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130 { 8 } The Atlanta Campaign: Approach to Atlanta Along with the arrival of spring in northern Georgia came the renewal of active campaigning. The 298 officers and men of the Irish Legion, including those recovered from their wounds sustained at Missionary Ridge and returned to duty, found a number of changes in both the Union and the Confederate armies’ command structures. General Joseph E. Johnston now commanded the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Ulysses S. Grant’s promotion to lieutenant general and command of all Union armies produced a virtual cascade of command changes. Major General William T. Sherman replaced Grant in charge of the Military Division of the Mississippi , elevating Major General James B. McPherson to command of the Department and Army of the Tennessee and Major General John A. Logan to command of the XV Corps. What Logan thought of the Irish Legion is not recorded, but his biographer, James Pickett Jones, describes the XV Corps as “mischievous men” and “a colorful collection of western veterans,” including the “rowdy Irishmen from the streets of Chicago.” This probably referred to the Irish Legion, the only Irish regiment in the XV Corps.1 Lieutenant Colonel Owen Stuart, sufficiently recovered from his wound suffered at Missionary Ridge to return to the field, now commanded those Irish rowdies, much to the relief of his friend, Adjutant Edwin Davis. Colonel Reuben Williams of the 12th Indiana now commanded the First Brigade of the Fourth Division. The brigade’s old commander, Colonel John Loomis, left the army after three arduous years of service, due in part to severe financial losses by his lumber business back in Chicago while he was in the service. Taking leave of their old commander who had led them at Vicksburg and Jackson and through the frustrating trial by fire at Missionary Ridge understandably became an emotionally touching event for both The Atlanta Campaign: Approach • 131 the men of the brigade and Loomis. Stuart described their final meeting: “Colonel Loomis, who feelingly took farewell of his old command; the kindest feelings of the regiment accompanied him.” Williams also liked Loomis and described his parting from his troops as “quite affecting.” As Loomis prepared to leave, “tears ran down the cheeks of the kind-hearted and thoroughly loyal old man as he shook hands with his fellow officers and bade them good-bye.”2 An extrovert, Williams, the new brigade commander, promoted a convivial atmosphere with his brigade staff: “It was pretty well understood that when not on active duty my headquarters was generally a sociable and often a merry place.” This may explain why he, a staunch Republican, got along so well with his fellow soldiers, and thorough Democrats, of what he called the “Ninetieth Ireland.” A newspaper editor before and after the war, Williams wrote a series of accounts some forty years after the war that demonstrate his skill as a writer and provide a wealth of details to supplement his brief official reports. Upon assuming command of the brigade, he had already been captured and exchanged three times, often enough to have caused a moment of reflection by those of the 90th Illinois aware of that fact. The XV Corps now had only three divisions: the First Division, commanded by Brigadier General Peter Osterhaus; the Second Division, commanded by Brigadier General Morgan L. Smith; and the Fourth Division, to which the 90th Illinois belonged, commanded by Brigadier General William Harrow.3 By this time, the individual soldier of the 90th Illinois could be relied upon to appropriately equip himself for the coming campaign. The veteran reduced his equipment to the basics required for battle and survival: rifle, bayonet, cartridge box and cap pouch, canteen and tin cup, some container for cooking and to boil coffee, haversack and knapsack, blanket and shelter half, rubber sheet that could be worn as a poncho, and socks and underwear, according to historian Albert Castel. Many western troops wore a broad-brimmed hat, a much more practical headgear than the regulation kepi. The woolen uniform, when wet, combined with this amount of equipment created a heavy load for a soldier of the Legion to carry, especially when slogging along a muddy road in the heat and humidity of a Georgia summer.4 Possession of Chattanooga by the Union opened an invasion route into northwestern Georgia and the Confederacy’s important transportation, supply, and manufacturing center of Atlanta. General Sherman knew the “Gate City” to be “too important a place in the hands of the...

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