ular engagements of the most desperate and
trying nature. Our dear comrades were daily falling around us and by
us, but still we pressed on and finished the work in which they were so
ardently enlisted.

At the fall of Atlanta the hopes of the nation revived and the cause of
the Union was materially aided. The great anaconda of secession was
palsied and made to fade! A new-born nation rejoiced in the beginning
dawn of peace and liberty! The heart of a free, loyal people was made
to leap for joy!

There were many thrilling and exciting incidents connected with this
campaign, among which we will narrate the one respecting Captain Jo.
Major. In the charge on Kenesaw, on the 27th of June, while only a few
feet from the enemy's works, Captain Major was struck in the breast
with a stone thrown by a rebel, which knocked him senseless for a time,
and during this state the lines had fallen back, leaving him alone
among the dead and dying. Regaining himself, by and by he ascertained
his condition, but determining not to be a prisoner, he resolved to
play the dying man. He lay, therefore, in a seemingly helpless state,
closing his eyes and gasping as if the next breath was to be his last.
Finally, a rebel came to where he lay, and took his sword and other
valuables. The dying man made signs for water, and the rebel held a
canteen to his mouth, but, poor man! he could not drink. After this,
other rebels from their works shot at him, but he did not budge, and
believing him really in the throes of death, they did not bother him
any more. The day was extremely hot; it was one of those warm summer
days peculiar to the South. He lay on his back in the burning sun--an
impossible thing under other circumstances. Flies and ants swarmed his
face, and bit and stung him, but he dared not move.

He was kept in this position from 9 o'clock A.M. until after dark; but
night coming on, he took leg-bail for our works, reaching them without
further adventure. He came to his company hatless, swordless,
moneyless, but sound as ever--the same old Jo.

CHAPTER VI.

TO THE REAR.

The casualties of the Eighty-sixth Regiment, on the long and arduous
campaign against Atlanta, was one hundred and seventy-nine men in
killed, wounded and missing.

Besides this number, there were many who were taken sick and sent back
to hospitals. Thus, when the campaign had ended, the regiment was
materially reduced in numbers. It was now not much larger than