At this time Stoneman was very active on our extreme right, pretending to be searching the river below Turner’s Ferry for a crossing, and was watched closely by the enemy’s cavalry on the other side, McPherson, on the right, was equally demonstrative at and near Turner’s Ferry.  Thomas faced substantially the intrenched tete-du-pont, and had his left on the Chattahoochee River, at Paice’s Ferry.  Garrard’s cavalry was up at Roswell, and McCook’s small division of cavalry was intermediate, above Soap’s Creek.  Meantime, also, the railroad-construction party was hard at work, repairing the railroad up to our camp at Vining’s Station.

Of course, I expected every possible resistance in crossing the Chattahoochee River, and had made up my mind to feign on the right, but actually to cross over by the left.  We had already secured a crossing place at Roswell, but one nearer was advisable; General Schofield had examined the river well, found a place just below the mouth of Soap’s Creek which he deemed advantageous, and was instructed to effect an early crossing there, and to intrench a good position on the other side, viz., the east bank.  But, preliminary thereto, I had ordered General Rousseau, at Nashville, to collect, out of the scattered detachments of cavalry in Tennessee, a force of a couple of thousand men, to rendezvous at Decatur, Alabama, thence to make a rapid march for Opelika, to break up the railroad links between Georgia and Alabama, and then to make junction with me about Atlanta; or, if forced, to go on to Pensacola, or even to swing across to some of our posts in Mississippi.  General Rousseau asked leave to command this expedition himself, to which I consented, and on the 6th of July he reported that he was all ready at Decatur, and I gave him orders to start.  He moved promptly on the 9th, crossed the Coosa below the “Ten Islands” and the Tallapoosa below “Horseshoe Bend,” having passed through Talladega.  He struck the railroad west of Opelika, tore it up for twenty miles, then turned north and came to Marietta on the 22d of July, whence he reported to me.  This expedition was in the nature of a raid, and must have disturbed the enemy somewhat; but, as usual, the cavalry did not work hard, and their destruction of the railroad was soon repaired.  Rousseau, when he reported to me in person before Atlanta, on the 28d of July, stated his entire loss to have been only twelve killed and thirty wounded.  He brought in four hundred captured mules and three hundred horses, and also told me a good story.  He said he was far down in Alabama, below Talladega, one hot, dusty day, when the blue clothing of his men was gray with dust; he had halted his column along a road, and he in person, with his staff, had gone to the house of a planter, who met him kindly on the front-porch.  He asked for water, which was brought, and as the party sat on the porch in conversation he saw, in a stable-yard across the road, quite a number of good mules.