In a conversation with General Johnston, after the war, he explained that on that day he had ridden in person from Marietta to Pine Mountain, held by Bates’s division, and was accompanied by Generals Hardee and Polk.  When on Pine Mountain, reconnoitring, quite a group of soldiers, belonging to the battery close by, clustered about him.  He noticed the preparations of our battery to fire, and cautioned these men to scatter.  They did so, and he likewise hurried behind the parapet, from which he had an equally good view of our position but General Polk, who was dignified and corpulent, walked back slowly, not wishing to appear too hurried or cautious in the presence of the men, and was struck across the breast by an unexploded shell, which killed him instantly.  This is my memory of the conversation, and it is confirmed by Johnston himself in his “Narrative,” page 337, except that he calculated the distance of our battery at six hundred yards, and says that Polk was killed by the third shot; I know that our guns fired by volley, and believe that he was hit by a shot of the second volley.  It has been asserted that I fired the gun which killed General Polk, and that I knew it was directed against that general.  The fact is, at that distance we could not even tell that the group were officers at all; I was on horseback, a couple of hundred yards off, before my orders to fire were executed, had no idea that our shot had taken effect, and continued my ride down along the line to Schofield’s extreme flank, returning late in the evening to my head-quarters at Big Shanty, where I occupied an abandoned house.  In a cotton-field back of that house was our signal-station, on the roof of an old gin-house.  The signal-officer reported that by studying the enemy’s signals he had learned the key, and that he could read their signals.  He explained to me that he had translated a signal about noon, from Pine Mountain to Marietta, “Send an ambulance for General Polk’s body;” and later in the day another, “Why don’t you send an ambulance for General Polk?” From this we inferred that General Polk had been killed, but how or where we knew not; and this inference was confirmed later in the same day by the report of some prisoners who had been captured.

On the 15th we advanced our general lines, intending to attack at any weak point discovered between Kenesaw and Pine Mountain; but Pine Mountain was found to be abandoned, and Johnston had contracted his front somewhat, on a direct line, connecting Kenesaw with Lost Mountain.  Thomas and Schofield thereby gained about two miles of most difficult, country, and McPherson’s left lapped well around the north end of Kenesaw.  We captured a good many prisoners, among them a whole infantry regiment, the Fourteenth Alabama, three hundred and twenty strong.

On the 16th the general movement was continued, when Lost Mountain was abandoned by the enemy.  Our right naturally swung round, so as to threaten the railroad below Marietta, but Johnston had still further contracted and strengthened his lines, covering Marietta and all the roads below.