Thursday, July 3, 2008

Hardee at Kennesaw Mountain: Official Records

Even though his corps bore the brunt of the fighting
there, Hardee never covered the operations on the Kennesaw
line in his official report to the Richmond government,
preferring instead to spill much ink in defense of his
actions during the battles around Atlanta. Additionally,
the report itself was not presented until April 5,1865
(just four days before Lee's surrender at Appomattox), which
meant that there was little time for Hardee to add anything
further, even if he had wanted to. Whatever "Old Reliable"
thought about the June 27th fight, he never committed it
to paper.

The only item from Hardee's report pertinent to Kennesaw
is an addendum from his assistant adjutant-general, Colonel
T. B. Roy, made in response to a query from the CS Army's
Inspector General, Samuel Cooper, about losses at Kennesaw.
Roy supplied the following:

I think our loss was 100 and some
few odd. It was almost nothing. Estimates
of enemy's losses in front of Cheatham and
Cleburne's left varied from 2,000 to 5,000.
Captain Buel (captured the other day) says
2,000.


Attached was a table that broke down the loss in
killed, wounded and missing for the divisions of
Cheatham and Cleburne.

Thankfully for the historical record, Hardee's subordinates
would not be so tight-lipped about the Kennesaw fight.

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