. The mountain campaigns in Georgia : or, War scenes on the W. & A . y,cavalry and artillery. They also began repairing the Western & Atlantic Railroad,between Chattanooga and Ringgold, which had been torn up the previous winter. It may be here remarked that the Western & Atlantic Railroad was the means ofsecuring the fall of Atlanta, and, therefore, to a great degree, the overthrow of theSouthern Confederacy. It was Shermans only channel for supplies for his immense army,and, during the campaign, he hugged it with a tenacity which showed that he considered itindispensable to success. His flan
. The mountain campaigns in Georgia : or, War scenes on the W. & A . y,cavalry and artillery. They also began repairing the Western & Atlantic Railroad,between Chattanooga and Ringgold, which had been torn up the previous winter. It may be here remarked that the Western & Atlantic Railroad was the means ofsecuring the fall of Atlanta, and, therefore, to a great degree, the overthrow of theSouthern Confederacy. It was Shermans only channel for supplies for his immense army,and, during the campaign, he hugged it with a tenacity which showed that he considered itindispensable to success. His flank movement through Snake Creek Gap was to gainpossession of it at Resaca, in the rear of Johnston at Dalton ; his move against Calhoun,south of Resaca, via Lays Ferry, had the same end in view. Such, likewise, was hisobject, indirectly, in the skillfully-planned and masterly march and struggles about NewHope Church, and such was his immediate aim in the movement southwest of Marietta,after the failure of his grand and heroic assault upon Kennesaw 24 MOUNTAIN CAMPAIGNS IN GEORGIA. One hundred and forty-five car-loads per day of supplies were needed for the subsistenceof his army, during the campaign, and over this railroad they were transported fromChattanooga. To insure its preservation, as he progressed farther and farther southward, he placedgarrisons to protect each bridge. Johnston, too, was fully alive to the supreme importance of this line to both armies,and, while his constant endeavor was to protect it behind him, it was also his most ardentdesire to find some means for breaking it in Shermans rear; and thus forcing upon thelatter the alternative of retreat or starvation. To this end he and the Governor ofGeorgia made the strongest appeals to the Richmond government for Forrests cavalry tobe brought from Mississippi and kept actively at the work of destruction upon the railroadbridges, etc.; using the argument that it was better to take the risk of Federal ra
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