Howard’s corps had followed Johnston down from Dalton, and was in line; Stoneman’s division of cavalry had also got up, and was on the extreme left, beyond the Oostenaula.

On the night of May 15th Johnston got his army across the bridges, set them on fire, and we entered Resaca at daylight.  Our loss up to that time was about six hundred dead and thirty-three hundred and seventy-five wounded—­mostly light wounds that did not necessitate sending the men to the rear for treatment.  That Johnston had deliberately designed in advance to give up such strong positions as Dalton and Resaca, for the purpose of drawing us farther south, is simply absurd.  Had he remained in Dalton another hour, it would have been his total defeat, and he only evacuated Resaca because his safety demanded it.  The movement by us through Snake-Creek Gap was a total surprise to him.  My army about doubled his in size, but he had all the advantages of natural positions, of artificial forts and roads, and of concentrated action.  We were compelled to grope our way through forests, across mountains, with a large army, necessarily more or less dispersed.  Of course, I was disappointed not to have crippled his, army more at that particular stage of the game; but, as it resulted, these rapid successes gave us the initiative, and the usual impulse of a conquering army.

Johnston having retreated in the night of May 15th, immediate pursuit was begun.  A division of infantry (Jeff.  C. Davis’s) was at once dispatched down the valley toward Rome, to support Garrard’s cavalry, and the whole army was ordered to pursue, McPherson by Lay’s Ferry, on the right, Thomas directly by the railroad, and Schofield by the left, by the old road that crossed the Oostenaula above Echota or Newtown.

We hastily repaired the railroad bridge at Resaca, which had been partially burned, and built a temporary floating bridge out of timber and materials found on the spot; so that Thomas got his advance corps over during the 16th, and marched as far as Calhoun, where he came into communication with McPherson’s troops, which had crossed the Oostenaula at Lay’s Ferry by our pontoon-bridges, previously laid.  Inasmuch as the bridge at Resaca was overtaxed, Hooker’s Twentieth Corps was also diverted to cross by the fords and ferries above Resaca, in the neighborhood of Echota.

On the 17th, toward evening, the head of Thomas’s column, Newton’s division, encountered the rear-guard of Johnston’s army near Adairsville.  I was near the head of column at the time, trying to get a view of the position of the enemy from an elevation in an open field.  My party attracted the fire of a battery; a shell passed through the group of staff-officers and burst just beyond, which scattered us promptly.  The next morning the enemy had disappeared, and our pursuit was continued to Kingston, which we reached during Sunday forenoon, the 19th.