Chapter XVI

From Lovejoy's to Lost Mountain--Big Shanty--Acworth--Destroying 223
Railroad--In the Rear of Sherman--Situation of the Two
Armies--Orders to Destroy the Etowah River Bridge--To Fill Up
the Railroad Cut at Allatoona--Hood Not Aware that Allatoona Was
Fortified and Garrisoned--March to Allatoona--Summons to
Surrender--No Answer--Gen. Corse's Report Erroneous--The
Fortifications--Strength of Forces--Equalization of Forces--Some
Federal Dispatches--The Battle--Corse's Account--Col. Ludlow's
Description--Desperate Fighting--The Main Line Captured--Enemy
Driven into an Interior Fort--Dispatches from Gen. Armstrong
Respecting Movements of the Enemy at Big Shanty--Withdraw to
Avoid Being Surrounded by Converging Forces--Corse's Dispatch to
Sherman--Provisions--Confederates Three Days and Nights without
Rest or Sleep--Pass by the Enemy--Evangelist P. P. Bliss Writes
the (Gospel) Hymn, "Hold the Fort"--Hood and His Erroneous
Publications in His Book--His Admiration for Corse--My
Admiration for the Confederates--The Soldier's Grave--The Lone
Grave--Lieut. Gen. A. P. Stewart's Note in Regard to This
Account of the Battle

CHAPTER XVII.

Return from Allatoona--Hood's Deportment--Cross the Coosa 285
River--Devastation around Rome--Rome Burned--Garrison of Resaca
Refuses to Surrender--Capture of the Seventeenth Iowa Regiment
at Tilton--Dalton Taken--Dug Gap--Dinner of Roasting
Ears--Supper--Captured Officers are Jolly Good
Fellows--Gadsden--Encampment at Mrs. Sansom's--Her Daughter a
Guide for Gen. Forrest when He Captured Gen. Streight--Cross the
Black Warrior River and Sand Mountains--Decatur--Some Fighting
at Decatur--Gen. Beauregard with Hood--Beautiful Valley of the
Tennessee made Desolate by War--Tuscumbia--Dreary March to
Columbia, Rain and Snow--Stewart's and Cheatham's Corps Cross
Duck River _en Route_ to Spring Hill--Hood Slept--Schofield
Passed By--Pursue Schofield to Franklin--Battle of
Franklin--Incidents--Remarkable Order for a Second Assault at
Night--Losses in My Two Brigades--Exchange of Prisoners Stopped

CHAPTER XVIII.

March to Nashville--Cold Weather--Partial Investment of the 302
City--Leave of Absence--Turn the Command Over to Brig. Gen. C.
W. Sears--Battle of Nashville--Hood Not Physically Able for the
Duties of a Commander in Want of All Supplies--Marshal
Saxe--Mulai Malek--Going to Nashville a Failure; Could Not Be
Otherwise--Leave for Columbus, Ga.--Marriage to Mary Fontaine
Abercrombie--Go to Meriwether County to Avoid Wilson's
Raid--Robbing in Columbus--Adventures of My Orderly--Yankees
Raid the Houses--Gen. A. Had No Pies--Gens. Lee and Johnston
Surrender--Terms Thereof--War with the Musket Ends

CHAPTER XIX.

Aspect of the Country at Termination of the War--The Returned 310
Confederate Soldier--Carpetbaggers--Lincoln's Vow--His
Proclamation Concerning Confiscation of Slaves--How the Slaves
Were Legally Liberated--Lincoln Murdered--Johnson President--His
Thirst for Vengeance--"Treason" to Be Made Odious--Grant
Declared That the Paroles Must Not Be Violated--Cost of a Bill
of Dry Goods in Confederate Money in 1864--Leave Columbus for
Greenville, Miss.--Desolate Home--The Good Israelite--Return to
Columbus--I Go with Mrs. French to Mississippi--Traveling
Incognito a Failure--Journey to New York in 1865--Incidents of
My Mother and Child When They Went North--Home
Confiscated--Edward Cooper's Kind Act--No One Would Touch
Mother's Trunks--Copy of a Contract in 1865, Whereby I Obtained
Funds--People under Espionage at the North--Return to the
Plantation--Northern Plan to Terminate the War

CHAPTER XX.

Freedmen's Bureau--Gen. O. O. Howard, Commissioner--Platform for 328
Reconstruction--Ironclad Oath--Natural Rights of Man--Civil
Rights--Negroes Made Citizens--Persecution--Agents of Freedmen's
Bureau--Personal Experience--Negro Justices--Some Trials--Judge
Shackelford--Secret Societies--William A. Sharkey--Gov. Adelbert
Ames--Sheriff Webber--Taxes--Board of Levee Commissioners
Dismissed--Religious Negroes--Bishop Wilmer--Prayers for the
President--Shotgun Election--Hegira--Carpetbaggers--Indissoluble
Union--Indestructible States--We Were a Conquered
Nation--Reconstruction Only a Definition for Deeds
Done--Strength of Respective Armies