seventeenth day out.

In the course of this great raid Sheridan had drawn off the
Confederate cavalry; fought four successful actions; released
hundreds of Union prisoners and taken as many himself; cut rails
and wires to such an extent that Lee could only communicate with
Richmond by messenger; destroyed enormous quantities of the most
vitally needed enemy stores, especially food and medical
supplies; and, by penetrating the outer defenses of Richmond,
raised Federal prestige to a higher plane at a most important
juncture.

Meanwhile Sherman, whose own main body included a hundred
thousand men, had started from Chattanooga at the same time as
Grant from Culpeper Court House. In Grant's opinion "Johnston,
with Atlanta, was of less importance only because the capture of
Johnston and his army would not produce so immediate and decisive
a result in closing the rebellion as would the possession of
Richmond, Lee, and his army." Sherman's organization, supply and
transport, engineers, staff, and army generally were excellent.
So skillful, indeed, were his railway engineers that a disgusted
Confederate raider called out to a demolition party: "Better save
your powder, boys. What's the good of blowing up this one when
Sherman brings duplicate tunnels along?"

Sherman had double Johnston's numbers in the field. But Johnston,
as a supremely skillful Fabian, was a most worthy opponent for
this campaign, when the Confederate object was to gain time and
sicken the North of the war by falling back from one strongly
prepared position to another, inflicting as much loss as possible