ARMY OPERATION'S. 



Washington on Sept. 3d, and immediately 

 elicited the following expression of thanks 

 from President Lincoln : 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, "WASHINGTON. Sept. 2. 



The national thanks are tendered by the President 

 to Maj.-Gen. Sherman and the gallant officers and 

 soldiers of his command, before Atlanta, for the dis- 

 tinguished ability, courage, and perseverance dis- 

 played in the campaign in Georgia, which, under 

 Divine Power, resulted in the capture of the city of 

 Atlanta. 



The marches, battles, sieges, and other military 

 operations that has signalled this campaign, must 

 render it famous in the annals of war, and Tiave en- 

 titled those who have participated there, to the ap- 

 plause and thanks of the Nation. 



(Signed) ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



Orders were also given for the firing of na- 

 tional salutes at the principal arsenals, and the 

 11 th of September was appointed a day of sol- 

 emn national thanksgiving for the signal snc- 

 cesses of Gen. Sherman in Georgia, and of Ad- 

 miral Farragut at Mobile. The following is Gen. 

 Sherman's congratulatory address to his troops : 

 HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OP THE Miss., ) 

 IN THE FIELD, ATLANTA, GA., Sept. 8. f 

 Special Field Orders No. 68. 



The officers and soldiers of the Armies of the Cum- 

 berland, Ohio, and Tennessee, have already received 

 the thanks of the nation through its President and 

 Commander-in-Chief ; and it now remains only for him 

 who has been with vou from the beginning, and who 

 intends to stay all the time, to thank the officers and 

 men for their intelligence, fidelity, and courage dis- 

 played in the campaign of Atlanta. 



On the first of May our armies were lying in garri- 

 son, seemingly quiet, from Knoxville to Huntsville, 

 and our enemy lay behind his rocky-faced barrier at 

 Dalton, proud ? defiant, and exulting. He had had 

 time since_ Christmas to recover from nis discomfiture 

 on the Mission Ridge, with his ranks filled, and a 

 new commander-in-chief, second to none of the Con- 

 federacy in reputation for skill, sagacity, and extreme 

 popularity. 



All at once our armies assumed life and action, and 

 appeared before Dalton ; threatening Rocky Face we 

 threw ourselves upon Resaca, and the rebel army 

 only escaped by the rapidity of its retreat, aided by 

 the numerous roads with which he was familiar, and 

 which were strange to us. 



Again he took post at Allatoona, but we gave him 

 no rest, and by a circuit toward Dallas and subse- 

 quent movement to Ackworth, we gained the Alla- 

 toona Pass. Then followed the eventful battles 

 about Kenesaw, and the escape of the enemy across 

 Chattahoochee River. 



The crossing of the Chattahoophee and breaking 

 of the Augusta road was most handsomely executed 

 by us, and will be studied as an example in the art 

 of war. At this stage of our game our enemies be- 

 came dissatisfied with their old and skilful com- 

 mander, and selected one more bold and rash. New 

 tactics were adopted. Gen. Hood first boldly and 

 rapidly, on the 20th of July, fell on our right at 

 Peach Tree Creek, and lost. 



Again, on the 22d, he struck our extreme left, and 

 was severely punished ; and finally again, on the 

 28th, he repeated the attempt on our right, and that 

 time he must have been satisfied, for since that date 

 he has remained on the defensive. We slowly and 

 gradually drew our lines about Atlanta, feeling for 

 the railroads which supplied the rebel army and 

 made Atlanta a place of importance. 



We must concede to our enemy that he met these 

 efforts patiently and skilfully, but at last he made 

 the mistake we had waited for so long, and sent his 

 cavalry to our rear, far beyond the reach of recall. 

 Instantly our cavalry was on his only remaining 



road, and we followed quickly with our principa 

 army, and Atlanta fell into our possession as the 

 fruit of well-concerted measures, backed by a bravo 

 and confident army. 



This completed the grand task which had been 

 assigned us by our Government, and your General 

 again repeats bis personal and official thanks to all 

 the officers and men composing this army, for the 

 indomitable courage and perseverance which alone 

 could give success. 



We have beaten our enemy on every ground he 

 has chosen, and have wrested from h'im his own 

 Gate City, where were located his foundries, arse- 

 nals, and workshops, deemed secure on account of 

 their distance from our base, and the seeming im- 

 pregnable obstacles intervening. Nothing is impos- 

 sible to an army like this, determined to vindicate 

 a Government which has rights wherever our flag 

 has once floated, and is resolved to maintain them at 

 any and all costs. 



In our campaign many, yea, very many of our 

 noble and gallant comrades have preceded us to our 

 common destination, the grave ; but they have left 

 the memory of deeds on which a nation can build a 

 proud history. Gens. McPherson, Barker, McCook, 

 and others dear to us all, are now^the binding links 

 in our minds that should attach' more closely to- 

 gether the living, who have to complete the task 

 which still lies before us in the dim future. 



I ask all to continue as they have so well begun the 

 cultivation of the soldierly virtues that have enno- 

 bled our own and other countries. Courage, pa- 

 tience, obedience to the laws and constituted authori- 

 ties of our Government ; fidelity to our trusts, and 

 good feeling among each other ; each trying to excel 

 the other in the practice of those high qualities, and 

 it will then require no prophet to foretell that our 

 country will in time emerge from this war, purified 

 by the fires of war, and worthy its great founder, Wash- 

 ington. W. T. SHERMAN, Maj.-Gen. Com'ng. 



Upon arriving in Atlanta, Gen. Sherman de- 

 termined that the exigencies of the service re- 

 quired that the place should for the present be 

 appropriated exclusively for military purposes, 

 and orders were immediately issued for the 

 departure of all civilians, both male and fe- 

 male, excepting those in the employment of 

 the Government. The following conveys the 

 intentions of Gen. Sherman : 



HEADQUARTERS POST OF ATLANTA, ) 

 ATLANTA, GA., Sept. 5, 1S64. ) 

 General Order No. 3. 



All families living in Atlanta, the male representa- 

 tives of which are in the service of the Confederate 

 States, or who have gone south, will leave the city 

 within five days. They will be passed through the 

 lines and go south. 



All citizens from the North, not connected with 

 the army, and who have not authority from Maj.- 

 Gen. Sherman or Maj.-Gen. Thomas to remain in 

 the city, will leave within the time above mentioned. 

 If found within the city after that date, they will be 

 imprisoned. 



All male residents of this city, who do not registei 

 their names with the city Provost-Marshal within 

 five days and receive authority to remain here, will 

 be imprisoned. WM. COGSWELL, 



Col. Commanding Post. 



A truce of ten days was accordingly pro- 

 posed, in a letter from the Federal general to 

 Gen. Hood, then encamped near Lovejoy's, to 

 which the latter made the following reply : 



HEADQUARTERS ARMY OP THE TENNESSEE, I 

 OFFICE CHIEF OF STAFF, Sept. 9, 1864. f 

 Maior-Gen. Sherman, Comm'g U. S. forces in Georgia : 

 GENERAL : Your letter of yesterday's date, borne 

 by James W. Ball and James R. Crew, citizens of 



