ally. Five
minutes will be allowed you to decide. Should you accede to this, you
will be treated in the most honorable manner as prisoners of war. I
have the honor to be

Very respectfully yours,

S. G. FRENCH, Maj.-Gen'l C. S. A.

In making his report subsequently, French endorses on a copy of this
summons, the following:

Maj. Sanders, the bearer of this communication, was attacked while
bearing the flag of truce. He delivered the communication to an
officer and told him he would wait outside the works fifteen minutes
for an answer. None came; none was sent, and so the attack was made.

S. G. F., Maj.-Gen'l, Commanding.

Whatever may have been the external conditions that led to this view of
the matter on the part of General French, there is no question that Corse
did reply, and promptly and to the point. He wrote his answer on the top
of a neighboring stump, and a splinter or two may have gotten in it:

Maj.-General French, C. S. A., etc.:

Your communication demanding surrender of my command, I acknowledge
receipt of, and respectfully reply that we are prepared for the
'needless effusion of blood' whenever it is agreeable to you.

I am very respectfully your obedient servant,
JOHN M. CORSE,
Brigadier-General, Commanding U. S. Forces.

When this reply had been dispatched, Corse remarked, "They will now be
upon us," and nothing remained but to notify the several commands of the
purport of the correspondence, and to prepare for the bloody work that lay
before them.

* * * * *

French commanded a division in the corps of Lieutenant-General Stewart,
which had been dispatched by Hood Eastward from Dallas to destroy the
railroad, as witnessed by Sherman from the summit of Kenesaw, and his
report, dated Nov. 5, from which the following particulars of his
movements are derived, is of great interest.

Stewart had struck the railroad at Big Shanty, four miles North of Kenesaw
on the evening of October 3rd, and his three divisions labored all night
at their task, completing it as far as Acworth. This work accomplished,
French's division was sent Northward under direct orders from Hood, which
are given in French's report, and have some peculiar features. Both orders
are dated October 4th, and were handed to French at Big Shanty by Stewart
at noon. The earlier one said that