deracy. His troops were eager to
advance and retrieve the disaster at Missionary Ridge--the first and
only case of panic and cowardice that had marred the brilliant record of
the Confederacy.

The position of Johnston's army was one of commanding strength. Long
mountain ranges, with few and difficult passes, made it next to
impossible for Sherman to turn his flank or dislodge him by direct
attack. Sherman depended for his supplies on a single line of railroad
from Nashville.

Davis confidently believed that Johnston could crush Sherman in the
first pitched battle and render his position untenable.

And then began the most remarkable series of retreats recorded in the
history of war.

Without a blow and without waiting for an attack, Johnston suddenly
withdrew from his trenches at Dalton and ran eighteen miles into the
interior of Georgia. He stopped at Resaca in a strong position on a
peninsula formed by the junction of two rivers fortified by rifle pits
and earthworks.

He gave this up and ran thirteen miles further into Georgia to
Adairsville. Not liking the looks of Adairsville he struck camp and ran
to Cassville seventeen miles.

He then declared he would fight Sherman at Kingston. Sherman failing to
divide his army, as Johnston had supposed he would, he changed his mind
and ran beyond Etowah. He next retreated to Alatoona. Here Sherman
spread out his army, threatened Marietta and Johnston ran again.

On July fifth he ran from Kenesaw Mountain and took refuge behind the
Chattahoochee River.

From Dalton to Resaca, from Resaca to Adairsville, from Adairsville to
Alatoona (involving the loss of Kingston and Rome with their mills,
foundries and military stores), from Alatoona to Kenesaw, from Kenesaw
to the Chattahoochee and then tumbled into the trenches before Atlanta.

Retreat had followed retreat for two months and a half over one hundred
and fifty miles to the gates of Atlanta without a single pitched
battle!

Davis watched this tragedy unfold its appalling scenes with increasing
bitterness, disappointment and alarm.

The demand for Johnston's removal was overwhelming in the State of
Georgia whose gate city was now besieged by Sherman. The people of the
whole South had watched this retreat of a hundred and fifty miles into
their territory with sickening hearts.

Again Johnston began his nagging and complaining to the Richmond
authorities. His most important message was an accusation of disloyalty