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468 Series I Volume XXXVIII-I Serial 72 - The Atlanta Campaign Part I

Page 468 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Chapter L.

country was so rough I could not see a wagon or ambulance. The firing ceased, and the killed and wounded were being carried to the rear, when the enemy, commencing on the right of our brigade, made a furious charge, cheering and yelling. Regiment after regiment fell back, until all were in motion. They reformed and moved back to another position. Here my loss again was very heavy. Captain Thomas R. Brown was wounded severely, 1 private killed and 42 wounded. This was a very unsatisfactory fight to me. The only grain of comfort I could glean from it; an additional evidence to many others was afforded by it of the invincible pluck of the Seventeenth Kentucky. After this engagement we moved to the right, changed positions, and made fortifications several times, all the time under fire and in constant rain, until on the night of the 4th of June the enemy evacuated their works and we followed them. Before this regiment were in front of our works doing duty as outposts, in charge of Major D. M. Claggett, when the enemy in their front made a charge upon them, which they repulsed handsomely without assistance or re-enforcements. But here 1 enlisted man was killed and 5 wounded.

On the 6th of June we moved to the vicinity of Acworth and remained there until the 10th, when we again moved forward and found the enemy intrenched, but did not go into position, other troops being in our front. On the 15th the enemy again evacuated his works. We found them again intrenched on the 17th. In pushing our lines up to those of the enemy on that day Companies A, E, F, and K were thrown forward as skirmishers and drove those of the enemy out of a thick wood and over an open field, and took and held a high, steep knob near the enemy's lines. In this important service Captain Robert C. Sturgis, commanding Company K, a gallant officer, received a wound in the knee-joint of which he afterward died. After the capture of the knob, I was ordered to hold it and the skirmish line in front of this brigade. We made temporary works on the line after dark, and upon the knob I desired to make a strong work, as the position was a commanding one. The knob was thickly covered with timber, and after I had posted a few men in front of the line as lookouts, and while we were engaged in building our works in almost total darkness, the enemy crept up very near and made a furious charge upon us. It was sudden and unexpected, without a sight or sound to indicate its coming until a volley was fired. It is trued that not a man was hurt, but the fire was returned with the effect of repelling the charge. some of the men for a moment manifested some signs of trepidation, but upon hearing my voice and those of their company officers they became firm and assured in a moment. On the next day, the 18th, we moved to the left and occupied a high piece of open ground and made works, and, being in the front line, we were a good deal exposed to both artillery and small-arms of the enemy. One enlisted man was killed and 1 wounded. On the night succeeding the 18th the enemy again evacuated, and we followed in the direction of Marietta; and on the 19th, and on the night succeeding that day, we encamped in rear of the First Division, Fourth Army Corps, and on the 20th moved to the right and relieved Geary's division, of the Twentieth Corps. In front of our line we could see the enemy's skirmishers in line across an open field, behind rail barricades, nearly 1,000 yards distant. A battery was placed upon our line and opened upon the skir-


Page 468 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Chapter L.