Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/554

 522 Capture of Atlanta ; its results. [i864 and his army were cheered by the inspiriting news of the capture of Mobile Bay by the Union fleet under Farragut. Toward the end of the month the general, becoming impatient, once more moved by the right flank and seized the Macon railroad at Jonesborough, twenty-five miles directly south of Atlanta, defeating a Confederate detachment sent by Hood to oppose the movement. This success rendered the Confederate position so insecure that Sherman began to hear rumours of their retreat; and on September 3 he was able to telegraph to Washington, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won." Hood had evacuated the city on the 1st and taken a new position at Lovejoy's Station, south of Jonesborough. The four months of mingled siege and battle had caused a Federal loss of 31,000, the Confederate loss being estimated at 35,000. The capture of Atlanta by Sherman was a severe disaster to the Confederates. The city was one of their great military depots, full of foundries and workshops for the manufacture and repair of arms and material of war; and its fall was a convincing proof to the people of Georgia that the strength of the Secessionist movement was on the wane. By the opening of the Mississippi in the previous year, the immense resources at first drawn from the great region west of that stream, in cattle, provisions, and recruits were cut off. This new Unionist line, which was being drawn through the centre of Georgia, threatened to sever from Richmond the supplies and military help of the two States of Alabama and Mississippi. What was more serious still, this severance might completely alienate the already shaken public sentiment of that State from its adherence to the Confederate government and cause. The conduct of Governor Brown in criticising and disobeying the orders of his superiors was approaching open contumacy. His official order a few days later withdrew from the Confederate service the Georgia State militia which he had organised for the defence of Atlanta. Several prominent citizens came in to Sherman's camp, and in conversation acknowledged the madness of further resistance, and reported that the Confederate Vice-President, Stephens, entertained similar feelings. Jefferson Davis came on a tour of speech-making into South Carolina and Georgia, in which he severely censured both Governor Brown and General Johnston for their alleged shortcomings in bringing about the defeat of the South. General Sherman sent kindly messages to both Stephens and Brown, but did not succeed in his effort to draw them into a confidential interview. In the North, the fall of Atlanta had a powerful political effect. It ensured to the Republican party a great success in the October elections, and changed the candidature of President Lincoln from apprehensive uncertainty to a magnificent triumph.