Today in History:

207 Series I Volume XXXI-I Serial 54 - Knoxville and Lookout Mountain Part I

Page 207 Chapter XLIII. REOPENING OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.

aid of General Geary and at the same time sent notice of the order to General Howard. General Hooker also sent orders to General Schurz by one of his staff officers to push forward the brigade first ready to march to the aid of Geary, and with another brigade to occupy the hill known in this investigation as the Tyndale Hill.

The division commanded by General Schurz was the Third Division of the Eleventh Corps, consisting of three brigade, commanded, respectively, by Brigadier-General Tyndale, and by Colonel Krzyzanowski and Colonel Hecker. General Schurz, after receiving the order, immediately got his troops under arms, put himself at the head of General Tyndale's brigade, which was nearest the road and first ready to march, and sent orders by Lieutenant-Colonel Otto, his chief of staff, to the Second and Third Brigades to follow the First Brigade on the road to Wauhatchie. The Second Brigade, Colonel Krzyzanowski, marched next after the First Brigade, and was followed by the Third Brigade, Colonel Hecker. General Schurz continued at the head of the marching column until the brigade arrived at the foot of the Tyndale Hill, at which place Lieutenant Oliver, one of General Hooker's staff officers, by orders from General Hooker, directed General Schurz, with Tyndale's brigade, to take and occupy the hill.

It seems that General Hooker started in the direction of Geary and continued near the head of the column until it was fired upon from Tyndale's Hill, when, apprehending that the enemy were trying to cut him off from Brown's Ferry, after sending the order to General Schurz to take the hill, he turned back and took what he regarded a more appropriate position, near the foot of Smith's Hill. It appears that Tyndale's brigade, in marching from the foot of Smith's Hill to the foot of Tyndale's Hill, got off the road and into a boggy thicket, and was obliged to halt. But the delay was short; the column by a movement to the left recovered the road and proceeded on its way without any considerable delay. The march of this brigade from its campt to the Tyndale Hill was accomplished with commendable promptitude.

The Second Brigade, Colonel Krzyzanowski, continued its march, following the First Brigade until it got in the vicinity of Smith's Hill, when it halted. The Third Brigade, Colonel Hecker, not considering himself authorized to halt, filed past the Second brigade and continued its march in the direction of Wauhatchie. After passing the Second Brigade, Colonel Hecker was directed by Major Howard, an aide on the staff of the corps commander, to halt at the cross-roads, then about 150 yards in advance. On arriving at the point designated, Colonel Hecker halted his brigade and formed line of battle facing the hill. At this time General Hooker, returning from his advance toward General Geary, rode up to Colonel Hecker and inquired what troops those were, and why they were halted there. On being answered by Colonel Hecker that it was the Third Brigade, Third Division, Eleventh Army Corps, and that he halted there by command of Major-General Howard, General Hooker, after giving some directions in view of a contingency that might arise from a change of front, rode off.

Major Howard, who continued with Colonel Hecker until the meeting with General Hooker, rode forward to General Schurz, and reported to him that Colonel Hecker's brigade had halted at the cross-roads, and was under instructions from General Hooker. Colonel Krzyzanowski formed his brigade in line of battle to the left and front of Colonel Hecker, and at right angles to his line of battle, not


Page 207 Chapter XLIII. REOPENING OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.