THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



455 



The capacity of this cantonment is 40,- 

 156. It disputes with Macon and Au- 

 gusta for the honor of being the third 

 city in Georgia. The soldiers quartered 

 there will have very few winter rigors 

 to undergo. While the mercury in the 

 thermometer has occasionally fallen be- 

 low the zero point, a really cold day is 

 rare, and the average temperature for the 

 year is 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Only 106 

 days in the year are sunless, while 111 

 of the sunny ones have no clouds on the 

 horizon. 



Atlanta, host to the Camp Gordon 

 forces, is a young city. Accustomed to 

 municipal history which is nearly al- 

 ways rooted in the colonial era, it seems 

 strange for Easterners to think of At- 

 lanta having no place on the map until 

 its first inhabitant settled there in 1839. 

 The village was originally called Termi- 

 nus, from the fact that it was at the end 

 of the Georgia Railroad, but in 1843 it 

 was incorporated under the name of 

 Marthasville, a designation it forsook in 

 1845, m favor of Atlanta. At the out- 

 break of the Civil War the erstwhile 

 railhead settlement had a population of 

 15,000, and became a strategic point dur- 

 ing that conflict. In 1864 it was the ob- 

 jective of General Sherman's offensive 

 from Chattanooga. Capturing the city on 

 September 2, he began his march to the 

 sea on November 15th. 



Camp Gordon was named for General 

 John B. Gordon, one of the ablest officers 

 of the Confederacy. His grandfather 

 was one of seven brothers, all of whom 

 fought in the Revolutionary War. When 

 the Civil War began he was engaged in 

 mining work in Alabama and was with- 

 out military training. Organizing a com- 

 pany which called itself the "Raccoon 

 Roughs," he became its captain, and rose 

 through successive grades to a major 

 generalship. He was made a brigadier 

 for his distinguished conduct at Malvern 

 Hill, Seven Pines, and Sharpsburg. He 

 held the "farthest east" record of the 

 Confederate forces, having, before the 

 battle of Gettysburg, penetrated as far as 

 Wrightsville, on the Susquehanna. After 

 the war he was elected Governor of 

 Georgia and also served in the U. S. 

 Senate. 



CAMP SHERMAN 



Camp Sherman, built to shelter the 

 National Army forces mustered into the 

 Federal service from Ohio and a small 

 section of western Pennsylvania, is lo- 

 cated at Chillicothe, Ohio. Chillicothe is 

 one of the big cross-roads of the State 

 of Ohio. The Norfolk & Western and 

 the Baltimore & Ohio main lines from 

 Columbus to Norfolk and from St. Louis 

 to Philadelphia, respectively, cross here. 

 The Ohio & Erie Canal, which connects 

 the waters of the Great Lakes with those 

 of the Ohio River, passes by the city. 



The camp is situated about three miles 

 northwest of Chillicothe, in one of the 

 finest farming belts of the Buckeye State. 

 The 1,900-acre site is practically level, 

 there being not more than 25 feet differ- 

 ence between the elevation of any two 

 points in the whole area. The site paral- 

 lels the Scioto River at a distance of 

 about half a mile from its bank. The 

 camp headquarters is located in an old 

 southern Ohio mansion which stands in 

 the big parade ground. 



In the average year Chillicothe has 130 

 days in which the clouds hide the sun all 

 day. There are about 100 days of sun- 

 shine and 135 partly cloudy. The aver- 

 age temperature is higher than that of 

 most northern cantonments, being 53 de- 

 grees. 



Camp Sherman was named in honor of 

 General William Tecumseh Sherman, the 

 hero of Chattanooga. His father died 

 when he was nine years of age, and he 

 was reared in the family of Thomas Ew- 

 ing, whose daughter he married in later 

 years. In 1856 he predicted the Civil 

 War, saying that "unless people both 

 North and South learn more moderation, 

 we will see sights in the way of civil 

 war." Resigning the superintendency of 

 a military school in Louisiana when that 

 State seceded, he returned to his home 

 in the North and volunteered for service. 

 By successive steps he rose from colonel 

 to be a major general of volunteers. 

 Later he was made a brigadier general 

 in the Regular Army and given command 

 of the Western forces by General Grant 

 when the latter became Commander-in- 

 chief. After the fall of Chattanooga he 



