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"THE MADDEST FOLLY OF THE CAMPAIGN": A Diarist and a Poet Confront Kennesaw Mountain Matthew O'Brien What one is tempted to call the scope and spectacle of the Civil War in Georgia—the attack on Atlanta, Sherman's March to the Sea, the Andersonville Prison episode, the Andrews Raid—have provided ample inspiration for writers of popular fiction and drama. Immediately brought to mind are such well-known works as Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, MacKinlay Kantor's Andersonville , and Saul Levitt's The Andersonville Trial. Less famous is Ambrose Bierce's story, "Killed at Resaca," set against the background of that 1864 battle, which is a masterful study in romantic treachery. Recendy, I examined two similarly ignored works on the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, June 27, 1864. One account was written by a youthful eyewitness-participant, Charles Wills. The other is a poem about the battle, by the more renowned Herman Melville, collected in his anthology Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War. What is especially significant about the pairing is that Wills and Melville, despite obvious differences in point-of-view, literary talent , and artistic purpose, have produced commentaries on the Kennesaw action so similar in meaning and implication that they merit serious attention. A native of Canton, Illinois, the twenty-one year old Charles Wills responded to Lincoln's call by enlisting in the Eighth Illinois Infantry as a three-month volunteer, later signing up for a stint of three years. He soon found himself in the cavalry, however, and rose quickly through the ranks, becoming first lieutenant and battalion adjutant of the Seventh Illinois Cavalry. Late in 1862, though, when battalion adjutants were mustered out of service, he returned to his hometown to raise a company in the 103rd Illinois Infantry and was elected its captain. Later promoted to major, he was, near the end of the war, commissioned a lieutenant colonel. After cessation of hostilities, he settled on a sugar plantation in Jeannerette, Louisiana, where he died in 1883.1 1 Charles W. Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier (Washington, 1906), pp. 5-6. AU subsequent references to this work will be cited parenthetically in the text. 241 242CIVIL WAR HISTORY Like many campaigners, Wills was an inveterate recorder of his day-to-day activities. Beginning with accounts of camp life around Cairo, Illinois, and Bird's Point, Missouri, Wills wrote hundreds of letters to a sister, Mary Kellogg, in Canton. With the inception of the Atlanta campaign, he began a journal, which he maintained up through the first Grand Review of troops in Washington on May 24, 1865. At Wills' urging, Mrs. Kellogg preserved his writings ; some forty years after Appomattox, she collected them into a one-volume edition. As Wills' narrative begins, the reader is struck by the idealistic outlook of the youthful recruit. In virtually every letter home he exudes optimism—about camp life, the Union cause, or his superior officers. On May 23, 1861, he writes from Cairo, "I never enjoyed anything in the world as I do this life, and as for its spoiling me, you'll see if I don't come out a better man than when I went in." Sounding more like a college boy on vacation than a recent recruit, he exults in camp beer-drinking sessions, a "candy-pulling," and in packages from home which contain blankets and delicious "eatables ." His company is the "best officered" in camp (p. 16), he wears the "best uniform I have seen yet . . ." (p. 25), there is "not a sick man in our company . . ." (p. 21). To cull out some representative remarks is to note how innocently positive Wills acts toward his new vocation: "I tell you that I never was so well satisfied in my life as I have been since I joined the army" (October 2, 1861); "There is more life and fun in our tent every night than we ever had at home" (October 18, 1861); "I never hear anyone complain" (November 24, 1861); "We are splendidly equipped and want nothing" (December 3, 1862); "I can't see why people will stay at home when they can get to soldiering" (December 3...

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