General Thomas’s headquarters on the second day were in the held this side ol thehouse. The hills called the “ Horse-shoe,” made famous by the defense of Brannan and Steedman, lie on the opposite side of the house.
THE SNODGRASS FARM-HOUSE.
and men were killed and wounded with clubbed muskets. A little after 4, the enemy was reinforced, and advanced, but was repulsed by Anderson and Kershaw.
General Bushrod Johnson claims that his men were surely, if slowly, gaining ground at all points, which must have made untenable the stronghold of Thomas. Belief was, however, to come to our men, so hotly engaged on the left, by the advance of the right. At 3 p. m. Forrest reported to me that a strong column was approaching from Boss-ville, which he was delaying all he could. From prisoners we soon learned that it was Granger’s corps. We were apprehensive that a flank attack, by fresh troops, upon our exhausted and shattered ranks might prove fatal. Major-General Walker strongly advised falling back to the position of Cleburne, but to this I would not consent, believing that it would invite attack, as we were in full view. Cheatham’s fine division was sent to my assistance by the wing commander. . . .
Longstreet was determined to send Preston with his division of three brigades under Gracie, Trigg, and Kelly, aided by Bobertson’s brigade of Hood’s division, to carry the heights — the main point of defense. His troops were of the best material and had been in reserve all day; but brave, fresh, and strong as they were, it was -with them alternate advance and retreat, until success was assured by a renewal of the fight on the right. At 3:30 p. m. General Polk sent an order to me to assume command of the attacking forces on the right and renew the assault. Owing to a delay in the adjustment of our lines, the advance did not begin until 4 o’clock. The men sprang to their arms with the utmost alacrity, though they had not heard of Long-street’s success, and they showed by their cheerfulness that there was plenty of “fight in them.” Cleburne ran forward his batteries, some by hand,
after 3 p.m. It probably never happened before for a great battle to be fought to its bloody conclusion with the commanders of each side away from the field of conflict. But the Federáis were in the hands of the indomitable Thomas, and the Confederates were under their two heroic wing commanders, Longstreet and Polk. In the lull of the strife I went with a staff-officer to examine the ground on our left. One of Helm’s wounded men had been overlooked, and was lying alone in the woods, his head partly supported by a tree. He was shockingly injured.*
Hindman and Bushrod Johnson organized a column of attack upon the front and rear of the stronghold of Thomas. It consisted of the brigades of Deas, Manigault, Gregg, Patton, Anderson, and McNair. Three of the brigades, Johnson says, had each but five hundred men, and the other two were not strong. Deas was on the north side of the gorge through which the Crawfish road crosses, Manigault across the gorge and south, on the crest parallel to the Snodgrass Hill, where Thomas was. The other three brigades extended along the crest with their faces north, while the first two faced east. Kershaw, with his own and Humphreys’s brigade, was on the right of Anderson, and was to cooperate in the movement. It began at 3:30 p. m. A terrific contest ensued. The bayonet■ was used,
*He belonged to Von Zinken’s regiment, of New Orleans, composed of French, Germans, and Irish. I said to him: “ My !)oor fellow, you are badly hurt. What regiment clo you belong- to«” He replied: ‘■The Fifth Confederit, and a donnned good regiment it is.” The answer,though almost ludicrous, touched me as illustrating the esprit de corps of the soldier — his pride in and his affection for his command. Colonel Von Zinken told me afterward that one of his desperately wounded Irishmen cried out to his comrades, “ Charge them, boys; they have cha-ase (cheese) in their haversacks. ” Poor Pat, he has fought courageously in every land in quarrels not his own.—D. H. H.
ON THE CHICKAMAUGA.
taking prisoners, seizing the headquarters of the Federal commander, at the Widow Glenn’s, until they found themselves facing the new Federal line on Snodgrass Hill. Hindman had advanced a little later than the center, and had met great and immediate success. The brigades of Deas and Manigault charged the breastworks at double-quick, rushed over them, drove Laiboldt’s Federal brigade of Sheridan’s division off the field down the Boss-ville road; then General Patton Anderson’s brigade of Hindman, having come into line, attacked and beat back the forces of Davis, Sheridan, and Wilder, in their front, killed the hero and poet General Lytle, took 1100 prisoners, 27 pieces of artillery, commissary and ordnance trains, etc. Finding no more resistance on his front and left, Hindman wheeled to the right to assist the forces of the center. The divisions of Stewart, Hood, Bushrod Johnson, and Hindman came together in front of the new stronghold of the Federals.
It was now 2:30 p. m. Longstreet, with his staff, was lunching on sweet-potatoes. A message came just then that the commanding general wished to see him. He found Bragg in rear of his lines, told him of the steady and satisfactory progress of the battle, that sixty pieces of artillery had been reported captured (though probably the number was overestimated), that many prisoners and stores had been taken, and that all was going well. He then asked for additional troops to hold the ground gained, while he pursued the two broken corps down the Dry Valley road and cut off the retreat of Thomas. Bragg replied that there was no more fight in the troops of Polk’s wing, that he could give Longstreet no reinforcements, and that his headquarters would be at Beed’s Bridge. Heseems not to have known that Cheatham’s division and part of Liddell’s had not been in action that day.
Some of the severest fighting had yet to be done
LEE AND GORDON’S MILLS
timates their loss at forty per cent. Certainly that flank march was a bloody one. I have never seen the Federal dead lie so thickly on the ground, save in front of the sunken wall at Fredericksburg.
But that indomitable Virginia soldier, George H. Thomas, was there, and was destined to save the Union army from total rout and ruin, by confronting with invincible pluck the forces of his friend and captain in the Mexican war. Thomas had ridden to his right to hurry up reinforcements, when he discovered a line advancing, which he thought at first was the expected succor from Sheridan, but he soon heard that it was a rebel column marching upon him. He chose a strong position on a spur of Missionary Bidge, running east and west, placed upon it Brannan’s division with portions of two brigades of Negley’s; Wood’s division (Crittenden’s) was placed on Brannan’s left. These troops, with such as could be rallied from the two broken corps, were all he had to confront the forces of Longstreet, until Steedman’s division of Granger corps came to his relief about 3 p. m. Well and nobly did Thomas and his gallant troops hold their own against foes flushed with past victory and confident of future success. His new line was nearly at right angles with the line of log-works on the west side of the Bossville road, his right being an almost impregnable wall-like hill, his left nearly an inclosed fortification. Our only hope of success was to get in his rear by moving far to our right, which overlapped the Federal left.
Bushrod Johnson’s three brigades in Longstreet’s center were the first to fill the gap left by Wood's withdrawal from the Federal right; but the other five brigades under Hindman and Kershaw moved promptly into line as soon as space could be found for them, wheeled to the right, and engaged in the murderous flank attack. On they rushed, shouting, yelling, running over batteries, capturing trains,
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