And on the 5th I again wrote to General Palmer, arguing the point with him, advising him, as a friend, not to resign at that crisis lest his motives might be misconstrued, and because it might damage his future career in civil life; but, at the same time, I felt it my duty to say to him that the operations on that flank, during the 4th and 5th, had not been satisfactory—­not imputing to him, however, any want of energy or skill, but insisting that “the events did not keep pace with my desires.”  General Schofield had reported to me that night: 

I am compelled to acknowledge that I have totally failed to make any aggressive movement with the Fourteenth Corps.  I have ordered General Johnson’s division to replace General Hascall’s this evening, and I propose to-morrow to take my own troops (Twenty-third Corps) to the right, and try to recover what has been lost by two days’ delay.  The force may likely be too small.

I sanctioned the movement, and ordered two of Palmers divisions —­Davis’s and Baird’s—­to follow en echelon in support of Schofield, and summoned General Palmer to meet me in person:  He came on the 6th to my headquarters, and insisted on his resignation being accepted, for which formal act I referred him to General Thomas.  He then rode to General Thomas’s camp, where he made a written resignation of his office as commander of the Fourteenth Corps, and was granted the usual leave of absence to go to his home in Illinois, there to await further orders.  General Thomas recommended that the resignation be accepted; that Johnson, the senior division commander of the corps, should be ordered back to Nashville as chief of cavalry, and that Brigadier-General Jefferson C. Davis, the next in order, should be promoted major general, and assigned to command the corps.  These changes had to be referred to the President, in Washington, and were, in due time, approved and executed; and thenceforward I had no reason to complain of the slowness or inactivity of that splendid corps.  It had been originally formed by General George H. Thomas, had been commanded by him in person, and had imbibed some what his personal character, viz., steadiness, good order, and deliberation nothing hasty or rash, but always safe, “slow, and sure.”  On August 7th I telegraphed to General Halleck: 

Have received to-day the dispatches of the Secretary of War and of General Grant, which are very satisfactory.  We keep hammering away all the time, and there is no peace, inside or outside of Atlanta.  To-day General Schofield got round the line which was assaulted yesterday by General Reilly’s brigade, turned it and gained the ground where the assault had been made, and got possession of all our dead and wounded.  He continued to press on that flank, and brought on a noisy but not a bloody battle.  He drove the enemy behind his main breastworks, which cover the railroad from Atlanta to East Point, and captured a good many of the skirmishers, who are of his best