Ten thousand men were distributed along the break to replace the ties, and to prepare the road-bed, while the regular repair-party, under Colonel W.W.
Wright, came down from Chattanooga with iron, spikes, etc., and in about seven days the road was all right again.

It was by such acts of extraordinary energy that we discouraged our adversaries, for the rebel soldiers felt that it was a waste of labor for them to march hurriedly, on wide circuits, day and night, to burn a bridge and tear up a mile or so of track, when they knew that we could lay it back so quickly.

They supposed that we had men and money without limit, and that we always kept on hand, distributed along the road, duplicates of every bridge and culvert of any importance.
A good story is told of one who was on Kenesaw Mountain during our advance in the previous June or July.

A group of rebels lay in the shade of a tree, one hot day, overlooking our camps about Big Shanty.

One soldier remarked to his fellows: "Well, the Yanks will have to git up and git now, for I heard General Johnston himself say that General Wheeler had blown up the tunnel near Dalton, and that the Yanks would have to retreat, because they could get no more rations." "Oh, hell!" said a listener, "don't you know that old Sherman carries a duplicate tunnel along ?" After the war was over, General Johnston inquired of me who was our chief railroad-engineer.