Calvin travels nearly 300 miles through Alabama and Georgia. He marched east through the Alabama towns of Mooresville, Huntsville, Woodville, and Stevenson. In Georgia Calvin marched south through the towns of Chickamauga, Lafayette, Taylor’s Ridge and met up with the command of General Sherman at The Battles of Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain, and Marietta just north of Atlanta.  Calvin is assigned to the front line as a skirmisher. The Battle of Dallas during late May 1864 consisted of 100,000 Union and 65,000 Confederate soldiers. Losses to the Union were 4,500 and to the Confederates 6,000.

Food was in limited supply. Breakfast consisted of coffee, meat and hardtack made from flour, water, and salt.

Calvin’s diary from July 13, 1864, to November 2, 1864 can’t be located as it would have been the one he carried when captured. While as a skirmisher, he was captured by the Confederates on August 4, 1864 near Marietta and transported 150 miles south by train to the Confederate’s prison at Andersonville, Georgia. During a railroad prisoner transfer from Andersonville in September 1864, he jumped from the train and walked 150 miles back to the Union lines north of Atlanta arriving on September 21, 1864. Calvin’s capture, imprisonment, escape and travel back to the union lines north of Atlanta will be documented in the next few episodes.

Photo of fighting at Marietta, Georgia