Events at the Battle of Atlanta

Barrycdog

Major
Joined
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Location
Buford, Georgia
My 80 Years in Atlanta
by Sara Huff

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http://www.artery.org/08_history/UpperArtery/CivilWar/SaraHuff/My80YearsInAtlanta_All.pdf&ei=B_BCUb7uDpSl4APUqoCACw&usg=AFQjCNE9YsykdeheovFK9bClWzF1zOr0-w

It was on July the 22, the day after we left home because the fighting was so near, that my
younger brother John's keen ears caught the sound of distant firing (The Battle of Atlanta).
Before that fiery July sun had set, thousands of as brave men as ever joined battle, were
numbered among the dead. And I saw thousands more brought into the city in ominous black
covered ambulances which made their slow, pain-laden way up Decatur Street to several
improvised hospitals where Dr. Noe D'Alvigny and Dr. Logan, as well as many of Atlanta's most
prominent ladies, waited to try to ease their suffering.
As the battle, raging to the east and southeast of us, grew more fierce, the line of ambulances
creeping up Decatur Street increased. The dismal-looking vehicles had their side curtains lifted
to let in the air, for the heat was intense.
We could see from our viewpoint, in front of the old-time residence of Charles Shearer Sr., the
blood trickling down from the wounds of the poor helpless victims of one of the war's most
terrible battles.

Men were clinging to sides of the hospital
vans trying to fan away the terrible swarms of
flies which hovered over the wounded, My
young brother John went into action, as he
usually did when he saw a chance to be helpful.
Noticing that a fly brush had just fallen from
the hands of a man on one of the ambulances,
and had been crushed by the heavy wheels, he
grabbed the slit-paper fly brush that mother
handed him, and leaping to the side of the
slow-moving ambulance, became one of the
most efficient fly fanners in the procession. He
was less than 12 years of age.
On one of the wagons sat a priest comforting
a dying soldier. Later on this same man of God
aided Dr. D'Alvigny in saving the churches and
the Medical College

In company with us that day on the
battlefield was an elderly couple looking for
their son. They were about to come away
when we saw a temporary burial going on in a
nearby thicket. Their soldier boy was being put
under the ground.
When mother and the rest of us walked over
the battlefield of July 22 (Battle of Atlanta) on
the day after it was fought over, the ground
looked as though it had been plowed up and it
was literally red with blood that had been
spilled there the day before.

During the battle the bullets fell thickly in the yard of the Atlanta Medical College where Dr.
D'Alvigny was operating. His daughter, Pauline D'Alvigny Campbell, who was assisting her
father, narrowly escaped being hit several times, since on account of the intense heat the
operating table had been carried out into the shade of several nearby trees. Now it was hurriedly
carried in. Pauline picked up some of the bullets, and showed them to me fifty years later, shortly
before her death. She and my mother were lifetime friends.
My eyes have watched the path of a shell as it stretched like a shining thread across the war
clouds hanging over the city of Atlanta in the summer of 1864. Fireworks of later years have in
exposition displays reminded me of the dramatic night scenes of my war-time childhood.
Rockets seem to curve in their course, while a shell moves on as evenly as did Lindbergh as I
watched him sail into Atlanta



Peter Paul Noel D'Alvigney was a surgeon for the 9th Battalion Georgia Artillery
 
"With the Confederate loss of middle Tennessee in early 1862, Atlanta became the South's military medical center. The Atlanta Medical College (later Emory University School of Medicine), which had already suspended classes, became a hospital, as did hotels and municipal buildings. Construction of a big hospital complex on the city fairgrounds eventually relieved the crowding of sick and wounded soldiers downtown. The railroad passenger depot in the center of town served as a busy receiving and distributing point for Southern servicemen. A convalescent camp was established in the northwest suburbs, near the home of Ephraim Ponder. The city cemetery, then twenty-five acres (today known as Oakland Cemetery and much larger), also had to be expanded; some 632 soldiers were buried during 1862 alone." http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
 
Two ancestors were sent to hospitals in and around Atlanta after the Battle of Murfreesboro. They had become sick as a result of exposure to the winter weather with no tents to sleep in, and probably because they were from the hill country, so not being immune to diseases one could catch in camp. One of the hospitals was in Macon, and their CSRs have two or three cards about it--highly unusual.

In his book, Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee, Larry J. Daniels has a chapter on how good the medical treatment was during the Atlanta Campaign.
 
Macon's Camp Oglethorpe held prisoners of war who were officers, and many of its buildings became hospitals for wounded soldiers arriving by rail from battlefields to the north.

The Ocmulgee Hospital, Macon, Georgia, was a hospital of the Confederate States of America and was under the direction of Stanford E. Chaille, 1862-1865, who became dean of the medical school at Tulane University.

Two record books of the Ocumlgee Hospital in Macon, Georgia, which contain requisitions, forms, case reports, and miscellaneous notes from 1862-1865, may be accessed here: http://findingaids.library.emory.edu/documents/ocmulgee158/
 
My 80 Years in Atlanta
by Sara Huff

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http://www.artery.org/08_history/UpperArtery/CivilWar/SaraHuff/My80YearsInAtlanta_All.pdf&ei=B_BCUb7uDpSl4APUqoCACw&usg=AFQjCNE9YsykdeheovFK9bClWzF1zOr0-w

It was on July the 22, the day after we left home because the fighting was so near, that my
younger brother John's keen ears caught the sound of distant firing (The Battle of Atlanta).
Before that fiery July sun had set, thousands of as brave men as ever joined battle, were
numbered among the dead. And I saw thousands more brought into the city in ominous black
covered ambulances which made their slow, pain-laden way up Decatur Street to several
improvised hospitals where Dr. Noe D'Alvigny and Dr. Logan, as well as many of Atlanta's most
prominent ladies, waited to try to ease their suffering.
As the battle, raging to the east and southeast of us, grew more fierce, the line of ambulances
creeping up Decatur Street increased. The dismal-looking vehicles had their side curtains lifted
to let in the air, for the heat was intense.
We could see from our viewpoint, in front of the old-time residence of Charles Shearer Sr., the
blood trickling down from the wounds of the poor helpless victims of one of the war's most
terrible battles.

Men were clinging to sides of the hospital
vans trying to fan away the terrible swarms of
flies which hovered over the wounded, My
young brother John went into action, as he
usually did when he saw a chance to be helpful.
Noticing that a fly brush had just fallen from
the hands of a man on one of the ambulances,
and had been crushed by the heavy wheels, he
grabbed the slit-paper fly brush that mother
handed him, and leaping to the side of the
slow-moving ambulance, became one of the
most efficient fly fanners in the procession. He
was less than 12 years of age.
On one of the wagons sat a priest comforting
a dying soldier. Later on this same man of God
aided Dr. D'Alvigny in saving the churches and
the Medical College

In company with us that day on the
battlefield was an elderly couple looking for
their son. They were about to come away
when we saw a temporary burial going on in a
nearby thicket. Their soldier boy was being put
under the ground.
When mother and the rest of us walked over
the battlefield of July 22 (Battle of Atlanta) on
the day after it was fought over, the ground
looked as though it had been plowed up and it
was literally red with blood that had been
spilled there the day before.

During the battle the bullets fell thickly in the yard of the Atlanta Medical College where Dr.
D'Alvigny was operating. His daughter, Pauline D'Alvigny Campbell, who was assisting her
father, narrowly escaped being hit several times, since on account of the intense heat the
operating table had been carried out into the shade of several nearby trees. Now it was hurriedly
carried in. Pauline picked up some of the bullets, and showed them to me fifty years later, shortly
before her death. She and my mother were lifetime friends.
My eyes have watched the path of a shell as it stretched like a shining thread across the war
clouds hanging over the city of Atlanta in the summer of 1864. Fireworks of later years have in
exposition displays reminded me of the dramatic night scenes of my war-time childhood.
Rockets seem to curve in their course, while a shell moves on as evenly as did Lindbergh as I
watched him sail into Atlanta



Peter Paul Noel D'Alvigney was a surgeon for the 9th Battalion Georgia Artillery
 
Before the Battle of Atlanta, July 5th '64, the sexton of Oakland cemetery and his staff had to flee.

Here is a link to the book that lists the War hospitals and their patients in Atlanta who were taken to Oakland Cemetery , from Feb. 1862 till 5 July 1864.

http://sos.georgia.gov/archives/what_do_we_have/online_records/oakCemBk/



I spoke with the present sexton in early January and we had quite a talk about the battle, the graves and their efforts to maintain the cemetery. Nice man and VERY helpful!

bye now.
 
My ancestor was in hospital in Marietta from August 15 - 31st 1864 . Is there
any info about what this hospital was ? I wonder if it was a confiscated house
or just an improvised camp set up by the 16th A.C. under Gen. Dodge ?
 
One of the best and one of the few battle accounts I read of the actual Battle of Atlanta on July 22 was Pvt. Sam Watkins' account in his book Co. Aytch. Time Life's Voices of the Civil War The Atlanta Campaign also has many accounts, including this one, of the Battle of Atlanta.
 
One of the best and one of the few battle accounts I read of the actual Battle of Atlanta on July 22 was Pvt. Sam Watkins' account in his book Co. Aytch. Time Life's Voices of the Civil War The Atlanta Campaign also has many accounts, including this one, of the Battle of Atlanta.
Love Co. Aytch. I should reread that account.
 
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