Morning journal and courier., 1885-11-23

\ A we'll digger few days ago, in delving city, struck something hard with his pick. He found that he had discovered bomb
 shell, and carefully he removed the soil until the deadly missile was cleared from it's bed of clay This we'll digger was aware of the danger of the rusty bombs which lie embed ded in the soil around Atlanta No less than four or five persons have been killed by the explosion of these shells, which missed their original aim and sank apparently harmless into the soil.
 During the siege of Atlanta in 1864 it was 8 practical question and one of vital interest how to dodge them. Gradually the Confede- rate lines drew nearer to the city. The faint echo of their guns was heard ten miles away. When the lines fell back to the river there was universal vail in Atlanta The river had been regarded barrier beyond which the invader could not come, and there was 8 constant expectation that Johnston would do something to paralyze his enemy.
 One evening about dusk came the news to the city that the Confederate troops had crossed the river and burned the bridge be l hind them Thst announcement stilled a | thousand hearts in the beleaguered city. | There was no alternative but capture. The people knew the relative force of the armies. | They were we'll aware that Sherman had over | one hundred thousand men elated with a l successful march into the heart of their ene-
 my's country, while opposing them were about forty thousand men in gray, who had been fighting slow and desperate retreat. | After tbe river was crossed the Federal
 army swept with little obstruction to the
 very outskirts of the city. Atlanta then had l a regular population of about ten thousand, l but the concentration of war supplies and | the importance attached to it as & base of l supplies had the population up to | twenty or twenty-five thousand. The city | was teeming with people, all in great agi- | tation when they heard that the invader | had set foot on the eastern bank of the | Chattahoochee.
 How to defend the city was the next | question. It was answered by some very | practical and intelligent men whose duty tc l the Southern Confectionery had kept them
 in or around Atlanta. Chief among these
 was Colonel L. P. Grant, the present pres ident of the Atlanta and West Point rail
 road Colonel Grant planned three com
 plete lines of fertilization. One was tt
 skirt the boundary of the city. The othel | was to surround the thickly settled dis
 tricts, while the third was to encircle thu
 very heart of the city, with the court
 house as a sort of final rampant and strong
 hold. All these works were duly construct
 ed according to Colonel Grants plans, ant
 the defences of Atlanta were famous fo
 their ingenuity and strength But the Fed
 eral forces fought their way on until the.
 were within cannon shot of the city. The, 1 tried by several desperate assaults like tha 1 of July 22d, mile beyond the cemetery
 and like the bloody onslaught on Peach l tree Creek, few days later, to sweep righ into the city In all these efforts the
 were checked by force hardly half a
 great as that of the invaders. McPhersol minor rank fell, Men were moved dow
 like wheat by the determined defenders o the city. It must be slow siege to win
 Sherman realized this fact quickly and ac
 cordingly adjusted his forces. Batteries witl the heaviest guns he could command wer
 placed in front of the Federal lines. The,
 were almost completely around the city
 Their range was four or five miles, and the,
 had only 8 mile mile and half to GOV ! er Shells poured thick into the city and reign of terror began.
 Then came the bomb proof It was tn
 only refuge from the shells of the besiegers Every household soon had it's place of refuge The bomb proof consisted of a perpendicu
 lar hole in the ground about four feet square
 and tunnel of six feet which led into 5 vault of various dimensions. The averag size of the bomb proof was ten by twelv
 feet, but many of them were larger. Som , of them were luxuriously furnished, and oi fered all the comforts of home in the retrea ) under the ground from the sizzling and poI ping shells.
 , 50 far as protection TO Ire was concerne they were perfect. No shell could penetrat , through the roof of the soil, and there wa | not chance in million that any of the en emy's missiles would fall in the narrow CT trance The bomb proof was a eomplet < protection from the enemy's fiery missile and saved many life in Atlanta. Thou sands of shells fell in the city during the si I weeks of terror, and not half dozen live
 were lost. The most fatal shell fell just i 5 front of where James, bank now is. It ez Q ploded in the streets. One piece killed 8 shoemaker in cellar. Another fragmeI