Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Stanley's Corps - Newton's Division - Wagner's Brigade
Atlanta Campaign
Sherman has realized that cavalry will not be able to break the railroad to the extent needed to force the Confederates out of Atlanta. He therefore returns to his previous plan; to sweep around the city with most of his army, destroying the railroads as he goes, in particular, the Macon railroad.
Leaving just enough troops to protect his supplies, Sherman pulls the rest of the army from their trenches, and moves them to the right once again. The right wing (Howard) will move the furthest out from the city, through Fairburn, and then toward Jonesboro. The center (Thomas) will pass through Red Oak and then eastward. The right (Schofield) will move toward Rough and Ready station, nearest to Atlanta. The intended initial line extends from just east of where the current Hartsfield International Airport is today, south to Jonesboro, GA.
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John Baer Diary Entries - text in white, comments in blue. Entries for August 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th.
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DIARY ENTRY - Tuesday, August 23rd, 1864
The sun is just descending below the horizon. There are a few small clouds in the west, but everything is indicative of fair weather. I am sitting in the northeast corner of the tent., leaning against the tent stake and facing westward - it is unnecessary to say what I am doing, and to a person aware of my condition it would not be hard to guess the subject of reflection. I never gave a description of our tent yet. It consists of two blankets sewn together, resting on two uprights and a ridge pole fastened at the corners, and in the center by stakes elevated about two feet from the ground - this forms the shade and shelter for ten men, and two of the ten are sick. Our bed consists of the ground with no covering, and nothing to sleep upon to keep us out of the dirt. This is the description, but no one could realize it without seeing it. News floating and unreliable.
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Here are some reproductions of typical tents that would have been used in the camp. This is from the Andersonville National Historic Site. Several men, as described above, would share a tent for sleeping, whatever shade it could provide in the heat of the day, and protection from rain that occurred almost daily.
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DIARY ENTRY - Wednesday, August 24th, 1864
Weather very hot, and on that account I have not extended my peregrination to any great distance. My desire to ramble about does not increase, in fact it is a bore to attempt to go any place in the stockade, for the immense crowd is always on the streets, and the disagreeable sights that meet our eyes at every turn, and almost at every step.
Exchange is again on the rise and if it continues running up, it will be higher in a few days than at any time since I have been a prisoner. It reminds me very much of the gold market, only it has taken the reverse hitherto. While our troops were successful, gold would take a fall, and if we met with a reverse, it would run up. Not so with the exchange fever - it always runs highest when we are successful and depreciates when the rebels gain a little. Until this last time, our success has been attended by a gradual rise in gold and a gradual increase of the exchange fever.
Could all hopes of an early exchange be eradicated from the minds of the men in this camp, there are one-third of the men that would die in less than two months - they would settle down to the conviction that two months imprisonment would be certain death, and having arrived at that conclusion, all feelings of manhood would depart from them, and death would not be long in visiting them.
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DIARY ENTRY - Thursday, August 25th, 1864
Had a change in grub from bad to worse. I predicted a change a short time ago and consequently was not surprised, except that it should come true so soon. Weather oppressively hot with appearance of rain. New of exchange still on the rise.
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DIARY ENTRY - Friday, August 26th, 1864
The drum has just beat for roll call and it made me feel like I was at home to hear a Yankee drummer - there is such a difference in everything done by a true blooded Federal vs. a Rebel that a blind man could distinguish one from the other if the performance required a noise.
I have been taking lessons in economy since I have been here. I have studied into the economy politic of both the North and South and have arrived at the conclusion that if the South had any basis for issuing money, and had as judicious a Treasury as we do, that their political economy would far excel ours. The mode of subsisting the Army in the South is certainly cheap and their calculations are so nicely made that there is no waste whatever. Wheat is a produce that cannot be raised in the South to any extent - barely enough to keep the armies in hard bread during an active campaign season, and not entirely then, for whenever they rest a day they receive meal. Corn, rice, and beans are the principal articles of agriculture, and all troops in garrison duty are subsisted on these, the men in the field receiving them when not actively engaged. All these articles are cheap and substantial, and are collected by tithe, so that they cost nothing but transportation from the depots of delivery to the army - being delivered at military depots by the producer - and the transportation amounts to nothing, as all railroads are subject to military use.
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More Information:
- Link: War Operations, see Volume XXXVIII, Chapter L, Part V, Correspondence, pp. 638-676.
- The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. p. 175.
- The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1II, Red River to Appomattox, Shelby Foote, pp. 520-522.
- Decision In The West, The Atlanta Campaign of 1864, Albert Castel, pp, 471-486.
- Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, pp. 620-625.
- Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, pp. 572-577.
- Events: 1864
NEXT POST: AUGUST 30TH
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