Had a light shower yesterday, while today it rained nearly
all day. We formed a line of battle this morning and moved forward. There was
some sharp skirmishing, and our cannons were active, but the rebels did not
reply. We advanced about a half mile and the rebels fell back inside of their
rifle pits, a mile distant, at the foot of Kenesaw mountain. Each regiment then
went to work throwing up its own rifle pits. There was some more sharp
skirmishing, the rebels attempting to turn our left, but we drove them back.
The railroad is now in operation up to our army, and the first train came in to Big Shanty1 today. News came that Lee had evacuated Richmond, but we could not
believe the report.
_______________
1 This is the station where Andrews and his band
captured an engine with tender one Sunday morning and started up North, but he
and his men were all captured, and some of them were executed, while others
were set at liberty. — A. G. D.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s
Civil War Diary, p. 195-6
