Civil War News
16
The Atlanta Papers (cont.)
The Atlanta Papers cover and spine. This month, we conclude our exploration into Sydney C. Kerksis’s The Atlanta Papers; a collection of Federal accounts from the Atlanta Campaign. Paper No. 25, ‘With Sherman’s Cavalry,” contains various accounts from the March to the Sea Campaign, as Colonel Smith D. Atkins recalled his service
under Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick, an officer Atkins, unlike others, held in regard. Captain John P. Rea of the 1st Ohio Cavalry provided Paper No. 26 – ‘Kilpatrick’s Raid Around Atlanta.’ Rea offers a detailed account of the mid-August 1864 fighting near Lovejoy. Another account from the Federal troopers follows, as Colonel Horace Capron, with the 14th Illinois Cavalry, penned ‘Stoneman’s Raid to the South of Atlanta,’ Paper No. 27. Stoneman’s men engaged in battle at Sunshine Church, where many of his troopers, including Stoneman himself, fell prisoner to the Confederates. Rea almost numbered among those heading for Andersonville. However, as he recalled, “…Stoneman had surrendered…the sight was mortifying…and for an instant I thought of surrender. But…my eyes… fell upon my youngest son, who had taken up arms…[and] before whom…yawned the sepulcher
Map accompanying Captain Ludlow’s report on Allatoona Pass.
of Andersonville.’ Rea offers an exciting account of the escape of several hundred cavalrymen (including his son), which he eventually led in returning to their headquarters in Marietta. ‘Stoneman Raid to Macon, Georgia, in 1864,’ Paper No. 28, contains Captain Albert Capron’s account of his participation with the 14th Illinois Cavalry on this particular attempt to cut the last rail lines servicing Atlanta. ‘The Battle of Allatoona,’ Paper No. 29, from Captain Mortimer Flint, provides great insight into the October 5, 1864, fighting at Allatoona. Mortimer led the 1st Alabama Cavalry (U.S.A.) during the battle and proved his talent with the pen might have equaled his skill with the saber. In painting the scene of the pass, he wrote: “The glorious sun of Austerlitz flashed not more brightly upon Napoleon’s legions in magnificent battle array, than did its brilliants[sic] beams crown the Allatoona hills on that lovely
May 2019
First page of Bliss’s hymn, from Bliss, P. P. Hold The Fort. Boston: William F. Gill and Company, 1877.