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WAR PAPER No. 17.

MICHIGAN COMMANDERY,

LOYAL LEGION.




  THE BATTLE of ALLATOONA.

  OCTOBER 5th, 1864.


  A PAPER READ BEFORE THE
  MICHIGAN COMMANDERY
  OF THE MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION OF THE U. S.


  BY
  WILLIAM LUDLOW,
  _Major Corps of Engineers; Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel U. S. A._


  AT
  DETROIT, APRIL, 2D, 1891.
  DETROIT, MICH.:


  WINN & HAMMOND, PRINTERS AND BINDERS.
  1891.




ALLATOONA.


_Companions and Gentlemen:_

It appears strange to me that an action which all who mention it--and they
are many--agree in characterizing as one of the most brilliant exploits of
a war as thickset with deeds of gallantry as a rose bush with its
blossoms, should not long since have had its adequate historian and
monographer.

The contest was so famous, the issue so glorious, the recollection of the
day still must be so vivid in the minds of the survivors, that I could not
anticipate any lack of material wherefrom to procure data to formulate a
reasonably satisfactory narrative of such a gallant feat of arms, and in
such detail as to give it life and color. But of all the war papers that
have been written on affairs great and small, none that I know has had
Allatoona for its special subject, and from the sources of information at
my command, I have found it quite impracticable to construct an account
that is not in some respect at variance with others made by authority. The
official reports, while giving the general features, of necessity exclude
most of the minor but equally interesting details, and the omissions,
inaccuracies and discrepancies, not important in some particulars and
material in others, for the purposes, at least, of a fully detailed and
authenticated narrative, cannot at this time be corrected. And even the
numbers engaged on each side, and of those who fell as victims, are not
known with certainty.

This paper, therefore, can pretend to be no more than an outline sketch,
which an abler