Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-09-14

Sure enough, there was our flag placidly
waving in the twilight. To our loving
eyes there seemed something effulgent
about it. and as night fell, its
colors came out to our excited Wis
ion more and more plainly A few
weeks ago I elambered up lookout
at signal station on our left, and gazed
upon the bristling trenches of the enemy,
their frowning guns, and defiant flags, and
wondered as l gazed how, and when,
should enter there. Little did l dream
that it would be from the south, and thread
ing the road through the forts from whose
embrasures deserted guns would look US q
lonely, stern, but meaning welcome. Lit
tie did l think that the mesh of yawniDg
bitches, towering parapets, tangled abattis,
and impraeIicable cheDaaer de .frise would
be silently carried by battle whose thun-
der should be inaudible in the streets OF
the city, for the mastery of which it was
! fulminated-by a subtle idea, matured in
the wonderful brain of the commanding
GeneIal-and by the integrity and courage,
and morale of the immense army he has
marshaled to a victory which must affect
the destinies of the country, and of the hu-
man race ITSELF 5
| THE OCCUPATION OF ATLANTA.
| Hood, no doubt, was quickly apprised Of
the unfavorable issue of Hardee's assault OF
the 31st of August on the Army of the
| Tennessee. With his rail communications
severed, ali supplies cut off and moro than
half of his army defeated. in attack and
impotent for defense against the hosts
pushing upon it, it is plain that he was
compelled to abandon the town, and en-
deavor to unite his army once more, now
most critically divided and menaced. On
the morning of the lst orders were issued
in Atlanta for an evacuation that night
and though conflded at first to the army
commanders alone, and to those citizen:
whose welfare they had especially at heart
it was blown over the city by afternoon
and fell like thunder clap upon the un
suspecting inhabitants who but day ol
two ago had been hilarious over the with
drawal af Sherman. They thought him fol
ed, and put to last trump of building rail
roads and, possibly, digging canals. Ev
cry vehicle in the city was brought
into requisition by fugscious families
| Negroes, free and bound alike, werI
arrested and started south on foot Shop
keepers packed up their scanty wares, ol
found places where they concealed them
The confusion intensified as night came on
and am told that the confusion beggard
ed description. The faces of most Of tn,
citizens wore a look of despair as the!
turned their backs upon their homes, from
which they were driven so Unexpectedly
The streets were cluttered with wagons
tottering under hasty, ill-adjusted loads
the sidewalks swarmed with two classes
the fugitives and the wreckers. For be j
known that in the last hours of the rabe
occupation of Atlanta, thousands of tn
lower classes, who proposed to remsin, fel
to plundering the abandoned houses an'
stores as soon as their own disappeared
staff officers dashed from point to poin
with gloomy faces while drunken soldier
brawled along the banquettes, and crushe'
+ alike the citizens they encountered and tn
patrols that dragged them to their com
mands. What pen can do justice to
scene of rapine, of anguish, of terror, {
stealthy riot and brutality which had risel
through the thin crust, barely hiding thr
hideous elements that go to make up South
ern society, in the fourth year of jefferson
Davis