American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-08-10
of The Cincinnati Commercial.
Battle of Peach-Tree Creek.
NEAR ATLANTA, July 23. 1S64

been marked by signal proof of the un-
quenchable valor of his men, of their rea-
diness to give battle at any moment, of
their proof against surprise and their
tendency to whip the enemy under all cir
cumstances and against the most discour-
aging odds. The Tremendous attack on
our right, on the evening Of the goth, was
one of those rare instances in warfare
where the elaborate plans of command
er fer the destruction of his adversary
succeed in every preliminary, yet fail to-
tally in the fruition.
Hood, whose reputation for doing des-
perate things has elevated him over the
| shoulder of a man beside whom he is a
pigmy in nearly all the essentials of gen
eralship, was to assume the offensive un-
der the guidance of the dangerous Bragg.
1t was evident from the tone of their
newspapers that something new was brew
ing. Our army was closing around At
lanta, practicing to some extent one of its
delicate flank movements. We will Sc
duce the Yankee south of that difficult
little stream, Peach-Tree Greek" planned
the Rebel conclave, " in such a way that
his army will be divided OF course he
will intrench-.he always docs But on
the morning of the day we conclude to
fight, we thall make feints on his left
wing, and induce him to send several di-
visions to meet the battle we seem to Of
fer This done, of course, his right wing
advances to close the gap, aud to see if
there is any impediment to its entry into
Atlanta His right shall advance about
mile, capturing, some prisoners, to in
form them that we have no body of troops
within mile and half At the same
time, f6ur-fifths of our army shall be mass
ed within few hundred yards, cleverly
under cover. We shall pounce upon the
advancing and unprotected fraction of
Sherman,s Yankees, without note of
warning, cut it of from its bridges and
will roll it back upon the Chattahoochee.
Our only fear is, that the enemy will not
walk into the trap"
Singular to say, our army, step by step,
fell into the Rebel tolls without missing a
link. They crossed Peach Tree Creek at
points where the Rebels made suspicious
ly feeble resistance. The whole army eff
fected the crossing without serious loss,
leaving gap of three miles, which the
Rebels refused to yield. When, on We'd
nesday morning, Hood made his fcints
against our left, Woods and Stanley's di-
visions of the 4th Corps went to its sup
port. The troops on the right, consisting
of Hooker's and Palmers corps, and New
toms division of the 4th Corps, alone re-
mained ON the right, and they were order
ed to advance.
With what extreme nicely we involved
ourselves in the Rebel snare Newton
and Hooker advanced from their trenches,
captured some prisoners, and listened to
their unanimous story that no considera-
bic body of Rebels was within a mile and
a half Could bait be swallowed with
more than this mathematical exactness
The signal was given, and like storm the
Rebel host rushed upon our lines to COM
plete their plan-hQw was miscarriage
possible2 They poured down in torrent
like columns upon our few devoted divis-
ions on the right-and in three or four
hours we're crushed, Inundated, and on
some parts of the line routed. Perhaps,
in perusing the details Of the fight, your
readers will ascertain without difficulty
where they made their grand miscalcula-
tion.
The attack, in that was unexpected was
surprise. But it did not find our troops
! without muskets in their hands, or beyond
easy reach of their arms. [ have not
seen the time during this campaign when
any portion of the army has not been in
complete battle trim. 1t is useless to de-
ny that there was vast deal Of danger
in the tremendous attack. If successful,
/ Sherman could no longer with his remain
ing forces carry on offensive operations
with vigor; and if the Rebel army under
Hood could force him for a moment to re-
lax his hold on its throat it would be the
highest victory they have dreamed Of
Your kilograms have fully described the
situation at the beginning of the fight
Briefly, McPherson's extreme LETT lay
across the Augusta Railroad, Schofeld' s
and other forces joined him on the right.
Then occurred an interval OF three miles,
covered by pickets from Newton's divis-
ion, then the right wing, composed of
troops already enumerated, who sustained
the whole weightof the fight. The coun-