movement, as a whole, substantially and completely turned McPherson's left, with results, only less equal from the accidental position of the Sixteenth corps, is abundantly established, among other testimony, by General Sherman's account of it, by the statement of officers of McPherson's staff, by that of General Wheeler, and by the letter which General Hood quotes from General Blair, who commanded the left corps of McPherson's army.
In his Memoirs volume II, pages 79-80) General Sherman, erroneously supposing the attacking force to consist of Hood and a part of Hardee's corps, says of this movement and the respective positions of the forces:
"His (Hood's) corps and a part of Hardee's had marched out to the road leading from McDonough to Decatur, and had turned so as to strike the left and rear of McPherson's line in air. . . .
"The enemy were, therefore, enabled, under cover of the forest, to approach quite near before he was discovered; indeed his skirmish line had worked through the timber and got into the field to the rear of Giles A. Smith's division of the Seventeenth corps unseen, had captured Murray's battery of regular artillery, moving through these woods, entirely unguarded, and had got possession of several of the hospital camps. The right of the Rebel line struck Dodge's troops in motion; but fortunately this corps (Sixteenth) had only to halt, face to the left, and was in line of battle. . . . About the same time this same force had struck General Giles A. Smith's left flank, doubled it back, captured four guns in position, and the party engaged in building the very battery which was the special object of McPherson's visit to me, and almost enveloped the entire left flank. The men, however, were skilfil and brave, and fought for a time with their backs to Atlanta. They gradually fell back, compressing their own lines, and gaining strength by making a junction with Leggett's division of the Seventeenth corps, well and strongly posted on a hill. One or two brigades of the Fifteenth corps, ordered by McPherson, came rapidly across the open field to the rear from the direction of the railroad, and filled up the gap from Blair's rear left to the head of Dodge's column, now facing to the general left, at right angles to the original line of battle. The enemy attacked boldly and repeatedly the whole of this flank, but met an equally fierce resistance, and on that ground a bloody battle raged from little after noon till into the night."
The following are pertinent extracts from the letter of General Blair, above mentioned:
"On the 22d July my corps held the extreme left of our army. We were entrenched along the McDonough road running about north and south. . . .
"One division of the Sixteenth corps, which had been ordered
