Today in History:

385 Series I Volume XXX-II Serial 51 - Chickamauga Part II

Page 385 Chapter XLII. THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN.

Sunday morning found us in the line assumed the night previous, and under the order of Major-General Stewart I moved my command by the right flank 500 or 600 yards and took position forward and on the right of General Brown's brigade; but in forming the line was compelled to retire the right to an angle of about 45` on account of the proximity of the enemy located to my right oblique. Caswell's battalion of sharpshooters, under command of Lieutenant Joel Towers (Captain Benjamin M. Turner having been dangerously wounded the evening before), was thrown forward and deployed at right angles with my right to guard against a repetition of the movement of the previous evening (to turn that flank, to which we were liable), there being at that time no force, sufficiently near to intervene. Having assumed this line of battle, I had a temporary barricade of logs hastily constructed, which gave partial protection against the shower of grape, canister, and shell which continuously and most angrily saluted us. During the time we were subjected to this ordeal several men and officers were killed and wounded, yet no restiveness or other evidence of demoralization was manifested.

At about 9 a.m. the brigade of General Deshler was placed upon my right, prolonging the line and observing the same inclination to the rear. Soon thereafter I received notice that General Wood's brigade was in my front, and that the general movement would be a successive one, by brigade, commencing on the right, and was ordered by Major-General Stewart to follow up the movement of General Deshler. After waiting, under a severe and incessant fire of artillery, until about 11 a.m., I communicated to General Stewart that no movement on my right had taken place; that General Deshler had been killed, and desired to know if I should longer remain inactive. About this time there was firing in my front, and soon thereafter General Wood's command came back,passing over my line. I was then ordered by Major-General Stewart to advance and attack. My command received the order with a shout and moved upon the foe at a rapid gait. The battalion of sharpshooters was ordered to maintain its position at right angles to the line and check, if possible (if not, to delay), any movement in that direction, giving the earliest notice of the same. My right, as upon the evening previous, became hotly engaged almost the instant it assumed the offensive. It was subject to a most galling fire of grape and musketry from my right oblique and front, cutting down with great fatality the Twentieth Tennessee and Thirty-seventh Georgia at every step, until they drove the enemy behind his defenses, from which, without support either of artillery or infantry, they were unable to dislodge him. General Deshler's brigade not having advanced, I called on Major-General Cleburne, who was near my right and rear, for assistance; but he having none at his disposal which could be spared, I was compelled to retire that wing of my brigade or sacrifice it in uselessly fighting thrice its numbers, with the advantage of the hill and breastworks against it. I did so in good order and without indecent haste, and aligned it first in front and then placed it in rear of our flimsy defenses. My left (the Fifty-eighth Alabama and Fifteenth and Thirty-seventh Tennessee, the latter under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Frayser, Colonel Tyler having been wounded), being farther from the enemy's line than my right, did not so soon become engaged, neither at this time subject to so severe a cross-fire, proceeded steadily on and drove the enemy behind his works, which had been constructed the night previous

25 R R-VOL XXX, PT II


Page 385 Chapter XLII. THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN.