Civil War News
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The Atlanta Papers (cont.)
The Atlanta Papers cover and spine. This month, we march on with our look into Sydney C. Kerksis’s The Atlanta Papers; a collection of Federal accounts from the Atlanta Campaign. Major W.H. Chamberlin of the 81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry delivered Paper No. 18—‘Recollections of the Battle of Atlanta’—to the Ohio MOLLUS Commandery. Chamberlin, who served on the staff of Major General Grenville Dodge (XVI Corps), provided a detailed account of the July 22, 1864, battle. Colonel Robert N. Adams, D.D., led the 81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Battle of Atlanta and recalled ‘The Battle and Capture of Atlanta’ in Paper No. 19. Adams
Kilpatrick’s Raid Map.
stated the fighting proved “…the bloodiest and most decisive battle of the campaign,” then avowed, “General McPherson did take and hold that position, which proved to be the ‘key to Atlanta,’ but at the sacrifice of himself and thousands of his brave men.” Continuing to focus on the fighting east of the city on July 22, Major General Dodge authored Paper No. 20, ‘The Battle of Atlanta.’ Dodge addressed a lingering question at the time, 1895, as to why the battle “…was never put ahead of many others its inferior, but better known to the world and made of much greater comment?” The general surmised the loss of Major General James McPherson in the fighting “… counted so much more to us than victory, that we spoke of our battle, our great success, with our loss uppermost in our minds.” Lieutenant Colonel William E. Strong of McPherson’s staff, remembered his fallen chieftain in Paper No. 21, ‘The Death of General James B. McPherson.’ Strong opened his account with a strong statement: “Numerous accounts have been published, but none of them go into details, and none that I have seen are entirely correct.” Details indeed! Within the following 32 pages, researchers can glean valuable information about the general’s
death. Strong cites wartime reports, newspaper accounts, and other documents in his attempt to clarify when, where, and how the general fell. The writer numbered among the first to arrive at McPherson’s side after the fatal shot struck the officer, and recalled, “Raising his body quickly from the ground, and grasping it firmly under the arms, I dragged it…through the brush to the ambulance….” Shifting away from July 22, 1st Lieutenant Granville C. West, who served in the 4th Kentucky Infantry (mounted during Atlanta Campaign) penned ‘McCook’s Raid in the Rear of Atlanta and Hood’s Army, August 1864,’ Paper No. 22. West offered a general history of his regiment before detailing McCook’s attempts to break the rail lines servicing Atlanta. The writer criticized Major General George Stoneman, scheduled to meet McCook’s force near Lovejoy Station. Stoneman decided to liberate the prisoners at Camp Sumter in Andersonville; the cavalry general and a sizable portion of his command ended up prisoners themselves after the Battle of Sunshine Church. West suggested had Stoneman joined McCook, “our united forces would have been masters of the situation;” instead, they “remained there [Lovejoy] nearly all
April 2019
Colonel Robert N. Adams, author of Paper No. 19..