HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, near Atlanta, Ga., July 31, 1864.
General HOWARD:
General Garrard did not destroy any of the railroad. He was posted at Flat Rock by General Stoneman to occupy the attention of the enemy’s cavalry, which he (Stoneman) pressed to his rear and south. All we know to the Macon road is from a Colonel Garrard, with General Schofield, who visited Decatur and learned from a woman that the enemy’s cavalry had been to Decatur, and reported that our cavalry had got on the road at Jonesborough and burned ten miles of the road and was going on down burning as he went. General staid two days at Flat Rock; says he was completely surrounded, but cut his way out, though his loss was trifling. The locomotives that are whistling near you may be bagged.
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.