The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1867-04-18

" - = NtNN'N - stNtA"t |"A'NA"N
lecrced he never mi ght we'd, so light
cd the noble soul which God gave him
as to illuminate his face, and make
gentle and true aud winning his life;
his own love attracting to him the
love Of all other meu.
And then the circumstances er his
life and death we're SO touching and
tragic. At3 o'clock on tho morning
of the memorable ed Of July 1864,
when General Sherman's army was
laying close seige to Atlanta, / was
called by him and ordered to go to
General Mcpherson, some six miles
distant on our left, and inform him
that the enemy had evacuated his
works in front of our centre, and
with direct for him to pursue, by
certain roads, in case tho enemy had
abandoned his whole line and Allan
tn. I Ifouud him at daylight in bed,
woke him up, he gave instantly the
necessary orders fer a reconnaissance
to ascertain the movements OF shc en-
cmy.
We ate breakfast together, mounted
our horses and rode to the 'front.' found
lhe enemy had only retired about a
mile to an inner aud shorter line
We then rode to our skirmish line
= Nd outside of it, and mile in from
Of t6,a g'ound on which the great
bot,Ie wa fought, later in the day
passing twice cye.r the spot on which
he fell few hours la.'er. Very near
this spot we met General -'odge, a1u
then General Mcpherson give MN
the order to halt his two divisions OF
Of the 10th Corps. which were then
by the flank in a direction
at right angles to our line, the head
Of the column being then less than
mile from our extreme left. Neither
Mcpherson, nor Dodge, nor General
Frank p. Blair, who was with us,
then comprehended the mighty
influence which this order, given only
to await the entrenching, by working
parties Of the extended and advanced
line on our left, which Dodge was to
occupy, was to have on tho days bat
tie, whose stiffness was, even then,
upon us. One may we'll regard it as
providential.
No one Their knew or thought that
Hood had, during the night before,
contracted his line so as to be able to
spare Hardec with corps Of ten to
fifteen thousand men, who had made,
by night march of fifteen miles, a
circuit around our left to attack us
on the left and rear, and who was
hen lust out Of our sight, forming
his troops for the attack.
We left the field on our left, and
ode rapidly to the centre to General
sherman, at the Howard House, an
.bandoned private dwelling, near the
.ontre of our lin es, and within easy
each of the enemies yiacs.
On our way we ialtod for few
moments at the tent OF Major Gene
al Frank. p. Blair. While there,
Blair's' Surgeon reported that robe
,avalry had been seen near the hos
oital Of the 18th corps which held cur
eft. 1t was also reported to Gene
-al Mcpherson that rebel cavalry lad
been seen near his headquarters, To-
,ated in the rear Of our left, on the
Decatur road.
The necessary orders wero given
by Generals Mcpherson and Blair, to
guard against dashes of bands Of
cavalry, but no importanc Q
vas attached by any one to the fact
If their appearance, as it was SC com
non, though in fact it was the first
pattorings of the great storm Of bat
lie which was SO soon to burst upon
The two armies, and PROSTATE in
wounds and death ten thousand brave
men.
A few moments after dismounting
At General Sherman's headquarters,
a sharp rafting FIRE of musketry was
heard in the direction Of our left
rear. Sherman and Mcpherson list
end to it attentiyely for few mo-
mcnts, both detecting in it the deci-
sive sound Of q coming battle, when
General Mcpherson quickly mounted
his horse and rode rapidly toward it.
In less than two hours his dead body
was laid at Sherman's feet, on the
porch Of the Howard House.
In riding from the right of Dodgc's
line, through the interval that sopa-
rated it from the left Of Leggett's
division of the 9th Corps, by blind
road through the woods, attended
only by an orderly, his staff having
all been sent away with orders for the
conduct of the battle, he was halted
by asquad of rebel infantry aud orr
dered to surrender. Raising his hat
as if in token of submission, lie os-
sayed to rein his horse quickly away
and plunge iutc the woods and es-
cape. The rebels, instantly detecting
his purpose, fred vOlley, aud the
brova obsvolro,a a,,d Laout;c,l NJ