In the Trenches outside Atlanta Wednesday, 13 July 1864 Dear Diary, Seems that I never would get the opportunity to make any more entries in this little book, but once again I've been fortunate enough to survive some of the hardest fighting of this War. I wish I could say the same for my messmates. Most of them have been either killed or wounded in these last few months - but I'm getting ahead of things. I'll try to bring things up to date, as best I can. Back in March - so long ago - we were still up in the area of Chattanooga, and the old 40th could still muster about 200 effectives. We started our march south toward Atlanta on May 1st, with three Armies - the Army of the Cumberland, the Army of the Tennessee, and part of our Army of the Cumberland. The Johnnies fought us all the way. By the way, they've I guess I need to mention that they've got a new commander now, General Joe Johnston himself. Seems after the thrashing we gave Bragg at Lookout Mountain, he got "promoted up" to be old Jeff Davis' military advisor. For our sake, I hope Jeff listens well to what Bragg has to say! To mention all the battles, fights, skirmishes between here and Chattanooga would take too much time and space, but I can say that they mostly fit a pattern. The Rebs would retreat in front of us, get good and set up, and then we'd take a straight on run at their defensive works. They'd kill a lot of us, and Sherman would realize that he had to find a better way - so, he'd send one of the other armies around the Reb flank to knock them out of position. When that army got held up by Reb defenses, then it would be our turn to advance again, and so forth. In this way, we've campaigned all the way from the northwest corner of Georgia down here to Atlanta. In May, we fought on the 6th and 7th at Tunnel Hill, on the 8th outside Dalton and at Buzzard's Roost, on the 14th and 15th there was a big battle at Resaca (and Reb victory I might add, such as it was, since they still had to retreat), Dallas on the 22d through the 25th, and so forth. Early in June, we fought another bloody battle around New Hope Church, but the biggest of all took place near Kennesaw Mountain on the 27th. After that, the Rebs pretty much retreated into their entrenchments around Atlanta. Part of our Army is now moving to cut the major railroads into Atlanta up around Jonesborough - we do that, and the Rebs are pretty much surrounded in Atlanta, and they've got a choice. Surrender or starve to death. What with all the heavy fighting, we're down under 100 men in the entire regiment - Company C consists of 8 men fit for duty, and two more down with dysentery. Sgt Lunn is acting company commander - everyone else ranking higher is either dead or wounded. Can't say I care for life in the trenches much, but it beats assaulting dug in Johnnies, and all the campaigning still going on up around Jonesborough. We mainly keep our heads down - the Johnnies know they don't have the strength to come out against our lines, and except for some sniper fire on occasion, life is pretty "easy" for the infantry. I can't say the same for the people in Atlanta, and I guess what is happening here is pretty much a logical result of nearly four years of war. Saw what was coming back at Vicksburg. We are bombarding this city day and night, even though there are civilians still in town. I reckon they're all "Secesh" anyway, and had their chance to get out long ago. I mean, with all the fighting heading their way, it was pretty obvious what our objective was going to be. Still, it somehow doesn't seem right to be doing what we have to do - I'd much prefer to see the Rebs just up and surrender, but then again I guess they'd just as soon see us go back north where we came from! Things are a lot different than they were back in '61 - then it was armies on the open field, flags flying and so forth. No one even dreamed of deliberately firing on unarmed civilians, or bombarding a town into surrender. Now, it's just plain killing, and more killing, and no end in sight. Even if we win this War, and I know we will, I can't help but believe it will be a long time before we are ever again, truly, one Nation.