View the source. Below are several selections from letters which David wrote home to his wife, Clara, in Illinois in the days and weeks leading up to June 19th, when he was killed by a sharpshooter’s bullet on the first day that the armies had settled in at Kennesaw Mountain…. We have not been engaged with the enemy since the 4 inst. Harmon family burial plot, Spring Hill Cemetery, Danville, Illinois (findagrave.com). During the last two weeks our corps has been receiving only about half the usual allowance of food. Note: The excerpt from Oscar Harmon’s letter to his wife on June 26 is found in Brad Quinlin’s latest book, “Under the Shadow of a Grim and Silent Kennesaw: Letters from the Kennesaw Mountain Battle Line,” published by Brad in 2013. Source: David Gilmer Watts Letters, Atlanta History Center. Occasionally some of their scouts and pickets were seen hovering around our picket line and a few of them were captured. Should I be called away, I know that you will grieve deeply. What caused this death, the pension file does not indicate, but it was no doubt a terrible loss for a family which had already sacrificed a father and a husband on the fields of Georgia several years before. This was the last letter which Clara received from Gilmer. If you could afford it I would like you to get the Chicago Journal bi-weekly, but perhaps you cant possibly spare the money. By late May he had pulled back to an impregnable position in the Allatoona Mountains. In any view of the case but especially of the sad, possible one that I may die on the battle field or in hospital and thus never be with you again I think you would better remain at school as long as you possibly can. Always Sherman shifted troops to cut the railroads that linked Atlanta with the rest of the South. [Source: Report on the Nation's Civil War Battlefields (Washington, 1993); Estabrook, C. Records and Sketches of Military Organizations (Madison, 1914); Love, W. Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion (Madison, 1866). Both sides attempted cavalry raids to break the other's grip, but it was to no avail. If I had time which I have not. Good bye. [General Sherman at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Ga.] 1 drawing on yellow paper : pencil, Chinese white, and black ink wash ; 21.0 x 30.7 cm. When spring arrived the Union advanced 100,000 men toward Atlanta, Georgia, 120 miles south.

Sheets of fire drove them under cover before reaching their objective, a mountain spur today named Pigeon Hill. Sherman entered on Sept. 2 and triumphantly telegraphed the news to Washington, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.". Quick, tidy read about the Atlanta Campaign, with heavy focus on Kennesaw Mountain.