French "Shall move up the railroad and
fill up the deep cut at Allatoona with logs, brush, dirt etc." Also that
when at Allatoona, French was, if possible, to move to the Etowah Bridge,
the destruction of which would "be of great advantage to the army and the
country." The second order again urged the importance of destroying the
Etowah Bridge, if such were possible, and that as the enemy (Sherman),
could not disturb him before the next day, he was to "get his artillery in
position and then call for volunteers with 'lightwood' to go to the bridge
and burn it."

The curious points about these instructions are, in the first place, the
absurdity of a wearied body of troops undertaking such a task as that of
filling up a railway cut 65 feet deep and some 300 or 400 yards long, in
the way described, with "logs and dirt" and the futility of doing it, if
it were possible. It would have taken French several days to fill up that
cut, even assuming him to be uninterfered with, and one day's labor would
open it again.

The second point is the absence of any reference to a garrison at
Allatoona, or to the accumulation of stores there. French was a good
soldier, and after stating in his report that as both he and Stewart knew
the facts in the case and were aware of the large amount of stores, they
considered it important that the place be captured, contents himself with
saying, dryly, "It would appear, however, from these orders, that the
General-in-Chief was not aware that the Pass I was sent to have filled up
was fortified and garrisoned." The fact is that it requires something more
than mere courage to command an army, and it seems likely that a few such
specimens of leadership cost Hood the confidence of his subordinates, and
thoroughly justified Sherman in a disparaging remark he made respecting
him a day or two later.

Stewart gave French 12 pieces of artillery under Major Myrick and at 3:30
P. M. of the 4th he marched away to Acworth, but was detained there until
11 at night by lack of rations. The night was dark, the roads bad, and he
didn't know the country. From Acworth he reports seeing night signalling
between Kenesaw and Allatoona, and fearing that reinforcements might be
sent from the Northward, he dispatched a small cavalry force to reach the
railroad as close to the Etowah as possible and take up the rails. It was
a wise precaution, but undertaken too late, as Corse was at Allatoona by
midnight. French arrived ther