y-trains, and the position of the Army of
the Tennessee would have been very critical.

General Frank P. Blair pays this tribute to the fighting of the Sixteenth
Army Corps, in his official report of the Battle of Atlanta:

I started to go back to my command, and witnessed the fearful assault
made on the Sixteenth Army Corps, and its prompt and gallant repulse
by that command. It was a most fortunate circumstance for the whole
army that the Sixteenth Army Corps occupied the position I have
attempted to describe at the moment of attack; and, although it does
not belong to me to report upon the bearing and conduct of the
officers and men of that Corps, still I cannot withhold my expression
of admiration for the manner in which this command met and repulsed
the repeated and persistent attacks of the enemy. The attack upon our
flank and rear was made by the whole of Hardee's corps.

Under General Howard, a part of the left wing took part in the battle of
the 28th of July. On August 19th I was given a Confederate leave, when
that _beau-ideal_ of a soldier, my old schoolmate and comrade, General T.
E. G. Ransom, took command of the Corps. The right wing knew him, for he
was with you in the Red River campaign. He died on a stretcher in command
of the Corps in the chase after Hood. The old Second Division had its
innings with General Corse, at Altoona, where the fighting has been
immortalized in verse and song. My fortunes took me away to the command of
the Army and Department of the Missouri, and the two Divisions of the left
wing were merged one into the Fifteenth and the other into the Seventeenth
Corps, and, so far as the campaigns were concerned, the Corps fought in
two units, the right and left wings, and each was a Corps command.

The grave of that remarkable soldier, General A. J. Smith, whose
distinguished services were so often recognized by Generals Grant and
Sherman, has not a stone to designate it. The Society of the Army of the
Tennessee is aiding in raising the funds to commemorate his memory and
deeds by erecting a monument in his home in St. Louis.

The Sixteenth Army Corps had great opportunities in the campaigns it took
part in, and never failed to make the most of them. They went cheerfully
to any work assigned to them. They have left in the war records a history
that they may well be proud of, and every work they have undertaken has
received the strong commenda