MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES A. GABFIELD, U. S. V.
From a war-time photograph.
This was the celebrated attack upon Reynolds and Brannan which led directly to the Federal disaster. In the mean time our right was preparing to renew the attack. I proposed to the wing commander, Polk, to make a second advance, provided fresh troops were sent forward, requesting that the gap in Breckinridge’s left, made by the withdrawal of Helm, should be filled by another brigade. General J. K. Jackson’s was sent for that purpose, but unfortunately took its position too far in rear to engage the attention of the enemy in front, and every advance on our right during the remainder of the day was met with flank and cross fire from that quarter. Gist’s brigade and Liddell’s division of Walker’s corps reported to me. Gist immediately attacked with great vigor the log-works which had repulsed Helm so disastrously, and he in turn was driven back. Liddell might have made as great an impression by moving on the Chattanooga road as Breckinridge had done, but his strong brigade (Walthall’s) was detached, and he advanced with Govan’s alone, seized the road for the second time that day, and was moving behind the breastworks, when, a column of the enemy appearing on his flank and rear, he was compelled to retreat.
This was simultaneous with the advance of Stewart. The heavy pressure on Thomas caused Rose-crans to support him by sending the divisions of Negley and Van Cleve and Brannan’s reserve brigade. In the course of these changes, an order to Wood, which Roseerans claims was misinterpreted, led to a gap being left into which Longstreet stepped with the eight brigades (Bushrod Johnson’s original brigade and McNair’s, Gregg’s, Kershaw’s, Lawn’s, Humphrey’s, Benning’s, and Robertson’s) which he had arranged in three lines to constitute his grand column of attack. Davis’s two brigades, one of Van Cleve’s, and Sheridan’s entire division were caught in front and flank and driven from the field. Disregarding the order of the day, Longstreet now gave the order to wheel to the right instead of the left, and thus take in reverse the strong position of the enemy. Five of McCook’s brigades were speedily driven off the field. He es-
do that,” I replied, “as General Stewart ranks me." “I can cure that,” answered Mr. Davis, “by making you a lieutenant-general. Tour papers will be ready to-morrow. When can you start?” “In twenty-four hours,” was the reply. . . .
[An Ineffectual attack by Polk upon Thomas opened the battle of the second day. General Hill proceeds :]
At 11 A. M. Stewart’s division advanced under an immediate order from Bragg. His three brigades under Brown, Clayton, and Bate advanced with Wood of Cleburne’s division, and, as General Stewart says, “pressed on past the corn-field in front of the burnt house, two or three hundred yards beyond the Chattanooga road, driving the enemy within his line of intrenchments. . . . Here they met a fresh artillery fire on front and flank, heavily supported by infantry, and had to retire.”
THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.
NARRATIVE NOTE.
placing liis army in position to cover its soutliern approaches. Bragg counterm arched his army, and attached Roseerans on the 19th. The hrunt of the fighting fell upon the Union left wing under Thomas, which Bragg attempted to crush in order to gain the Rossville road, the gateway to Chattanooga. The attack failed, hut w as resumed on the 20th. Polk commanded the Confederate right against Thomas, and Longstreet, who had reached the field during the night, commanded the left. Rose-crans strengthened Thomas hy withdrawing troops from McCook’s corps on the right.
General Hill’s narrative is mainly a description of the decisive attack upon Rosecrans’s right center and right.
found it necessary to detail Hardee to defend Mississippi and Alabama. His corps is without a commander. I wish you to command it.” “I cannot
After the battle of Murfreesboro’ (Stone’s River),December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863, Rosecrans’s army remained at Murfreesboro’, facing Bragg’s fortified camps at Shelbyville and Tullahoma. In June Roseerans marched around Bragg’s right flank, and compelled him to retreat to Chattanooga. After the surrender of Vicksburg and the battle of Gettysburg (July, 1863), Bragg was reinforced from Mississippi, and Longstreet was ordered to join him from Virginia.
Early in September Roseerans crossed the Tennessee on the right (west) of Chattanooga, and advanced southward into Georgia. Bragg also marched southward, abandoning Chattanooga, which Roseerans occupied,
THE CONFEDERATE SIDE.
THE GREAT ATTACK AT CHICKAMAUGA.
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MAP OP THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN.
BYDANIELH.HILL,LIEUTENANT-GENERAL,C.S. A.
Commander of a corps at tile battle of Cliickamauga.
ON the 13th of July, 1863, while in charge of the defenses of Richmond and Petersburg and the department of North Carolina, I received an unexpected order to go West. I was seated in a yard of a house in the suburbs of Richmond (the house belonging to Mr. Poe, a relative of the poet), when President Davis, dressed in a plain suit of gray and attended by a small escort in brilliant uniform, galloped up and said: “Rose-crans* is about to advance upon Bragg; I have
*At the beginning oi the Civil War I was asked the question, “Who of the Federal officers are most to be feared?” I replied: “ Sherman, Roseerans, and McClellan. Sherman has genius and daring, and is full of resources. Roseerans has fine practical sense, and is of a tough, tenacious fiber. McClellan is a man of talents, and his delight has always been in the study of military history and the art and science of war.” Grant was not once thought of. The light of subsequent events thrown upon the careers of these three great soldiers has not changed my estimate of them; but I acquiesce in the verdict which has given greater renown to some of their comrades. . . .
I fought against McClellan from Yorktown to Sharps-burg (Antietam), I encountered Roseerans at Chicka-manga, and I surrendered to Slierman at Greensboro’, N. C.— each of the three commanding an army.—D. H. H.