oods and fields, and endeavored
to find a way by which I could reach the enemy's flank or rear,
riding so far ahead with a few staff officers and orderlies that
I escaped very narrowly being captured by the enemy. Finally, near
dark, General Stanley's troops began to deploy and attack the enemy;
and as there were more troops on the ground than could possibly be
used that day, I could do not more than stand and watch their
movements, as I did with intense interest until my medical director,
Dr. Hewit, one of the bravest and coolest men I ever knew, called
my attention to the fact that the place was much too hot for a
general and his staff who had nothing to do there. I believe if
General Sherman had been in our place he would have thought it
"more than a skirmish-line" (Vol. II, page 108) in Stanley's front
that gave us that fire both of musketry and artillery which my
staff officers have frequently spoken of as one of the ugliest they
ever experienced. General Stanley's fault was, not that he deployed
his troops, but that he did not put them in at once when he arrived
on the ground, instead of waiting for orders. But General Stanley,
whose gallantry was never questioned, was a subordinate in experience.
He had but recently risen to the command of a corps, and had been
little accustomed to act on his own responsibility. Feeling
overburdened with the responsibility wrongfully thrust upon him
that day, he naturally sought relief from it by reporting for orders
to General Thomas as soon as his corps was reunited to the main
army.

The failure at Jonesboro', as at so many other places, was due to
that erroneous interpretation of the law that threw the supreme
responsibility at the crisis of battle upon untried and (in this
case) unwilling shoulders, or else left the lawful commander without
recognized authority, to beg in vain of others to "co-operate" with
him.

THE CAPTURE OF ATLANTA

During the night of August 31 others besides General Sherman were
too restless and impatient to sleep (Vol. II, page 108). The sounds
of explosion in Atlanta were distinctly heard, and the flashes of
light distinctly seen. With the compass for direction and the
watch for intervals of time between flash and sound, there was no
difficulty in locating their origin at Atlanta. An untutored farmer
may well have thought "these sounds were just like those of a
battle," but a practised