Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/857

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SKETCH OF GENERAL JOHN NEWTON.
837

the second division of the Fourth Corps (General Howard's). In this campaign he was engaged in the storming of Rocky-faced Ridge, where the corps succeeded in carrying the ridge; in the operations around Dalton, the turning of which was regarded as a great step gained in the movement upon Atlanta; in the battle of Resaca; in the action of Adairsville, where his division had a smart skirmish with the enemy's rear-guard; in the pursuit of the enemy to the Etowah River, with constant skirmishing; in the battle of Dallas; in the movement on Pine Mountain, with almost daily heavy engagements; in the battles of Kenesaw, where, in McPherson's attack on Little Kenesaw, parts of his division were engaged in the assault by which the enemy's works were reached after a charge up the face of the mountain against a heavy fire. After the crossing of the Chattahoochee River, in closing up the Federal lines around the northern and eastern sides of Atlanta, General Newton's division was left to hold an important position on Peach-Tree Creek with an inadequate force, which offered itself as a temptation to the newly appointed Confederate commander, General Hood, to attack it. The readiness with which his command met Hood's sudden assault, and the efficiency of their fire, assisted by the batteries which General Newton had posted on each of his flanks, were material in deciding the failure of that attack. For this and for other gallant and meritorious services in the campaign he was, in March, 1865, brevetted brigadier-general in the regular army.

During the siege of Atlanta, General Newton participated in the attack on the enemy's intrenchments at Jonesboro, September 18th; in the battle of Lovejoy's Station on the next day; and in the events more immediately relating to the occupation of the famous stronghold. He was afterward assigned the command of the district of Key West and Tortugas, Florida, in which capacity he was engaged in the action of the Natural Bridge, near St. Mark's. On the 13th of March, 1865—the same day on which he was brevetted brigadier-general for his services in the Atlanta campaign—he was also brevetted a major-general in the United States Army for meritorious services in the field during the rebellion. On the 28th of December, 1865, he was made a lieutenant-colonel in the Corps of Engineers. On the 15th of January, 1866, he was mustered out of the volunteer service.

He was transferred at once to engineering service, to have charge of the construction of the new battery near Fort Hamilton, in New York Harbor, and of the construction of the fort at Sandy Hook. In 1866 he made an examination for the improvement of the navigation of Hudson River, the appropriation then being sufficient only for the repair of the dikes already constructed; but his report covers the whole ground, and the scheme then proposed is that which has been carried on, latterly entirely under his charge. The character of the improvements then indicated was 1.—A system of longitudinal