order that when the time was ripe he should be
ready to start.

GRAND TACTICS.

On his zigzag way South, early in June, with Atlanta as his then objective
point, Sherman, with that wonderful mental vision of the whole horizon
that characterized him, seeking for a depot where supplies could safely be
accumulated, near enough at hand to be of ready access, but sufficiently
removed from the scene of actual conflict to be secure from casual attack,
had selected the famous Allatoona Pass, and directed that it be "prepared
for defense as a secondary base."

The place was well chosen.

The diminishing extension of the Great Smoky Mountains stretches across
the Northern end of Georgia, from Northeast to Southwest.

The Range is traversed at Allatoona Pass by the Etowah River, flowing West
and North to unite at Rome, thirty miles distant, with the Oostenaula and
form the Coosa. The railway, coming down from Kingston,--whence a branch
ran Westward to Rome,--and crossing the Etowah, winds Southeasterly among
the hills, and at Allatoona station, about four miles from the river,
penetrates a minor ridge and emerges from a cut some sixty-five feet in
depth. It was at this point--referred to by Sherman as a "Natural
Fortress"--that the "secondary base" was established, and the surplus
supplies were accumulated.

The advantages for defence were admirable. The entire region is hilly and
heavily timbered, rolling off to the Southward to a less rugged country,
and from the Heights of Allatoona looking Southeasterly, down the line of
railway towards Atlanta, are visible ten to fifteen miles away, the noble,
isolated masses of Kenesaw, Lost Mountain and Pine Mountain, which,
raising their wooded crests high above the neighboring forest, command a
wide prospect towards every quarter. The narrow ridge cut by the railway
is abruptly terminated to the Northeast by the valley of Allatoona Creek,
crooking among the hills to join the Etowah, and its slopes facing
Northwest and Southeast are steep and difficult. Towards the West and
Southwest the descent is more gradual, and a country road follows the
rolling crest of the ridge along which from the Westward the main attack
was ultimately to be made.

The storehouses for the supplies stood near the railway station and were
fully commanded from the dominant elevations rising immediately behind
them. Upon these elevations the defensive works were located by Colonel
Poe, the Chief Engineer o