From Before Atlanta

We have been permitted to peruse a letter from Francis Stickney, of the old 31st (Gen. John A. Logan’s old regiment) to his parents in this place, under the date of the 26th ult., from which we extract the following.

You have perhaps heard, before this time, of the heavy battle of the 21st and 22d. I was in and through it, both days in the thickest of the fight, and came out without a scratch. I am now nurse in the hospital. Our regiment lost very heavily – one hundred and seventy, killed wounded and missing. The rebels moved around our left flank and attacked us in the rear. On the 22d, they charged our works five successive times, but were repulsed with great slaughter. We covered the ground with their dead. Part of the time it was a hand to hand fight with the bayonet. When night came, they gave it up and returned to their works.

– Published in the Stark County News, Toulon, Illinois, August 11, 1864