July 20, 1864.
Assembly has just sounded. In a few hours we will know if it
is to be a fight. Frank says we are detailed for train guard. If the army
marches right into Atlanta, I'll think it d----d mean, but if there is a fight
will not feel so badly, unless we can get a big battle out of Johnston. I want
to help in that. We have moved up near the town the army has gone on. Can hear
heavy guns occasionally, sounds about three miles away, half the distance to
the city.
This little town is quite an old place. About half the
citizens are still here. I saw a couple of right pretty girls. Some Confederate
prisoners tell me that Johnston is gone to Richmond, and that Hood is
commanding and intends to fight us at Atlanta.
The wheat and oats raised this year in this part of Georgia,
if it had all been saved, would not more than have fed the citizens. Full
one-half the cornfields will not turn out anything.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 283
