Campaign of the Army of the Potomac Begun

For little more than a month after this, there was comparative quiet in the vicinity of Petersburg and Richmond. The National troops were moved simultaneously toward each city. General Butler, with the Tenth Army Corps under General Birney, and the Eighteenth corps under General Ord, moved upon Fort Harrison, on the north side of the James, and captured it on the 29th of September. These troops charged upon another fort near by, and were repulsed with heavy loss. Among the slain was General Burnham. General Ord was severely wounded. The captured Fort Harrison was named Fort Burnham in honor of the slain general. In these assaults the gallantry of the colored troops was so conspicuous, that General Butler presented to each of the more meritorious ones a silver medal, which bore a device commemorative of their valor.

In the meantime, General Meade had sent General Warren with two divisions of his corps, General Parke with two divisions of the Ninth corps, and General Gregg with his cavalry, to attempt the extension of the National left on the Weldon road. The chief object of the movement was to mask the more important operations of Butler at that time. But it resulted in severe fighting on the first and second days of October (1864), with varying fortunes for both parties.

Now there was another pause but not a settled rest for about a month, when the greater portion of the Army of the Potomac was massed on the Confederate right, south of the James; and on the 27th of October, they assailed Lee's works on Hatcher's Run, westward of the Weldon road. A severe struggle ensued. The Nationals were repulsed, and on the 29th they withdrew to their intrenchments in front of Petersburg. Very little of importance was done by the Army of the Potomac after that, until the opening of the campaign in the spring of 1865, excepting the extension of their line to Hatcher's Run. The losses of that army had been fearful during six months, from the beginning of May until November, 1864. The aggregate number in killed, wounded, missing and prisoners, was over eighty-eight thousand men, of whom nearly ten thousand were killed in battle. Add to these the losses in the Army of the James during the same time, and the sum would be full one hundred thousand men.

The command of the troops engaged in the campaign against Atlanta was, as we have observed, entrusted to General Wm. T. Sherman, who had succeeded General Grant in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi. With a force composed of the Army of the Cumberland led by General George H. Thomas, the Army of the Tennessee led by General J. B. McPherson, and the Army of the Ohio commanded by General J. M. Schofield, Sherman moved southward from the vicinity of Chattanooga on the 6th of May, 1864. The aggregate number of his soldiers was about one hundred thousand men. These were confronted by about fifty-five thousand men, led by General Joseph E. Johnston, and arranged in three corps commanded respectively by Generals Hardee, Hood, and Polk. This army then lay at Dalton, at the parting of the ways, one leading into East Tennessee, and the other into West Tennessee. To strike that position in front was impracticable, or, at least, perilous, for the Confederates were very strongly posted; and Sherman began there a series of successful flank movements. When he menaced the flanks of the Confederates at Dalton by seeking a passage through Snake Hill Gap, on the left, the insurgents fell back to a point near Resaca Station at the Oostenaula River, on the line of the railway between Chattanooga and Atlanta. At that place a sharp battle occurred on the 15th of May, when the Confederates were driven across the Oostenaula. Johnston fired the bridge that spanned that stream, cutting off direct pursuit immediately. Generals Thomas, Hooker, McPherson, Schofield, and other noted leaders were engaged in the fight; and as soon as a temporary bridge was constructed, the next morning, Thomas pursued Hardee (who covered the retreat) directly, while McPherson and Schofield kept on their flanks. The Confederates fled from post to post, burning bridges behind them, until they reached a mountainous region covering the Allatoona Pass. There Johnston halted, with the Etowah River between his troops and the National forces; and then both armies took a brief rest.

These flanking movements had resulted so favorably to the Nationals, that Sherman resolved to pursue them. He determined to flank Johnston out of his strong position at Allatoona Pass, by concentrating his forces at Dallas, westward of him. In attempting to thwart this movement, the Confederates brought on an engagement near Dallas, on the 25th of May. The battle was indecisive, and was followed by a very stormy night, during which Johnston's men used the pickaxe and spade so industriously, that by morning Sherman found his antagonist strongly intrenched, with lines extending from Dallas to Marietta. Between these towns was a broken, wooded country, and in that region there was much severe fighting for several days. At length Johnston was compelled to evacuate Allatoona Pass (June 1, 1864), when it was garrisoned by Sherman and made his second base of supplies, the first being at Chattanooga. The burned bridges were rebuilt and well guarded, and full possession of the railway in his rear was obtained by Sherman. At Allatoona he was reinforced on the 8th by troops under General Frank Blair, which made his number of effective men nearly what it was when he moved from Chattanooga.