The National tribune., 1882-12-21


the death OF Major General J. 3. Mcpherson.
He was shot on the 22d Of July, 1864, in front
of Atlanta. | would like especially to know
what the country was Hke-Open, hiily, or
heavy -timbercd; in fact, ALL or most of the
particulars. Can you send me anything thai
Will give this? Yours, respectfully,
J. B. IRVINE,
KGRKwooD, ILL. Nov. Both, 1882.
In response to Mr. Irvines inquiry, we give
extracts from paper read by General Sher-
man before the Society of the Army of the
Tennessee at its Annual Reunion at Indianap-
oils, III October 1o75:
/ The attack Of July 22d, ON our left flank,
was made by Wheeler's cavalry, at Decatur.
and by HardCc'S infantry corps composed Of
the divisions Of Bates, Walker Cleburne, and
Nanny. The first two named divisions struck
Dodge in position and wero checked. The
/ other two penetrated the wooded interval about
thTce-touTths OF a mile, struck in flank and
rear the Seventeenth Corps. The battle was
. peculiarly bloody and desperate, but remained
/ gI0riouS victory to our arms, attended,
however, by the awful calamity of the death Of
/ NgIor-ticncral Mcpherson, COmmandiEG-Grn-
/ cral OF the Army OF the tennessee. He had
. very carefully examined his line that morning,
/ and had concluded to occupy a certain emiuence
ON his left front about 1900 yards from the
Foundry with the Sixteenth Corps, General
Dodge. Several notes had passed between him
and me that morning. and | had instructed
him not to extend too far in that direction, and
explained to hiLl that as snon rs General Gar
T8ud returned from COyinCron. viz: by The 24th
OF July, that I proposed to shift his whole
army To the extreme right lOf Thomas, so as
ifpo,,ihic to reach the Macon road. Neither
he nor ! expected an attack in force to our left
rear by anything except cavalry, which neither
Of Us feared. We did expect saliies on our left
t-,1e. 30 or,l I~+a-
mediate places.
have in my printed memoirs, related mi
nutrly aud carefully what occurred during his
personal visit to me-whiCh a long one,
/ lasting fully an hour or more. He left me in
I consequence of the same firing which made
Dodge order Sweeney to form his line facing
. south, and which caused Fuller, at the double
. quick. to 90 back from the seventeenth Corps
tD his battery already in position. He, beyond
. question. was overlooking Fuller between II
and o'clock p. M. and, in my opinion, was
killed 10y a vOicv about ] p. H.. of July 22d
. His body was not riHed save of his pocket-book
. which contained considerable money and some
papers. These afterwards recovered, and
! was then told they had been found in the
. haveraack Of one Of the forty prisoners reported
by General Fuller as sent back by the Sixty
fourth Illinois, which regiment also recovered
hi, body.
Up To within a few minutes of his death
/ that road was safe, and had been used all that
morning by officers and men passing to and fro.
. \ private soldier, named Reynolds, of an Iowa
! regiment. says he was near Mcpherson when
. he fell from his horse and heard his last sigh,
but his death must have been almost instanta-
I neOus. His bOdy was brought to me at the
/ Howard or Hurt House, where | had IL exam
. iued Ov Or Hewitt, who said the range of the
bail must have passed very near his heart.
The minute account published in the Nashville
. Jt.ya, and republished IN the Army and Nary
J,aIfaI of July 10, 1919, page 762, signed by
. Richard Beard, Is undoubtedly, IN the main,
. correct. Beard was a captain IN the Fifth
. confederate regiment and on that day July
=, I-.j4 commanded the SklTmish line which
preceded Cieburns division in the general
attack our flank lie says that he ordered
. Corporal Coleman to fire the shot which proved
+ fatal and the probabilities are that he is cor
rect in this particular, though mistaken IN say
ing General McPhcrson was attended By a
/ large staff, followed Gy an escort, as will ap-
pear later IN this narrative. He was alone with
his orderly, A. J. Thompson, Fourth Ohio in
dependent company, and his staIf officers had
been sent OF various erraHdS, chiefly TO
/ bring up re-entorCements to the threatened
/ quarter. His body was aS you all know, taken
/ immediately to Clyde, ohio, where it still re-
mains buried, whilst his equestrian statue
stands in Washington. Recently, at Newark,
Ohio, a veteran came to and said he was
| McPherson's orderly on that day, and that he
SaC him when shot and was himself thrown
from his horse and made prisoner at the time.
He denied that Reynolds was there at all, and
at my instance he wrote the following letter
which l here give in full
AMERICAN HOUSE,
NEWARK, OHIO, July p, 1873.
To General SIBERIAN.
You wished me to give the particulars o.
/ General James B. McPhersOnS DEATH which
will. 1t was between IL and II o'clock, a. M
/ when we heard heavy skirmishing off to thu
I,cE NTnID Frl.v
Hickenlooper, Steele, Giles and myself accom-
panied him. After we crossed Sugar Tree Creek
we met some teams coming that were about to
get up a stampede. The General said to his
staff: - Go and stop those teams, or they might
cause a general stampede" and they did as he
told them.
That left none but myself with him. We
hastened up to the top of the rise, where the
road turned to the right, and there halted
few moments, and he looked to the right and
left. He Gii not speak word to me. While
we Were there Captain Raymond came up, and
he appeared very much excited. Il said:
General Mcpherson. General i-eggett wants
to know what he snail DO ;" he said the rebels
were pressing him. McILcrsOu told him TO go
back and tell Leggett to strai ghtca his lines
Z parallel with the road that runs down in the
woods lust as quick rs God VIII l1t you Cap
tain Raymond turned his horse and started;
got about fifty yards from where We were;
General Mcpherson started after him, and,
near IS | can remembec, We got about 10 yards
in the woods | saw Captain Raym2nGs horse
fall. It looked to me like Raymond's horst
jumped up four feet Tit on his back, and slid
about q rod Raymond fell Off to the left.
Just as | saw the rebels come right upon us,
they yyeIled out to us: " Halt. halt. you d
---" The General checked biS horse
and raised his hat at the same time, and then,
with quick turn - tlc right he tried to get
away. | slw them raise their guns TO shoot;
/ slid down on my saddle, AMI a [ bent over [
saw the leaves fly from under the General; my
head struck Il cree and knocked and stunned
me- ] suppose, for about three minutes. When
| got over my stun | got up and started TO help
him up; he was lying on his right side, with
his right hand under his breast; his left hand
was on his left lee. and l called him, asked if
he was hurt and he SAID: 80, orderly. ! am"
Then went to pick him U?, and there was
hig rebel CAUGHT hold OF my reVolver-bcit and
icri,cd and dragged me away from him, and
called me Il Yankee e---; told me 10
go 10 the rear, or they would shoot me. At
his time the General turned over on his face,
and was trembling. | think he was dead.
4. !. THOMSON,
4th Ohio Ind. Co, Georgetown, Brown CO., o.
General Dodge's Report, doted Angust ,, 1864.
Tho euar,y came ont of the YoodS IN tha