He remarked to the planter, “My good sir, I fear I must take some of your mules.”  The planter remonstrated, saying he had already contributed liberally to the good cause; that it was only last week he had given to General Roddy ten mules.  Rousseau replied, “Well, in this war you should be at least neutral—­that is, you should be as liberal to us as to Roddy” (a rebel cavalry general).  “Well, ain’t you on our side?” “No,” said Rousseau; “I am General Rousseau, and all these men you see are Yanks.”  “Great God! is it possible!  Are these Yanks!  Who ever supposed they would come away down here in Alabama?” Of course, Rousseau took his ten mules.

Schofield effected his crossing at Soap’s Creek very handsomely on the 9th, capturing the small guard that was watching the crossing.  By night he was on the high ground beyond, strongly intrenched, with two good pontoon-bridges finished, and was prepared, if necessary, for an assault by the whole Confederate army.  The same day Garrard’s cavalry also crossed over at Roswell, drove away the cavalry-pickets, and held its ground till relieved by Newton’s division of Howard’s corps, which was sent up temporarily, till it in turn was relieved by Dodge’s corps (Sixteenth) of the Army of the Tennessee, which was the advance of the whole of that army.

That night Johnston evacuated his trenches, crossed over the Chattahoochee, burned the railroad bridge and his pontoon and trestle bridges, and left us in full possession of the north or west bank-besides which, we had already secured possession of the two good crossings at Roswell and Soap’s Creek.  I have always thought Johnston neglected his opportunity there, for he had lain comparatively idle while we got control of both banks of the river above him.

On the 13th I ordered McPherson, with the Fifteenth Corps, to move up to Roswell, to cross over, prepare good bridges, and to make a strong tete-du-pont on the farther side.  Stoneman had been sent down to Campbellton, with orders to cross over and to threaten the railroad below Atlanta, if he could do so without too much risk; and General Blair, with the Seventeenth Corps, was to remain at Turner’s Ferry, demonstrating as much as possible, thus keeping up the feint below while we were actually crossing above.  Thomas was also ordered to prepare his bridges at Powers’s and Paice’s Ferries.  By crossing the Chattahoochee above the railroad bridge, we were better placed to cover our railroad and depots than below, though a movement across the river below the railroad, to the south of Atlanta, might have been more decisive.  But we were already so far from home, and would be compelled to accept battle whenever offered, with the Chattahoochee to our rear, that it became imperative for me to take all prudential measures the case admitted of, and I therefore determined to pass the river above the railroad-bridge-McPherson on the left, Schofield in the centre, and Thomas on the right.  On the 13th I reported to General Halleck as follows: