by a brigade commanded by Colonel Sprague of the Sixty-third Ohio.  The Sixteenth Corps (Dodge’s) was crowded out of position on the right of McPherson’s line, by the contraction of the circle of investment; and, during the previous afternoon, the Seventeenth Corps (Blair’s) had pushed its operations on the farther side of the Augusta Railroad, so as to secure possession of a hill, known as Leggett’s Hill, which Leggett’s and Force’s divisions had carried by assault.  Giles A. Smith’s division was on Leggett’s left, deployed with a weak left flank “in air,” in military phraseology.  The evening before General Gresham, a great favorite, was badly wounded; and there also Colonel Tom Reynolds, now of Madison, Wisconsin, was shot through the leg.  When the surgeons were debating the propriety of amputating it in his hearing, he begged them to spare the leg, as it was very valuable, being an “imported leg.”  He was of Irish birth, and this well-timed piece of wit saved his leg, for the surgeons thought, if he could perpetrate a joke at such a time, they would trust to his vitality to save his limb.

During the night, I had full reports from all parts of our line, most of which was partially intrenched as against a sally, and finding that McPherson was stretching out too much on his left flank, I wrote him a note early in the morning not to extend so much by his left; for we had not troops enough to completely invest the place, and I intended to destroy utterly all parts of the Augusta Railroad to the east of Atlanta, then to withdraw from the left flank and add to the right.  In that letter I ordered McPherson not to extend any farther to the left, but to employ General Dodge’s corps (Sixteenth), then forced out of position, to destroy every rail and tie of the railroad, from Decatur up to his skirmish-line, and I wanted him (McPherson) to be ready, as soon as General Garrard returned from Covington (whither I had sent him), to move to the extreme right of Thomas, so as to reach if possible the railroad below Atlanta, viz., the Macon road.  In the morning we found the strong line of parapet, “Peach-Tree line,” to the front of Schofield and Thomas, abandoned, and our lines were advanced rapidly close up to Atlanta.  For some moments I supposed the enemy intended to evacuate, and in person was on horseback at the head of Schofield’s troops, who had advanced in front of the Howard House to some open ground, from which we could plainly see the whole rebel line of parapets, and I saw their men dragging up from the intervening valley, by the distillery, trees and saplings for abatis.  Our skirmishers found the enemy down in this valley, and we could see the rebel main line strongly manned, with guns in position at intervals.  Schofield was dressing forward his lines, and I could hear Thomas farther to the right engaged, when General McPherson and his staff rode up.  We went back to the Howard House, a double frame-building with a porch, and sat on the steps, discussing the chances