Sherman's army has crossed the Chattahoochee River in Georgia, forcing Confederate General Joseph Johnston into yet another retreat after two and a half months of constant falling back. The Tribune's Nashville correspondent describes how McPherson's forces executed a brilliant flank movement on Friday evening near Binning's Station, catching the rebels by surprise. Despite formidable defenses that Gov. Brown had personally supervised—five miles of fortifications with abatis so thick Sherman called them "the most formidable he has yet encountered"—Johnston ordered a retreat by Sunday morning, burning bridges behind him as he fled. With Atlanta now just four to seven miles away across level ground, the correspondent asks the burning question: "Will Johnston Fight?" The paper also reports on a sinister rebel conspiracy brewing at Niagara Falls, where Confederate politicians and northern Copperheads are plotting to split the Democratic Convention in Chicago, hoping chaos at the North will save their dying cause.

By mid-July 1864, the Civil War's outcome was no longer in doubt—only its duration remained uncertain. Sherman's steady advance toward Atlanta represented the Union's grinding superiority in manpower and materiel. Meanwhile, the conspiracy at Niagara Falls exposed how desperate the Confederacy had become, reduced to scheming with northern peace Democrats rather than winning battles. This was also a pivotal election year: Lincoln faced a challenger in General McClellan, and Confederate leaders believed a northern political rupture could force a negotiated peace. The Tribune's aggressive coverage of these plots revealed how seriously Chicago took the threat of internal sabotage.

• The Tribune reports that between Saturday evening and Monday night, Sherman shipped 3,300 rebel soldiers and officers plus 141 deserters to Nashville—a total of 1,471 prisoners—suggesting that Union logistics and organization had become a weapon as devastating as artillery.
• The paper includes detailed statistics on blockade-running: of vessels attempting to resupply Confederate ports from January 1863 to April 1864, 27 were captured or lost on their first attempt, 15 on their second trip, and 3 before making a fourth round trip, showing the mathematical squeeze tightening around the South.
• A train carrying Confederate prisoners to Elmira, New York, collided with a coal train on Friday—resulting in 'a loss to the rebels of 100 killed and wounded'—presented with the casual tone of a military engagement rather than a disaster.
• Secretary of the Treasury Fessenden was in New York consulting with ex-Secretary Chase about a fifty million dollar foreign loan that 'associated banks have agreed to take,' revealing how the Union's financial machinery was mobilizing even as it won battles.
• The paper mockingly notes that England is 'magnanimously and generously fitting out vessels of war' for the Emperor of China, which 'are always pierced for guns, invariably run our blockades and prey upon our commerce'—documenting how Britain's official neutrality masked active Confederate sympathy.

• General 'Baldy' Smith arrived in New York the same week this paper was published, and the Tribune dismisses rumors about his visit with a single sentence: he was just seeing his sick family in Orange County. In reality, Smith was one of Lincoln's most controversial commanders, and this moment marked the beginning of his marginalization from the war effort—he would never hold significant command again.
• The paper obsesses over gold prices (opening at 249½, closing at 253-254) as evidence of northern uncertainty and financial manipulation. In 1864, gold speculation was so rampant that it actually became a political issue; the Tribune's criticism here would echo through the remainder of the war and into Reconstruction.
• Joseph Johnston, the Confederate general retreating before Sherman, had promised Atlanta's citizens on July 4th that they would see 'the Yankees run'—inviting ladies to watch from Kennesaw Mountain. Within days, he was fleeing the city himself, leaving those same women to 'throw themselves upon Yankee honor for safety.' The correspondent's sardonic observation that many Georgia women would eventually marry Union soldiers proved prophetic.
• The Niagara Falls conspiracy led by George N. Sanders, with its plan to split the Democratic Convention and spark northern insurrection, was real enough that the Union took it seriously—yet it ultimately failed. Sanders would die in exile, his plots forgotten, while the Union pressed forward to victory.
• The paper's subscription rates reveal the economic realities of Civil War Chicago: yearly delivery cost $3.25 monthly or $12 annually, while a 50-copy bulk order for 'getters up of club' cost $90—showing how newspapers were community organizing tools and that information, like ammunition, had become a precious commodity.