toona Pass all available cavalry, General Stoneman to secure the east end and General Garrard the west end- both of whom succeeded. During the 4th it rained very hard and the night was dark and stormy,but in the morning the enemy was gone and we had full possession of Allatoona Pass and the railroad as far down as Kenesaw Mountain, which is a detached mountain near Marietta. This is what I was contending for, and I now have put a strong construction party at work on the Etowah bridge. Our wagons are back for forage and supplies. General Blair's column is just arriving, and to- morrow I expect to be ready to move on. We hold in some force Dalton, Kingston, Rome, Resaca, and Allatoona Pass.

I am fully aware that these detachments weaken me in the exact proportion our enemy has gained strength by picking up his detachments. Johnston has managed to skillfully keep up the spirit of his army and people by representing his retreat as strategy, but I doubt if they can overlook the fact that he has abandoned to us the best wheat- growing region of Georgia and all its most valuable iron- works and foundries.

I send you copies of my field orders* which will give pretty good idea of the strategy on our part, and send you a file of Atlanta papers up to the 5th instant.

I cannot now undertake to describe our various conflicts, but will do so at a later period. Our losses and detachments are fully replaced by veteran regiments and detachments that have joined,and the two good old divisions of the Seventeenth Corps that General Blair has just brought up.

I am, with respect, your obedient servant,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major- General, Commanding.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Washington, D. C.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Atlanta, Ga., September 15, 1864.

GENERAL: I have heretofore from day to day by telegraph+ kept the War Department and General- in- Chief advised of the progress of events, but now it becomes necessary to review the whole campaign which has resulted in the capture and occupation of the city of Atlanta.

On the 14th day of March, 1864, at Memphis, Tenn., I received notice from General Grant, at Nashville, that he had been commissioned Lieutenant- General and Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States, which would compel him to go East, and that I had been appointed to succeed him as commander of the Division of the Mississippi. He summoned me to Nashville for a conference, and I took my departure the same day and reached Nashville, via Cairo, on the 17th, and accompanied him on his journey eastward as far as Cincinnati. We had a full and complete understanding of the policy and plans for the ensuing campaign, covering a vast area of country, my part of which extended from Chattanooga to Vicksburg. I returned to Nashville,and on the 25th began a tour of inspection, visiting Athens, Decatur, Huntsville, and Larkin's Ferry, Ala; Chattanooga, Loudon, and Knoxville, Tenn. During this visit I had

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*See Part IV.

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+See Parts IV and V.