kind of a gesture, Gen. Corse bade farewell to Rome. Had he fiddled as well, the picture could have been little less complete. There was more work for him to do. As Sherman left Kingston, he said: "Corse, the torch." It was not always Corse who happened to be convenient. Gen. Davis was hard by when Gen. Sherman on Nov. 21 found himself on

*Gen. Sherman no doubt traversed after tlie war a considerable part of his course througrh Georgia, to verify data for his book. He was interested in the Tecumseh Iron Works at Tecumseh, Cherokee Co., Ala., two miles north of Borden-Wheeler Springs, and the manager of that concern. Gen. Willard Warner, a member of Gen. Sherman's staff, used to buy larg? quantities of goods through the wholesale grocery house of Berrys & Co. (later Montgomery, Mo- Laurin & Co.), of Rome. On one occasion, about 1880, Gen. Sherman came inannounced to Rome, and spent some little time waiting to change trains at the Rome Railroad depot, going to or coming from Tecumseh. Several Romans recognized him by his stuljby chin decorations and shook hands with him. It was too soon after the war, however, and most of the little crowd contented themselves vv ith a look ajnd grunt from a distance, and voted him the ugliest mortal they had ever 33en.

the Howell Cobb plantation in middle Georgia. Hardly a scrap of that place was spared, because Cobb had just left a cabinet position at Washingtoh. Although it is popularly accepted that Sherman's March to the Sea started at 7 a. m., Nov. 15, from Atlanta, the preliminaries were staged at Rome, Kingston, Cartersville and other points north of the capital.

The stern injunction, "Leave not a blade of grass that a grasshopper could subsist upon !" was likewise applicable to the conduct of the army in the upper section of the state.

It was a devastating scourge, this march ; it left many a wrecked fortune, bleeding heart and broken spirit, but it was also the forerunner of a new era of development and progress for the entire Southland.

N DEFERENCE to the feelings and preferences of a larg'e majority of readers, an effort was made to obtain a complete and accurate account of the troop movements around Rome, written from the Southern viewpoint. Gen. Jos. E. Johnston's story was consulted, but it contained such a scanty reference to Rome that it was considered unavailable for the purpose. Other works that have fallen under the notice of the author have likewise failed to satisfy the curiosity for details, hence the account by Gen. vSherman is presented herewith, in the belief that the fairness and accuracy of it will commend it to all. The extracts are from the "Memoirs of Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, Vol. II (D. Appleton & Co., New York, N. Y., 1875).

On the 18th day of March, 1864, at Nashville, Tenn., I relieved Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, embracing the Departments of the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee and Arkansas, commanded respectively by Maj. Gens. Schofield, Thomas, Mc- Pherson and Steele. General Grant was in the act of starting east to assume command of all the Armies of the United States, but more particularly to give direction in person to the Armies of the Potomac and James opei-ating against Richmond.

In the early part of April I was much disturbed by a bold raid made by the rebel General Forrest between the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers. He reached the Ohio River at Paducah, but was handsomely repulsed by Colonel Hicks. He then swung down toward Memphis, massacring a part of its garrison, composed wholly of negro troops. No doubt Forrest's men acted like a set of barbarians, shooting down the helpless negro garrison, but I am told that Forrest personally disclaims any active participation in the assault and that he stopped the firing as soon as he could. I was told by hundreds of our men, who were at various times prisoners in Forrest's possession, that he was usually very kind to them.

Writing from Nashville headquarters Apr. 10, 1864, Gen. Sherman outlined to Gen. Grant at Washington some of the plans for his campaign against Atlanta, via Ringgold. Dalton, Resaca, Rome, Cartersville. Kingston, Allatoona and Marietta :

McPherson will have nine divisions of the Army of the Tennessee; if A. J. Smith gets here he will have full 30,- 000 of the best men in America. He will cross the Tennessee at Decatur and Whitesburg, march toward Rome and feel for Thomas. If Johnston falls behind the Coosa, then McPherson will push for Rome, and if Johnston falls behind the Chattahoochee, as I believe he will, then McPherson will cross over and join Thomas.

On Apr. 28, Gen. Sherman removed his headquarters to Chattanooga, and on May 5 he took the field personally and marched with about 100,000 men into Georgia against Gen. Johnston, who retreated from Dalton after a brief skirmish stand.

On May 11 the Federal commander, then at Tunnel Hill, Whitfield County, ordered Gen. McPherson, in Sugar Valley, to anticipate Gen. Johnston's evacuation of Dalton by sending Gen. Garrard by Summerville to threaten Rome and that flank. Instead of taking the small Confederate garrison at Resaca, Gordon County, Gen. Mc- Pherson fell back into a defensive position in Sugar Valley, on the Resaca side of Snake Creek Gap. Sherman continues :

.Johnston, as 1 anticipated, had abandoned all his well-prepared defenses at Dalton and was found inside of Resaca with the bulk of his army, holding his divisions well in hand, acting purely on the defensive, and fighting well at all points of conflict. A complete line of entrenchments was found covering the place, and this was strongly manned at all points. On the 14th we closed in, enveloping the town on its north and west, and during the 15th we had a continual day of battle and skirmish. At the same time I caused two pontoon bridges to be laid across the Oostanaula river at Lay's Ferry, about three miles below the town, by which we could threaten Calhoun, a station on the railroad seven miles below Resaca. I also dispatched G»ten. Garrard with his cavalry division down the Oostanaula by the Rome road, with orders to cross over, if possible, and to attack or threaten the railroad at any point below Calhoun and above Kingston.

During the 15th, without attempting to assault the fortified works, we pressed at all points, and the sound of cannon and musketry rose all day to the dignity of a battle. Toward evening McPherson moved his whole line of battle forward, till he had gained a ridge overlooking the tov^Ti, from which his field artillery could reach the railroad bridge across the Oostanaula. The enemy made several attempts to drive him away, but in every instance he was repulsed with bloody loss.

Hooker's Corps had also had some heavy and handsome fighting that afternoon and night on the left, where the Dalton road entered the entrenchments, capturing a 4-gun entrenched battery, with its men and guns; and generally all our men showed the finest fighting qualities. Howard's Corps had followed Johnston down from Dalton and was in line; Stoneman's Division of Cavalry had also got up, and was on the extreme left, beyond the Oostanaula. On the night of May 15 Johnston got his army across the bridges, set them on fire and we entered Resaca at daylight. Our loss up to that time was about 600 dead and 3,375 wounded.

That Johnston had deliberately designed in advance to give up such strong positions as Dalton and Resaca, for the purpose of drawing us farther South, is simply absurd. Had he remained in Dalton another hour it would have been his total defeat, and he only evacuated Resaca because his safety demanded it. The movement by us through Snake Creek Gap was a total surprise to him. My army about doubled his in size, but he had all the advantage of natural positions, of artificial forts and roads, and of concentrated action. We were compelled to grope our way through forests, across mountains with a large army, necessarily more or less dispersed.

Johnston having retreated, immediate pursuit was begun. A division of infantry (Jefferson C. Davis') was at once dispatched down the valley toward Rome, to support Garrard's Cavalry, and the whole army was ordered to pursue - McPherson by Lay's Ferry, on the right, Thomas directly by the railroad, and Schofield by the left, by the old road that crossed the Oostanaula above Echota or Newtovm. We hastily repaired the railroad bridge at Resaca, which had been partially burned, and built a temporary floating bridge out of timber and materials found on the spot, so that Thomas got his advance corps over during the 16th, and marched as far as Calhoun, where he came into communication with McPherson's troops, which had crossed the Oostanaula at Lay's Ferry by our pontoon bridges previously laid. Inasmuch as the bridge at Resaca was overtaxed, Hooker's Twentieth Corps was also divei'ted to cross by the fords and ferries above Resaca, in the neighborhood of Echota.

On the 17th, toward evening, the head of Thomas' column, Newton's Division, encountered the rear guard of Johnston's Army near Adairsville. I was near the head of the column at the time, trying to get a view of the position of the enemy from an elevation in an open field. My party attracted the fire of a battery; a shell passed through the group of staff officers and burst just beyond, which scattered us promptly. The next morning the enemy had disappeared, and our pursuit was continued to Kingston, which we reached during Sunday afternoon, the 19th.

From Resaca the railroad runs nearly due south, but at Kingston it makes junction with another railroad from Rome, and changes direction due east (west). At that time McPherson's head of column was about four miles to the west of Kingston, at a country place called "Woodlawn;" Schofield and Hooker were on the direct roads leading from Newtown to Cassville, diagonal to the route followed by Thomas. Thomas' head of column, which had followed the country roads alongside of the railroad, was about four miles east of Kingston, toward Cassville. About noon I got a message from him that he had found the enemy drawn up in line of battle on some extensive, open ground, about half-way between Kingston and Cassville, and that appearances indicated a willingness and preparation for battle.

Hurriedly sending orders to Mc- Pherson to resume the march, to hasten forward by roads leading to the south of Kingston, so as to leave for Thomas' troops and trains the use of the main road, and to come up on his right, I rode forward rapidly over some rough gi-avel hills, and about six miles from Kingston found Gen. Thomas with his troops deployed; but he reported that the enemy had fallen back in echelon of divisions, steadily and in superb order, into Cassville.

I knew that the roads by which Gens. Hooker and Schofield were approaching would lead them to a seminary near Cassville, and that it was all-important to secure the point of junction of these roads with the main road along which we were marching. Therefore, I ordered Gen. Thomas to push forward his deployed lines as rapidly as possible, and as night was approaching, I ordered two field batteries to close up at a gallop on some woods which lay between us and the town of Cassville. We could not see the town by reason of these woods, but a high range of hills just back of the town was visible over the tree tops. On these hills could be seen freshmade parapets and the movement of men, against whom I directed the artillery to fire at long range.

The stout resistance made by the enemy along our whole front of a couple of miles indicated a purpose to fight at Cassville, and as the night was closing in. Gen. Thomas and I were together, along with our skirmish lines near the seminary, on the edge of the town, where musket bullets from the enemy were cutting the leaves of the trees pretty thickly about us. We went back to the battery, where we passed the night on the "round.

*The wonderful cave visited in 1835 by John Howard Payne. Col. Mark A. Hardin, member of Morgan's Cavalry, had bought it in 1861, and with several hundreds of slaves working, had sent quantities of nitre to Knoxville to make gunpowder for the Confederate Army. He refused an offer of $100,000 for the cave, and shortly afterward, it was seized by the Confederate Government, which was in charge when Gen. Sherman captured it. Authority: Miss Virginia Hardin, of Atlanta. It is said this cave's tributaries extend several miles, and that they have never been thoroughly explored. The place is visited yearly by thousands, notably by the Boy Scouts.

During the night I had reports from McPherson, Hooker and Schofield. The former was about five miles to my right rear, near the "nitre caves;""* Schofield was about six miles north and Hooker between us, within two miles. All were ordered to close down on Cassville at daylight, and to attack the enemy wherever found. Skirmishing was kept up all night, but when day broke the next morning. May 20th, the enemy was gone, and our cavalry was sent in pursuit. These reported him beyond the .Etowah River. We were then well in advance of our railroad trains, so I determined to pause a few days to repair the railroad.

Nearly all the people of the country seemed to have fled with Johnston's Army, yet some few families remained, and from one of them I procured a copy of an order which Johnston had made at Adairsville in which he recited that he had retreated as far as strategy required, and that his army must be prepared for battle at Cassville. The newspapers of the South, many of which we found, were loud in denunciation of Johnston's falling back before us without a serious battle, simply resisting by his skirmish line and rear guard. But his friends proclaimed that it was all strategic, that he was deliberately drawing us farther and farther into the meshes, farther and farther away from our base of supplies, and that in due season he would not only halt for battle, but assume the bold offensive.

Of course it was to my interest to bring him to battle as soon as possible, when our numerical superiority was at the greatest; for he was picking up his detachments as he fell back, whereas I was compelled to make similar and stronger detachments to repair the railroads as we advanced, and to guard them. I found at Cassville many evidences of preparation for a grand battle, among them a long line of fresh entrenchments on the hill beyond the town, extending nearly three miles to the south, err.- bracing the railroad crossing. I was also convinced that the whole of Polk's corps had joined Johnston from Mississippi, and that he had in hand three full corps, viz.. Hood's, Polk's and Hardee's, numbering about 60,000 men, and could not then imagine why he had declined battle, and did not learn the real reason till after the war was over, and then from Gen. Johnston hiinself.

In the autumn of 1865, wheii in command of the Military Division of the Missouri, I went from St. Louis to Little Rock, Ark., and afterward to Memphis. Taking a steamer for Cairo, I found as fellow passengers Gens. Johnston and Frank Blair. We were, of course, on the most friendly terms, and on our way up we talked over our battles again, played cards, and ouestioned each other as to particular parts of our mutual conduct in the game of war. I told Johnston that I had seen his order of preparation, in the nature of an address to his army, announcing his purpose to retreat no more, but to accept battle at Cassville. He answered that such was his purpose; that he had left Hardee's corps in the open fields to check Thomas and gain time for his formations on the ridge, just behind Cassville; and it was this corps that Gen. Thomas had seen deployed, and whose handsome movement in retreat he had reported in such complimentary terms. Johnston described how he had placed Hood's Corps on the right, Polk's in the center and Hardee's on the left. He said he had ridden over the ground, given to each corps commander his position and orders to throw up parapets during the night; that he was with Hardee on his extreme left as the night closed in, and as Hardee's troops fell back to the position assigned them for the intended battle of the next day; and that after giving Hardee some general instructions he and his staff rode back to Cassville. As he entered the town, or village, he met Gens. Hood and Polk. Hood inquired of him if he had had anything to eat, and he said no, that he was both hungry and tired, when Hood invited him to go and share a supper which had been prepared for him at a house close by.

At the supper they discussed the chances of the impending battle, when Hood spoke of the ground assigned to him as being enfiladed by our (Union) artillery, which Johnston disputed, when Gen. Polk chimed in with the remark that Gen. Hood was right; that the cannon shots fired by us at nightfall had enfiladed their general line of battle, and for this reason he feared they could not hold their men. Gen. Johnston was surprised at this, for he understood Gen. Hood to be one of those who professed to criticize his strategy, contending that, instead of retreating, he should have risked a battle. Gen. Johnston said he was provoked, accused them of having been in conference, with being beaten before battle, and added that he was unwilling to engage in a critical battle with an army so superior to his own in numbers, with two of his three corps commanders dissatisfied with the ground and positions assigned them. He then and there made up his mind to retreat still farther South, to put the Etowah River and the Allatoona Range between us; and he at once gave orders to resume the retrograde movement.

This was my recollection of the substance of the conversation, of which I made no note at the time; but at a meeting of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland some years after, at Cleveland, O., about 1868, in a short after-dinner speech I related this conversation, and it got into print. Subsequently, in the spring of 1870, when I was at New Orleans, en route for Texas, Gen. Hood called to see me at the St. Charles Hotel, explained that he had seen my speech reprinted in the newspapers and gave me his version of the same event. He stated that he had argued against fighting the battle purely on the defensive, but had asked Gen. Johnston to permit him with his own corps and part of Polk's to quit their lines and to march rapidly to attack and overwhelm Schofield, who was known to be separated from Thomas by an interval of nearly five miles, claiming that he could have defeated Schofield and got back to his position in time to meet Gen. Thomas' attack in front. He also stated that he had contended with Johnston for the "offensive-defensive" game, instead of the pure "defensive," as proposed by Gen. Johnston; and he said it was at this time that Gen. Johnston had taken offense, and that it was for this reason that he had ordered the retreat that night. As subsequent events estranged these two officers, it is very natural they should now differ on this point; but it was sufficient for us that the rebel army did retreat that night, leaving us masters of all the country above the Etowah River.

For the purposes of rest, to give time for the repair of the railroads and to replenish supplies, we lay by some few days in that quarter - Schofield with Stoneman's cavalry holding the gi'ound at Cassville Depot, at Cartersville, and the Etowah Bridge; Thomas holding his ground near Cassville, and McPherson that near Kingston. The officer intrusted with the repair of the railroads was Col. W. W. Wright, a raih-oad engineer, who, with about 2,000 men, was so industrious and skillful that the bridge at Resaca was rebuilt in three days, and cars loaded with stores came forward to Kingston on the 24th. The telegraph also brought us the news of the desperate and bloody battles of the Wilderness, in Virginia, and that Gen. Grant was pushing his operations against Lee with terrific energy. I was therefore resolved to give my enemy no rest.

In early days, 1844, when a lieutenant of the Third Artillery, I had been sent from Charleston, S. C, to Marietta, Ga., to assist Inspector General Churchill to take testimony concerning certain losses of horses and accoutrements by the Georgia Volunteers during the Florida War; and after completing the work at Marietta we transferred our party over to Bellefonte, Ala. I had ridden the distance on horseback, and had noted well the topography of the country, especially that about Kennesaw, Allatoona and the Etowah River. On that occasion I had stopped some days with a Colonel Tumlin,* to see some remarkable Indian mounds on the Etowah River, usually called the "Hightower."

I therefore knew that the Allatoona Pass was very strong, would be hard to force, and resolved not even to attempt it, but to turn the position by moving from Kingston to Marietta via Dallas; accordingly, I made orders on May 20 to get ready for the march to begin on the 23d. The army of the Cumberland was ordei-ed to march for Dallas, by Euharlee and Stilesboro; Davis's Division, then at Rome, by Van Wert; the Army of the Ohio to keep on the left of Thomas, by a place called Burnt Hickory; and the Army of the Tennessee to march for a position a little to the South, so as to be on the right of the general army when grouped about Dallas. The movement contemplated leaving our railroad, and to depend for 20 days on the contents of our wagons; and as the country was very obscure, mostly in a state of nature, densely wooded and with few roads, our movements were necessarily slow. We crossed the Etowah by several bridges and fords, and took as many roads as possible, keeping up communication by cross-roads, or by couriers through the woods. I personally joined Gen. Thomas, who had the center, and was consequently the main column, or "column of direction." The several columns followed generally the Valley of the Euharlee, a tributary coming into the Etowah from the South, and gradually crossed over a ridge of mountains, parts of which had been worked over for gold, and were consequently full of paths and unused wagon roads or tracks.

A "cavalry picket" of the enemy at Burnt Hickory was captured and had on his person an order from Gen. Johnston, dated at Allatoona, which showed that he had detected my purpose of turning his position, and it accordingly became necessary to use great caution, lest some of the minor columns should fall into ambush, but, luckily, the enemy was not much more familiar with that part of the country than we were. On the other side of the Allatoona Range, the Pumpkin- Vine Creek, also a tributary of the Etowah, flowed north and west; Dallas, the point aimed at, was a small town on the other, or east side of this creek, and was a point of concentration of a great many roads that led in every direction. Its possession would be a threat to Marietta and Atlanta, but I could not then venture to attempt either, till I had regained use of the railroad, at least as far down as its debouch from the Allatc^ona

In his description of the "drawn battle" of New Hope Church at Dallas, Paulding County, May 26, Gen. Sherman notes that Gen. Jefferson C. Davis' Federal Garrison or Division of the Fourteenth Army Corps had left Rome and come to his assistance. He says he ordered Gen. Hooker to capture the New Hope position the night of the 25th, if possible, and goes on :

The woods were so dense and the resistance so spirited that Hooker could not carry the position, though the battle was noisy and prolonged far into the night. From the bloody fighting there for the next week it was called by the soldiers "Hell-Hole." The night was pitch-dark, it rained hard and the convergence of our columns toward Dallas produced much confusion. I am sure similar confusion existed in the army opposed to us, for we were all mixed up. I slept on the ground without cover, alongside of i; log, got little sleep, resolved at daylight to renew the battle. The battle was renewed, and without success. A continual battle was in progress by strong skirmish lines taking advantage of every species of cover, and both parties fortifying each night by rifle-trenches, with head-logs. Occ; sionally one party or the other would make a dash in the nature of a sally, but usually it sustained a repulse with gxeat loss of life. I visited personally all parts of cur lines nearly every day, was constantly within musket range, and though the fire of musketry and cannon resounded day and night along the whole line, I rarely saw a dozen of the enemy at one time, and these were always skirmishers, dodging from tree to tree, or behind logs on the ground, or who occasionally showed their heads above the hastily-constructed but remarkably strong rifle-trenches. On the occasion of my visit to McPherson on the 30th of May, while standing with a group of officers, among whom were Gens. McPherson, Logan and Barry, and Col. Taylor, my former chief of artillery, a Minie ball passed through Logan's coat sleeve, scratching the skin, and struck Col. Taylor square in the breast; luckily, he had in his pocket a famous memorandum book in which he kept a sort of diary, about which we used to joke him a good deal;

Next are chronicled the battles before the fall of Atlanta, Sept. 2, 1864. Gen. Johnston had now been succeeded in command in Georgia by Gen. John B. Hood, and Hood led Sherman a merry chase back toward Rome and over a considerable part of the territory that had been traversed on the drive down. Atlanta was ordered evacuated by the civilian population, and in reply to protests. Gen. Sherman wrote Gen. H. W. Halleck, chief of stafif, at Washington :

If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking. If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war.

By date Sept. 28, 1864, Gen. Halleck wrote Gen. Sherman, "I would destroy every mill and factory within reach that I did not want for my own use. This the rebels have done, not only in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but also in Virginia and other rebel states, when compelled to fall back before our armies. In many sections of the country they have not left a mill to grind grain for their own suffering families, lest we might use them to supply our armies. We must do the same."*

Hearing that Gen. Joe Wheeler's Confederate Cavalry was threatening the railroad communications in Middle Tennessee and that Gen. Forrest was coming up from Mississippi to join him. Gen. Sherman ordered Newton's division of the Fourth Army Corps back to Chattanooga, Corse's division of the Seventeenth Corps back to Rome, and warned other commands to watch out.

lodgment," wired Oen. Sherman Sept. 29, 1864, to Gen. Halleck. "His cavalry will travel a hundred miles where ours will ten. I have sent two divisions up to Chattanooga and one to Rome. Our roads should be watched from the rear. I prefer for the future to make the movement on Millen, Milledgeville and Savannah. Hood now rests 24 miles south, on the Chattahoochee, with his right on the West Point road. I can whip his infantry, but his cavalry is to be feared."

The Union army under command of Gen. Sherman had been radically reconstituted, and he claimed 60,000 infantry and artillery, with two small divisions of cavalry, in the pursuit after Gen. Hood, whose forces he estimated at 35,000 to 40,000 men, including about 3,000 of cavalry under Gen. Wheeler.

"We had strong railroad guards at Marietta and Kennesaw, Allatoona, Etowah Bridge, Kingston, Rome, Resaca, Dalton, Ringgold and Chattanooga," continues the Sherman narrative. "All the important bridges were likewise protected by good block houses, admirably constructed, and capable of a strong defense against cavalry or infantry We crossed the Chattahoochee River during the 3rd and 4th of October, rendezvoused at the old battlefield of Smyrna Camp, and the next day reached Marietta and Kennesaw. On the 4th of October I signalled from Vining's Station to Kennesaw, and from Kennesaw to Allatoona, over the heads of the enemy, a message to Gen. Corse at Rome, to hurry back to the assistance of the garrison at Allatoona, which was held by a small brigade commanded by Lieut. Col. Tourtelotte, my present aide de camp, who had two small redoubts on either side of the railroad, overlooking the village of Allatoona and the warehouses, in which wei-e stored over a million rations of bread."

Reaching Kennesaw Mountain about 8 a. m. of Oct. 5 (a beautiful day), I had a superb view of the vast panorama to the north and west. To the southwest, aboiiv Dallas, could be seen the smoke of camp-fires, indicating the presence of a large force of the enemy, and the whole line of railroad from Big Shanty up to Allatoona (full fifteen miles) was marked by the fires

The signal officer on Kennesaw reported that since daylight he had failed to obtain any answer to his call for Allatoona ; but while I was with him he caught a faint glimpse of the tell-tale flag through an embrasure and after much time he made out these letters: "C," "R," "S," "E," "H," "E," "R," and translated the message, "Corse is here."

Later in the afternoon the signal flag announced that the attack at Allatoona had been fairly repulsed. The next day my aide. Col. L. M. Dayton, received this characteristic despatch from Gen. Corse at Allatoona : "I am short a cheekbone and an ear, but am able to whip all hell yet! My losses are very heavy. A force moving from Stilesboro to Kingston gives me some anxiety. Tell me where Sherman is."

Inasmuch as the enemy had retreated southwest and would probably next appear at Rome, I ordered Gen. Corse to get back to Rome with his troops as quickly as possible. Gen. Corse's report of his fight at Allatoona is very full and graphic. It is dated Rome, Oct. 27, 1864; recites the fact that he received his orders by signal to go to the assistance of Allatoona on the 4th, when he telegraphed to Kingston for cars, and a train of 30 empty cars was started for him, but about ten of them got off the track and caused delay. By 7 p. m. he had at Rome a train of 20 cars, which he loaded up with Col. Rowett's Brigade and part of the Twelfth Illinois Infantry; started at 8 p. m., reached Allatoona (35 miles) at 1 a. m. of the 5th and sent the train back for more men; but the road was in bad order and no more came in time.

The gallant Major Gen. S. G. French, commanding some 4,000 Confederates, surrounded the 2,000 Federals under Gen. Corse and Col. Tourtelotte, and sent in a demand for surrender "to avoid a needless effusion of blood." Gen. Corse refused to surrender ; he was badly wounded ; Gen. French withdrew at the approach of a superior force from Sherman's army. A bullet cut across Gen. Corse's face and punctured one of his cars ; Col. Tourtelotte was shot through the hips, but continued to command; Col. Redfield, of the 39th Iowa regiment, was killed, and Col. Rowett, also of the Union army, was wounded. Corse's casualties were 707, or more than one-third of his command. Gen. Sherman's account continues :

In person I reached Allatoona on the 9th of October, still in doubt as to Hood's immediate intentions. Our cavah'y could do little against his infantry in the rough and wooded country about Dallas, which masked the enemy's movements; but Gen. Corse, at Rome, with Spencer's First Alabama Cavalry and a mounted regiment of Illinois Infantry, could feel the country south of Rome about Cedartown and Villa Rica, and reported the enemy to be in force at both places. On the 9th I telegraphed to Gen. Thomas at Nashville, as follows:

"I came up here to relieve our road. The Twentieth Corps remains at Atlanta. Hood reached the road and broke it up between Big Shanty and Acworth. He attacked Allatoona, but was repulsed. We have plenty of bread and meat, but forage is scarce. I want to destroy all the road below Chattanooga, including Atlanta, and to make for the seacoast. We can not defend this long line of road.

"It will be a physical impossibility to protect the roads, now that Hood, Forrest, Wheeler and the whole patch of devils are turned loose without home or habitation. I think Hood's movements indicate a diversion to the end of the Selma & Talladega road, at Blue Mountain, about 60 miles southwest of Rome, from which he will threaten Kingston, Bridgeport and Decatur, Ala. I propose that we break up the railroad from Chattanooga forward, and that we strike out with our wagons for Milledgeville, Millen and Savannah. Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless for us to occupy it; but the utter destruction of its roads, houses and people will cripple their military resources. By attempting to hold the roads we will lose a thousand men each month, and will no result. I can make this march and make Georgia howl! We have on hand over 8,000 head of cattle, and 3,000,000 rations of bread, but no corn. We can find plenty of forage in the interior of the state."

Meantime, the rebel Gen. Forrest had made a bold circuit in Middle Tennessee, avoiding all fortified points, and breaking up the railroad at several places; but as usual, he did his work so hastily and carelessly that our engineers soon repaired the damage - then reti-eating before Gen. Rousseau, he left the State of Tennessee, crossing the river near Florence, Ala., and got off unharmed.

On the 10th of October the enemy appeared south of the Etowah River at Rome, when I ordered all the armies to march to Kingston, rode myself to Cartersville with the 23rd Corps (Gen. Cox) and telegraphed from there to Gen. Thomas at Nashville:

"It looks to me as though Hood was bound for Tuscumbia. He is now crossing the Coosa River below Rome, looking west. Let me know if you can hold him with your forces now in Tennessee and the expected re-enforcements, as, in that event, you know what I propose to do. I will be at Kingston tomorrow. I think Rome is strong enough to resist any attacks, and the rivers are all high. If he turns up by Summerville, I will get in behind him."

"Hood is now crossing the Coosa, twelve miles below Rome, bound west. If he passes over to the Mobile & Ohio railroad, had I not better execute the plan of my letter sent you by Colonel Porter, and leave Gen. Thomas, with the troops now in Tennessee, to defend the state? He will have an ample force when the re-enforcements ordered reach Nashville."

I found Gen. John E. Smith at Cartersville, and on the 11th rode on to Kingston, where I had telegraphic communications in all directions. From Gen. Corse, at Rome, I learned that Hood's army had disappeared, but in what direction he was still in doubt; and I was so strongly convinced of the wisdom of my proposition to change the whole tactics of the campaign, to leave Hood to Gen. Thomas, and to march across Georgia for Savannah or Charleston, that I again telegraphed Gen. Grant:

"We can not now remain on the defensive. With 25,999 infantry and the bold cavalry he has. Hood can constantly break my road. I would infinitely prefer to make a wreck of the road and the country from Chattanooga to Atlanta, including the latter city; send back all my wounded and unserviceable men, and with my effective army move through Georgia, smashing things to the sea. Hood may turn into Tennessee and Kentucky, but I believe he vi^ill be forced to follov^r me. Instead of being on the defensive, I w^ill be on the offensive. Instead of my guessing at what he means to do, he will have to guess at my plans. The difference in war would be fully 25 per cent. I can make Savannah, Charleston or the mouth of the Chattahoochee (Appalachicola) . Answer quick, as I know we vdll not have the telegraph long."

I received no answer to this at the time, and the next day went on to Rome, where the news came that Hood had made his appearance at Resaca and had demanded the surrender of the place, which was commanded by Col. Weaver, reinforced by Brevet Brig.-Gen. Raum. Gen. Hood had evidently marched with rapidity up the Chattooga Valley by Summerville. La- Fayette, Ship's Gap and Snake Creek Gap, and had with him his whole army, except a small force left behind to watch Rome. I ordered Resaca to be further reinforced by rail from Kingston, and ordered Gen. Corse to make a bold reconnoisance down the Coosa Valley, which captured and brought into Rome some cavalrymen and a couple of field guns, with their horses and men. At first I thought of interposing my whole army in the Chattooga Valley, so as to prevent Hood's escape south; but I saw at a glance that he did not mean to fight, and in that event, after damaging the road all he could, he would be likely to retreat eastward by Spring Place, which I did not want him to do; and hearing from Gen. Raum that he still held Resaca safe, and that Gen. Edward McCook had also got there with some cavalry re-enforcements, I turned all the heads of columns from Resaca, viz., Gen. Cox's from Rome; Gen. Stanley's from McGuire's, and Gen. O. O. Howard's from Kingston. We all reached Resaca during that night, and the next morning (13th) learned that Hood's whole army had passed up the valley toward Dalton, burning the railroad and doing all the damage possible. On the 12th he had demanded the surrender of Resaca in the following letter: and garrison under your command, and, should this be acceded to, all white officers and soldiers will be paroled in a few days. If the place is carried by assault, no prisoners will be taken.

To General J. B. Hood: Your communication of this date just received. In reply I have to state that I am somewhat surprised at the concluding paragraph, to the effect that if the place is carried by assault, no prisoners will be taken. In my opinion, I can hold this post. If you want it, come and take it.

Clark R. Weaver

This brigade was very small, and as Hood's investment extended only from the Oostanaula, below the town, to the Connasauga, above, he left open the approach from the south, which enabled Gen. Raum and the cavalry of Gen. Edward McCook to re-enforce from Kingston. In fact, Hood, admonished by his losses at Allatoona, did not attempt an assault at all, but limited his attack to the above threat and to some skirmishing, giving his attention chiefly to the destruction of the railroad, which he accomplished all the way up to Tunnel Hill, nearly 20 miles, capturing en route the regiment of black troops at Dalton (Johnson's 44th United States, colored). On the 14th I turned Gen. Howard through Snake Creek Gap, and sent Gen. Stanley around by Tilton, with orders to cross the mountain to the west, so as to capture, if possible, the force left by the enemy in Snake Creek Gap. We found this gap very badly obstructed by fallen timber, but got through that night, and the next day the main army was at Villanow (Walker County). On the morning of the 16th, the leading division of Gen. Howard's column, commanded by Gen. Chas. R. Woods, carried Ship's Gap, taking prisoners part of the 24th South Carolina Regiment, which had been left there to hold us in check.

near which place I hoped to catch him and force him to battle; but by the time we had got enough troops across the mountain at Ship's Gap, Hood had escaped down the Valley of the Chattooga, and all we could do was to follow him as closely as possible. From Ship's Gap I dispatched couriers to Chattanooga, and received word back that Gen. Schofield was there, endeavoring to co-operate with me, but Hood had broken up the telegrraph, and had thus prevented quick communication. Gen. Schofield did not reach me until the army had got down to Gaylesville, Ala., about the 21st of October. We quietly followed him down the Chattooga Valley to the neighborhood of Gadsden, but failed the main armies near the Coosa River, at the mouth of the Chattooga.

"Hood will escape me. I want to prepare for my big raid. On the 1st of November I want nothing in Atlanta but what is necessary for war. Send all trash to the rear at once, and have on hand 30 days' food and but little forage. I propose to abandon Atlanta and the railroad back to Chattanooga, to sally forth to ruin Georgia, and bring up on the seashore. 1 will go down the Coosa until I am sure that Hood has gone to Blue Mountain."

On the 21st of October I reached Gaylesville, had my bivouac in an open field back of the village, and remained there until the 28th. At Gaylesville the pursuit of Hood by the army under my immediate command may be said to have ceased. During the pursuit the Fifteenth Corps was commanded by its senior major general present, P. J. Osterhaus, in the absence of Gen. John A. Logan; and the Seventeenth Corps was commanded by Brig. Gen. T. E. G. Ransom, the senior officer present, in the absence of Gen. Frank P. Blair. Gen. Ransom was a young, most gallant and promising officer, son of the Col. Ransom who was killed at Chapultepec, in the Mexican War. He had served with the Army of the Tennessee in 1862 and 1863 at Vicksburg, where he was severely wounded. He was not well when we started from Atlanta, but he insisted on going along with his command. His symptoms became more aggravated on the march, and when we were encamped near Gaylesville I visited him in company with Surgeon John Moore, who said the case was one of typhoid fever, which would likely prove fatal. I few days later, viz., the 28th, he was being carried on a litter toward Rome; and as I rode from Gaylesville to Rome I passed him by the way, stopped and spoke to him, but did not then suppose he was so near his end. The next day, however, his escort reached Rome, bearing his dead body. The officer in charge reported that shortly after I had passed, his symptoms became so much worse that they stopped at a farm-house by the roadside, where he died that evening. His body was at once sent to Chicago for burial, and a monument has been ordered by the Society of the Army of the Tennessee to he erected in his memory.

It had become almost an obsession with Gen. Sherman that he should take up his proposed "March to the Sea," and now the opportunity was to be given him. Up to this time he had been kept pretty busy by Johnston, Hood, Wheeler and Forrest, and for them all had accjuired a considerable admiration. He respected Johnston for his strategy and tenacious fighting against heavy odds ; he gave left-handed praise to Hood for his elusiveness ; he worshipped the boldness of Wheeler's cavalry ; and he took ofi' his hat to Forrest May 3, 1863, when Forrest's handful of men captured Streight with a force three times as large and marched the captives into Rome.

Sherman reports that on Oct. 31, 1864, "Forrest made his appearance on the Tennessee River opposite Johnsonville (whence a new railroad led to Nashville), and with his cavalry and field pieces actually crippled and captured two gunboats with five of our transports, a feat of arms which I confess excited my admiration. There is no doubt that the month of October closed to us looking decidedly squally; but somehow I was sustained in the belief that in a very few days the tide would turn."

Oct. 28, 1864, found Gen. Sherman quartered in the comfortable two-story frame dwelling of Major Chas. H. Smith ("Bill Arp"), where the handsome modern home of Mrs. Chas. A. Hight now stands at 312 Fourth Avenue, Rome. The general was an exceedingly busy man. He did not have time for social entertainments, assuming that any of the "natives" felt inclined to be sociable. He was busy writing some dispatches, delivering others orally, penning telegrams to Grant, Halleck and Thomas, snatching a hasty meal here and there and dashing away on his trusty charger. Assuming that he arrived in Rome the night of Oct. 28 and that he remained until the morning of Nov. 2, when he left for Kingston, he spent three and a half days on this occasion in the City of Seven Hills. He had first visited Rome as a 3^oung army lieutenant in 1844, going to Bellefonte, Ala., from Marietta and back two months later by horseback, presumably following the same route both ways ; and again, Oct. 12, 1864. he mentions that he went to Rome from Kingston, and on the 14th was before

Resaca, hence on that visit probably stayed several hours. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, having been sent down the Oostanaula River from Resaca toward Rome, May 16, probably arrived at Rome May 17, and made his headquarters at the Smith home on Fourth /\venue until he executed orders issued May 20 by Sherman to March May 23 for Dallas via Van Wert, a dead town of Polk County. Perhaps 20,000 men and nearly 1,000 wagons in Davis' command marched on Rome, which was garrisoned by a small Confederate force. After firing on the invaders from a fort on Myrtle Hill Cemetery, the Confederates evacuated the town, and the invaders crossed the Oostanaula River at the old Printup Wharf, midway between the present Second and Fifth Avenue bridges, on pontoons partly constructed of pews taken out of the churches of Rome.

The plan of Sherman's advance had been this : The Army of the Ohio (Gen. McPherson) made up the left wing, and marched southward from Resaca on the left-hand side of the Western & Atlantic (state) railroad; the Army of the Cumberland (Gen. Thomas) made up the center and marched along the track and right-of-way ; the Army of the Tennessee (Gen. McPherson) made up the right wing, and took the right-hand side. Davis' Division and Garrard's Cavalry, dispatched to Rome, evidently were a part of the right wing, or Army of the Tennessee. In view of the fact that Gen. Sherman was traveling with his center and left in the close pursuit of Johnston through Bartow County (Adairsville, Kingston, Cassville and Cartersville) it is probable that during this period (May 18-20) the Federal commander did not come to Rome.

Memoirs, "I telegraphed very fully to Gen. Grant at City Point (who must have been disturbed by the wild rumors that filled the country) , and on the second of November (at Rome) received this dispatch:

" 'Do you not think it advisable, now that Hood has gone so far north, to entirely ruin him before starting on your proposed campaign? With Hood's army destroyed, you can go where you please with impunity. I believed and still believe if you had started south while Hood was still in the neighborhood, he would have been forced to go after you. Now that he is far away he might look upon the chase as useless, and he will go in one direction while you are pushing in another. If you can see a chance of destroying Hood's army, attend to that first, and make your other move secondary.

"Your dispatch is received. If I could hope to overhaul Hood, I would turn against him with my whole force; then he would retreat to the southwest, drawing me as a decoy away from Georgia, which is his chief object. If he ventures north of the Tennessee River, I may turn in that direction, and endeavor to get below him on his line of retreat; but thus far he has not gone above the Tennessee River. General Thomas will have a force strong enough to prevent his reaching any country in which we have an interest; and he has orders, if Hood turns to follow me, to push for Selma, Alabama. No single army can catch Hood and I am convinced the best results will follow from our defeating Jeff Davis's cherished plan of making me leave Georgia by maneuvering. Thus far I have confined my efforts to thwart this plan, and have reduced baggage so that I can pick up and start in any direction; but I regard the pursuit of Hood as useless. Still, if he attempts to invade Middle Tennessee, I will hold Decatur and be prepared to move in that direction; but unless I let go of Atlanta, my force will not be equal to his.

Wright, and with the labor of some 1,500 men, the railroad break of fifteen miles about Dalton was repaired so as to admit of the passage of cars, and I transferred my headquarters to Kingston as more central. (Note: By this last statement it is inevitable that his headquarters had been at Rome, and he was not there merely on one of his "rounds"). From that place (Kingston) on the same day (Nov. 2) I again telegraphed to Gen. Grant:

"If I turn back, the whole effect of my campaign will be lost. By my movements I have thrown Beauregard (Hood) well to the west, and Thomas will have ample time and sufficient troops at Chattanooga and Atlanta, and I can stand a month's interruption to our communications. I do not believe the Confederate army can reach our railroad lines except by cavalry raids, and Wilson will have cavalry enough to checkmate them. I am clearly of the opinion that the best results will follow my contemplated movement through Georgia.

"Your dispatch of 9 a. m. yesterday is just received. I dispatched you the same date, advising that Hood's army, now that it had worked so far north, ought to be looked upon now as the 'object.' With the force, however, that you have left with General Thomas, he must be able to take care of Hood and destroy him. I do not see that you can withdraw from where you are to follow Hood, without giving up all we have gained in territory. I say, then, go on as you propose.

Sherman's word to "go" was thus received while he was headquartered at Kingston, and came in response to his urgent appeal from Rome, and in consequence of recommendations before. There is an evident error in the Grant message just above, dated Nov. 2 and referring to Sherman's Rome message, also dated Nov. 2, as "your dispatch of 9 a. m. yesterday." The Grant dispatch date undoubtedly shotild have been Nov. 3.

This was the first time that Gen. Grant assented to the "March to the Sea" and although many of his warm friends and admirers insist that he was the author and projector of that march, and that I simply executed his plans. Gen. Grant has never, in my opinion, thought so or said so. The truth is fully given in an original letter of President Lincoln, which I received at Savannah, Ga., and have at this instant before me, every word of which is in his own familiar handwriting. It is dated -

"When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic Coast, I was anxious, if not fearful; but, feeling that you were the better judge, and remembering 'nothing risked, nothing gained,' I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I believe none of us went further than to acquiesce; and, taking the work of Gen. Thomas into account, as it should be taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the obvious and immediate military advantages, but, in showing to the world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of the whole, Hood's army, it brings to those who sat in darkness to see a great light. But what next? I suppose it will be safer if i leave General Grant and yourself to decide.

On the 2nd of November I was at Kingston, Ga., and my four corps - the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, Fourteenth and Twentieth - with one division of cavalry, were strung from Rome to Atlanta. Our railroads and telegraph had been repaii'ed, and I deliberately prepared for a march to Savannah, distant 300 miles from Atlanta. All the sick and wounded men had been sent back by rail to Chattanooga; all our wagon trains had been carefully overhauled and loaded, so as to be ready to start on an hour's notice, and there was no serious enemy in our front.

Gen. Hood remained still at Florence, Ala., occupying both banks of the Tennessee River, busy in collecting shoes and clothing for his men and the necessary ammunition and stores with which to invade Tennessee. Beauregard was at Corinth, hastening forward these necessary preparations. Gen. Thomas was at Nashville, with Wilson's dismounted cavalry and a mass of new troops and quartermaster's employes, amply sufficient to defend the place.

On the 6th of November, at Kingston, I wrote and telegraphed to Gen. Grant, reviewing the whole situation, gave him my full plan of action, stated that I was ready to march as soon as the election was over, and appointed Nov. 10 as the day for starting. On the 8th I received this dispatch:

" i our dispatch of this evening received. I see no present reason for changing your plan. Should any arise, you will see it, or if I do I will inform you. I think everything here is favorable now. Great good fortune attend you! I believe you will be eminently successful, and at worst, can only make a march less fruitful than hoped for.

Meantime, trains of cars were whirling by, carrying to the rear an immense amount of stores which had accumulated at Atlanta and at the other stations along the railroad; and Gen. Steedman had come down to Kingston to take charge of the final evacuation and withdrawal of the several garrisons below Chattanooga. (Enter another "villain!" - Author.)

On the 10th of November the movement may be said to have fairly begun. All the troops designed for the campaign were ordered to march for Atlanta, and Gen. Corse, before evacuating his post at Rome, was ordered to burn all the mills, factories, etc., etc., that could be useful to the enemy should he undertake to pursue us or resume military possession of the country. This was done on the night of the 10th and next day Corse reached Kingston. Maj. Gen. Jefferson Davis commanded the 14th Corps of the left wing, and Corse a division of the 15th Corps.

On the 12th, with a full staff, I started from Kingston for Atlanta, and about noon of that day we reached Cartersville and sat on the edge of a porch to rest, when the telegraph operator, Mr. Van Valkenburg, or Eddy, got the wire down from the poles to his lap, in which he held a small pocket instrument. Calling "Chattanooga," he received a message from Gen. Thomas.

Gen. Sherman records that just after the message from Gen. Thomas had come, and he had ansv^ered "Dispatch received - all right," some of the marchers burnt a bridge, which severed the telegraph wire and cut all communication with the rear.

As we rode on toward Atlanta that night, I remember the railroad trains going to the rear with a furious speed; the engineers and the few men about the trains waving us an affectionate adieu. It surely was a strange event - two hostile armies marching in opposite directions, each in the full belief that it was achieving a final and conclusive result in a gi-eat war; and I was strongly inspired with the feeling that the movement on our part was a direct attack upon the rebel army and the rebel capital at Richmond, though a full thousand miles of hostile country intervened, and that, for better or worse, it would end the war.

Thus started the ruthless crusade of this modern Attila the Hun, in which all rules of war touching the destruction of property and the treatment of human beings in the broad swath of war were suspended. Thus did Wm. Tecumseh Sherman write his name in fire and blood across the pages of Georgia history ; justified, as be claimed, by the objects in view, but indelibly, as Georgians of today still attest.

A Noted Schoolhouse And Seven Dwellings

At top, left, is No. 6 E. Ninth Avenue, where Prof. Hay Watson Smith, brother of Dr. Henry Louis Smith, president of Washington and Lee University, taught school. Next is the old Hines Smith home; the homes of W. H. Pickling, Mather D. Daniel, Ed L. Bosworth, J. P. Malone, Dr. J. D. Moreland and Mrs. Martha Battey, follow from left to right.

HE Rome Chapter (jf the United Daughters of the Confederacy has preserved in its archives a choice literary morsel in the form of extracts from the diary of Reuben S. Norton, which was placed at its disposal by Mrs. Wm. M. Towers, his only daughter, and which sheds a flood of light on the dark days between September, 1863, and the Confederate surrender in April, 1865. These extracts follow:

Mary Noi-ton, then twelve years of age, was sent with friends of the family in 1863 to points of safety farther South, but her mother and I decided to remain in Rome and meet whatever fate might befall us.

The autumn of 1863 found our citizens in a great condition of uneasiness because raiding parties had moved on Rome from various directions; and so the people began sending their famines and negroes to safer places. Heavy reinforcements came in from Virginia and Mississippi, but as the Yankees were now in possession of Chattanooga, the worst was feared for Rome. In October, 1863, the commands of Gens. Walker and Grist passed through Rome, and having no means of transportation, impressed all the wagons and teams they could find v/ithin ten miles, leaving the people with no stock to make a crop. Such were the terrible straits to which our army was reduced at the time.

On Dec. 8, 1863, all the government hospitals were removed from Rome. The people realized the town would soon be in the hands of the enemy, and numerous families left every day. Provisions were exceedingly high and scai'ce, and were preferred to money in all trading. Conditions grew steadily worse in January, 1864. All the schools were closed, and the Rome Female College was moved away by the Caldwells.

Four months later, on May 17, our forces began to evacuate the town to escape the heavy cannonading. About dark the men in gray drew into the town and began to move out. Thinking the enemy would capture the available stores, clothing and foodstuffs, they carried off whatever they could. Several Texas regiments sacked the stores of about $150,000 in citizens' property.