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September, 1864. The Chattahoochee River was crossed on the 30th, and part of
the army proceeded to Lost Mountain for Ackworth and Big Shanty and captured
the garrisons at those places. At Cedartown the wagon train, the sick, and the
shoeless, and all the artillery except one battery of each battalion were left behind,
while the remainder of the army proceeded to Rcsaca and Dalton. Stevenson's
Division started on the 9th of October at noon, and the Third Maryland was the
battery chosen to accompany it.

It was the intention of General Stephen D. Lee, who commanded the corps,
to capture the garrison at Resaca, and he made forced marches in order to take
it by surprise. On the 12th it was surrounded by approaches made from the north
and its unconditional surrender demanded. The Major in command of the post
refused to yield, however, and General Lee did not think it worth while to compel
him, and proceeded on his way.

On the 23d all started for Tennessee, marching across Sand Mountain to
Decatur, Alabama, and thence to Florence, on the south bank of the Tennessee
River. By the 20th of November all the troops had crossed the Tennessee River,
and through rain and snow the advance upon Nashville was renewed. The weather
was intensely cold, and the march was rendered the more cheerless by the barren-
ness and poverty of the country through which it led during the first few days.
Rations and forage were very scarce, though the more needed by reason of the
bitter weather.

When within a mile and a half of Columbia on the 26th the whole army was
put in order of battle, and so advanced till within three-fourths of a mile of the
enemy's works. The town was evacuated on the night of the 27th, and the Third
Maryland was the first Confederate force to enter the next morning. A section
of the battery under Lieutenant Ritter was sent three miles below the town to
prevent the destruction by the enemy of the railroad bridge over Duck River,
but on its arrival found the bridge in flames.

When, on the 29th, the right section rejoined the left, it was found on the
south bank of the river, in the cemetery at Columbus, engaged with the enemy.
The Yankees on the other side of the river had massed their artillery upon a hill
commanding the town, and were opposing the crossing of the Confederates; the
latter had six batteries replying to them, two of them planted above and four
within the town. Meanwhile Pettus' Brigade of Stevenson's Division was thrown
across the river, preparatory to a charge upon the enemy's works, and while it was
forming under the river bank the Confederate artillery increased the intensity of
its fire till it became terrific, and effectually prevented any active movement on the
part of the enemy. Pettus charged their works as soon as his formation was
completed, and drove the Federals out with but slight loss. Three men of the
Third Maryland were wounded in the artillery duel, two of them dangerously.