Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-09-29


After the great leaders upon both sides
have been dead for years and generations
of writers have examined carefully and
ENTHUSIASTICALLY into all the details of
campaigns and contests as presented by
army officers and by war correspondents
from both sections, there Will be as true
histories of the late civil war as can be
written. and il the writers do their duty,
as they undoubtedly viii, there will be
some surprising things said concerning the
Atlanta campaign. The country at large
will always honor Sherman, who may be
termed the military genius Of the war.
But it may come out some time that the
grizzly old hero entertained so much pre-
JUDGE against the Army of the Cumber-
land and two of its greatest fighters
Thomas and Hooker-and so much more
regard for the Army Of the Tennessee
than for any other army, that the victory
which gave us Atlanta cost the country
tens Of thousands Of lives and hundred
millions of dollars more than it should.
The true historian may yet tell the world
that "Joe" Johnson's army might have
been captured at Resaca had Sherman list
ened to Thomas and Hooker and other
general officers of the Army of the Cum
berland. Thomas begged Sherman at
least to let Hooker, with his Twentieth
Corps, move according to his (Thomas's)
plan.
eve can capture the whole rebel army"
said Thomas
81 caa do that with the Army of the
Tennessee" replied Sherman; besides, l
am not fond of Hooker. He isn't to be
relied Oh, and thinks too mach of Fighting
joe"
The Army of the Tennessee had its
hands too full to carry out what Sherman
had hoped; the Army of the Cumberland
became engaged when it was too late, and
the gamecock of the Southern army got
away, leaving more Federal than Confed-
crate dead and wounded on the field. AT
Keaesaw Mountain Sherman was besought
TO make a flank movement rather than
attack in front But he banged away
until he had lost several thousand men,
and would have been thrashed to pieces ii
he hadn't had more than two to one of
the rebels, got badly defeated, and then
executed the movement as urged by
Thomas, Hooker, King, Carlin. Schofield,
Wood, Dick Johnson, and JEFF c.. Davis.
The Army of the Cumberland laid off and
listened to the tremendous cannonade and
clash of small arms and rebel yell all day
upon the 22d of July, when Mcpherson
was killed and 10000 soldiers of the Army
of the Tennessee placed hors du combat,
company with General John Fl. King |
called upon Thomas late in the afternoon,
and he said: "There is something terri
bic going on over there on the left, and
am expecting orders every minute. | am
afraid, by the sound, that the Army of the
Tennessee is getting the worst Of it," In
the evening we called on Hooker, who
had lust returned from Reconnaissance"
with his aid, Freddy" Stetson, youngest
son Of Stetson Of the Astor House, and the
first thing Hooker said was: ''Old Tecum-
sch has had hell on the left all day. He
wanted to take Atlanta without our help,
and has lost Mcpherson and eight or ten
thousand men, so l hear. | am senior
officer and the command should come to
me. But the old lunatic will probably
give it to Logan or Howard. He will
never forgive me for my success on the
10Th the brilliant battle of Peach Tree
Creek Well, can stand it if he can. l
was sent out here TO fight, but he does not
seem to require my services. | forced the
rebels on the Goth, and We hurled them
back on Atlanta without a gun being fired
by the Army of the Tennessee. l haven't
seen Sherman since He must be terribly
disguised with me. The only way to take
Atlanta is to move upon 1t with every
available man and gun, or flank it"
General Sherman lost about $4,000 men
~, ~ oOl Gapka1 he
stronghold and captured it without great
loss. Still we succeeded, and who knows
but that it might have been worse after
all )? The world has not produced many
illustrious warriors who have not been
severely criticised. Success is the thing
in battle, and he is the greatest General
who wins the most fights. Yet where
would have been Grant at Shiloh without
Buell.? Where would have been Meade
at Gettysburg without Hancock and
where would have been Rosecrans at
Chickamauga without Thomas ?-the Gen
eral who won the first good fight in the
! West at Mill Spring, Kentucky. and who
wound up things in that department by
annihilating Hoods army near Nashville
three years afterward-the only time an
army was actually annihilated during the
war.
/ never met 'Bob" Toombs but once
after the war. He was curious combina-
ton of the genial ard seyere-a sort OF
iceberg in the tropics. He criticised the
late Jefferson Davis severely, and declared
| that the election of the latter sealed the
told me that Davis was martinez, and
| II l. =. III IL, cf h
| erner or Yankee succeeding in anything
who wasn't educated and spurred at West
| Point; that he was too much of an ariste-
crat when all Southerners should have
been equal that he thought the North
could not recover from Fredericksburg and
Chickamauga, and that the late "ex-Presi-
dent" believed himself god of war; that
if the Confederacy had won it would have
gone to pieces in a year or thrown the
Mississippian out; that he was jealous, en-
vious, narrow-minded, overbearing and
lacking in military knowledge and real
craftsmanship. Gle would have been a
good civil engineer or newspaper man, if
he had been properly educated. He did
hate me well,' Toombs added, and then he
laughed without changing his features; he
gnasned his teeth without making sound,
and glared savagely but childlike.
If, at the gates of heaven, st. Peter
asked Toombs where he came from, he I'M
doubtedly answered: Nowhere" chad
you no country% 'No, sir" 'Where
were you born ?" Washington, Wilkes
county, Ga, named after the greatest and
best rebel that ever lived" what are
your qualifications ?' "That am honest
in my convictions; that my father was a
Revolutionary soldier and my mother a
beautiful woman of Pennsylvania; that |
have lived fifty odd years with model
wife, with whom only short time ago
celebrated our golden wedding; that | hate
Joe Brown as cordially as the devil is sup
posed to hate holy water; that ] have never
read JEFF. Davis Rise and Fall Of the
Confederate Government and am for ever
and ever an uHreconstructed rebel"
Toombs believed that, if the South had
made the abolition of slavery part Of its
policy, it would have had England and
France on its side, and that the Confeder-
acy would have succeeded. 1t was his
boast that his latchkeys were so conspicu-
ously out that no hotel could exist in the
town of Washington. He and his wife
were both renowned for their hospitality,
| and claimed that any man who had money
enough to put up at hotel had character