Today in History:

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

Page 485 Chapter XLII. THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN.

On Saturday, September 19, having slightly changed position so as to occupy the crest of a small hill, we lay in line pretty much all day under the fire of the enemy's artillery and sharpshooters until about 2 o'clock, when we were ordered forward and met the enemy, driving them across the road and a skirt of woods and open field. They had been driven from the field; two pieces of this [their] artillery upon my right and the left of the Twenty-fifth Tennessee were silenced and abandoned. We were, however, unable to take the guns off, and it is thought some other brigade or division took possession of them.

Having crossed the open field and the enemy having fled from before us, we halted to reform our lines. It was then discovered that there was no brigade on our left, and the enemy being upon our left flank and in rear of the left wing of the Seventeenth Tennessee, necessitated our falling back across the road, which we did and reformed speedily. Here we rested upon our arms during the night, and thus closed the Saturday's action. We fought them from 2 o'clock until late in evening.

I carried into action on this day 28 officers and 149

non-commissioned officers and privates, and lost in officers 1 killed and 5 wounded; in non-commissioned officers and privates, 5 killed; wounded and captured, 58.

Major J. G. Lowe was seriously wounded on this day while nobly discharging his duty, and only escaped being captured by his forethought and prudence.

Sunday morning, September 20, the formation of the brigade stood as before, my regiment being upon the left of the Twenty-fifth Tennessee and right of the Seventeenth Tennessee. The action commenced about 7 o'clock in the morning and became general about 10 o'clock, when we were ordered to advance. I immediately engaged the enemy with my skirmishers, and came upon their line on the opposite side of the road, when they fled in confusion before our sudden and impetuous charge. Moving a short distance by the right flank, we again moved forward and came on another line strongly posted in a cedar grove or thicket. Here I engaged them about ten or fifteen minutes when we drove them in confusion out of the glade across the open field to the crest of a hill where their artillery was planted, and, pressing rapidly forward, utterly routed them. In this charge I passed by a house in which the enemy had been posted across the yard and garden. It was in this charge that Lieutenant Colonel Horace Ready was wounded while gallantly doing his duty.

Having pressed forward to the top of the hill, we discovered that the enemy fled in the wildest confusion and dismay from their third strong position, leaving in their hasty flight knapsacks and baggage, several wagons laded with commissary and quartermaster's stores and ordnance, several of artillery and caissons, some of which were capsized in their confusion. Several prisoners also fell into our hands. It is estimated that some 8 or 10 wagons and 5 or 6 pieces of artillery, with caissons, fell into our hands, and which we had no opportunity of removing until next morning.

Having halted and reformed upon the hill, which we had at last driven the enemy from, we changed direction to the right by brigade wheel, in which maneuver I passed down the hollow and into a

corn-field in the bottom and to the right of the hill we had just left. Here we halted some fifteen or twenty minutes, I suppose, until a battery could be put in position on a hill then immediately in our


Page 485 Chapter XLII. THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN.