The night before we heard several very loud explosions up to the north.

We guessed what that meant, and so did the Twentieth Corps, who were lying back at the Chattahoochee, and the next morning the General commanding--Slocum--sent out a reconnaissance.

It was met by the Mayor of Atlanta, who said that the Rebels had blown up their stores and retreated.

The Twentieth Corps then came in and took 'possession of the City, and the next day--the 3d--Sherman came in, and issued an order declaring the campaign at an end, and that we would rest awhile and refit.
"We laid around Atlanta a good while, and things quieted down so that it seemed almost like peace, after the four months of continual fighting we had gone through.

We had been under a strain so long that now we boys went in the other direction, and became too careless, and that's how we got picked up.