"The evening of the thirtieth, after a weary day during which our cavalry and infantry had been forcing a succession of log barricades and repairing culverts and bridges, we came to a tract of barren sand-banks, intending to camp there for the night. After a short halt, I called Kilpatrick to me and said: 'It is but six miles to Flint River, where a bridge crosses, and but a few more miles to Jonesboro, the railway station. Can you send me an officer who can take a squadron of cavalry and keep Wheeler's rear guard in motion?' 'Yes, here is Captain Estes. He can do it if anybody can.' 'All right, go ahead, Estes; I will follow you with infantry.' Wheeler's men, thinking we had stopped for the night, had already dismounted and were preparing to bivouac at a respectful distance, when suddenly they beheld Captain Estes with his indomitable squadron charging down the road. The Confederates sprang to their saddles and nobody tarried, neither pursuer or pursued, till the Flint River bridge had been reached. Our men extinguished the flames already kindled, saved the bridge, and soon were crossing in force, just as the twilight was darkening into the night. One corps, Logan's, was quickly marched over and along the farther bank of the river and began to ascend the wooded hill beyond. Hardee's Confederate Corps, hastily brought hither by rail from Atlanta, now gave in the darkness only a feeble skirmish line resistance. We charged the hill, cleared the way to the crest, and the men, though exceedingly weary with a long march of twenty-five miles or more, worked the whole night, so strong were they then to cover their front with the habitual intrenchments.
"The next day, the thirty-first of August, Logan's and Ransom's men supported by Blair, received Hardee's renewal of the conflict. The charges were not as vigorous as at Atlanta. They were, all along the line, repulsed. Before the next day Thomas had closed in on my left; had a combat, and the two together made a vigorous push for Jonesboro. By this movement Hardee's half of Hood's army was dislodged. The instant the situation was known Hood, still 25 miles back at Atlanta, he abandoned the city and succeeded by a wonderful night march in forming a junction with Hardee below us at Lovejoy station.