SKETCH OF GENERAL JOHN NEWTON. 837 



the second division of the Fourth Corps (General Howard's). In this 

 campaign he was engaged in the storming of Rocky-faced Ridge, 

 where the corps succeeded in carrying the ridge ; in the operations 

 around Dalton, the turning of which was regarded as a great step 

 gained in the movement upon Atlanta ; in the battle of Resaca ; in 

 the action of Adairsville, where his division had a smart skirmish with 

 the enemy's rear-guard ; in the pursuit of the enemy to the Etowah 

 River, with constant skirmishing ; in the battle of Dallas ; in the 

 movement on Pine Mountain, with almost daily heavy engagements ; 

 in the battles of Kenesaw, where, in McPherson's attack on Little 

 Kenesaw, parts of his division were engaged in the assault by which 

 the enemy's works were reached after a charge up the face of the 

 mountain against a heavy fire. After the crossing of the Chattahoo- 

 chee River, in closing up the Federal lines around the northern and 

 eastern sides of Atlanta, General Newton's division was left to hold 

 an important position on Peach-Tree Creek with an inadequate force, 

 which offered itself as a temptation to the newly appointed Confeder- 

 ate commander, General Hood, to attack it. The readiness with which 

 his command met Hood's sudden assault, and the efficiency of their 

 fire, assisted by the batteries which General Newton had posted on 

 each of his flanks, were material in deciding the failure of that attack. 

 For this and for other gallant and meritorious services in the cam- 

 paign he was, in March, 1865, brevetted brigadier-general in the regu- 

 lar army. 



During the siege of Atlanta, General Newton participated in the 

 attack on the enemy's intrenchments at Jonesboro, September 18th ; 

 in the battle of Lovejoy's Station on the next day ; and in the events 

 more immediately relating to the occupation of the famous stronghold. 

 He was afterward assigned the command of the district of Key West 

 and Tortugas, Florida, in which capacity he was engaged in the action 

 of the Natural Bridge, near St. Mark's. On the 13th of March, 1865 

 the same day on which he was brevetted brigadier-general for his 

 services in the Atlanta campaign he was also brevetted a major-gen- 

 eral in the United States Army for meritorious services in the field 

 during the rebellion. On the 28th of December, 1865, he was made 

 a lieutenant-colonel in the Corps of Engineers. On the 15th of Janu- 

 ary, 1866, he was mustered out of the volunteer service. 



He was transferred at once to engineering service, to have charge 

 of the construction of the new battery near Fort Hamilton, in New 

 York Harbor, and of the construction of the fort at Sandy Hook. In 

 1866 he made an examination for the improvement of the navigation 

 of Hudson River, the appropriation then being sufficient only for the 

 repair of the dikes already constructed ; but his report covers the 

 whole ground, and the scheme then proposed is that which has 

 been carried on, latterly entirely under his charge. The character of 

 the improvements then indicated was 1. A system of longitudinal 



