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The battle of Stone Mountain in Georgia
It is little known that Sherman, when arriving at the front to see what was holding up his march to the sea, found a Confederate on top of Stone Mountain waving signal flags and hurling curses at the enemy below. He immediately ordered his adjutant to sent his best man up that mountain to "throw that Reb off of it."
Up went Sgt. McGurk, an 8'-2" Irishman, after "the reb." After a slight lull in the signaling, a loud "thump" was heard at the base of the mountain. There laid McGurk, never to move an inch more to the sea.
Sherman then ordered the best 10 men in the regiment to clear that "no good murdering, signaling and shouting Reb" off of 'his" mountain. Up went the 10 Yankees, armed with swords, bayonets, revolvers and rifles. Again the signaling and shouting paused. A few minutes later, another 10 blue clothed Yankees bounced one by one down the mountain. Never would they taste the salt of the ocean.
Well Sherman was really steamed! He then sent 150 handpicked soldiers up the mountain. This time they took an howitzer with them in addition to every small arm available. The signaling hardly paused before the figures of 149 troopers were seen to be caroming down from the
mountain. The 150th soldier limped back down the mountain, bloodied, weak and near to breathing his last. Sherman rushed over to him, dismounted, and put his ear to the soldier's mouth to catch his words.
The soldiers words were " Go around the mountain, General, it's a trap. There are two of them up there!"
A seldom told story about the Battle of Stone Mountain in Georgia as found in the July 1865 issue of Reader's Digest.
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