equal to all the lower positions which he had occupied as a soldier.  I will not pretend to question the motive which actuated Sherman in taking an officer from another army to supersede General Logan.  I have no doubt, whatever, that he did this for what he considered would be to the good of the service, which was more important than that the personal feelings of any individual should not be aggrieved; though I doubt whether he had an officer with him who could have filled the place as Logan would have done.  Differences of opinion must exist between the best of friends as to policies in war, and of judgment as to men’s fitness.  The officer who has the command, however, should be allowed to judge of the fitness of the officers under him, unless he is very manifestly wrong.

Sherman’s army, after all the depletions, numbered about sixty thousand effective men.  All weak men had been left to hold the rear, and those remaining were not only well men, but strong and hardy, so that he had sixty thousand as good soldiers as ever trod the earth; better than any European soldiers, because they not only worked like a machine but the machine thought.  European armies know very little what they are fighting for, and care less.  Included in these sixty thousand troops, there were two small divisions of cavalry, numbering altogether about four thousand men.  Hood had about thirty-five to forty thousand men, independent of Forrest, whose forces were operating in Tennessee and Kentucky, as Mr. Davis had promised they should.  This part of Mr. Davis’s military plan was admirable, and promised the best results of anything he could have done, according to my judgment.  I say this because I have criticised his military judgment in the removal of Johnston, and also in the appointment of Hood.  I am aware, however, that there was high feeling existing at that time between Davis and his subordinate, whom I regarded as one of his ablest lieutenants.

On the 5th of October the railroad back from Atlanta was again very badly broken, Hood having got on the track with his army.  Sherman saw after night, from a high point, the road burning for miles.  The defence of the railroad by our troops was very gallant, but they could not hold points between their intrenched positions against Hood’s whole army; in fact they made no attempt to do so; but generally the intrenched positions were held, as well as important bridges, and store located at them.  Allatoona, for instance, was defended by a small force of men under the command of General Corse, one of the very able and efficient volunteer officers produced by the war.  He, with a small force, was cut off from the remainder of the National army and was attacked with great vigor by many times his own number.  Sherman from his high position could see the battle raging, with the Confederate troops between him and his subordinate.  He sent men, of course, to raise the temporary siege, but the time that would