MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS, U. S. A.
Commanding the Fourteenth Army Corps at Cliickamauga.
BRIG.-GENERAL W. H. LYTLE, U. S. Y.
Commanding the First Brigade, Sheridan’s division, killed September 20,1863.
the forest of the region, flows into the Tennessee eight miles above Chattanooga. Bragg’s aim was to turn our left and gain the road into Chattanooga, now indispensable to the existence of our army. Thomas commanded our left; and as Bragg sent division after division against that wing, Rose-crans sent successive divisions to Thomas. The fighting was close and stubborn; batteries were taken and retaken till the day closed, without material advantage to either side. It was clear, however, that we were outnumbered; ’ for, while we had put nearly every regiment into the action, the enemy, meeting us with equal numbers in line of battle, still had heavy reserves.
In the night both commanders prepared for the decisive conflict which all felt must come on the 2Cth. Still covering the Chattanooga road, Rose-crans placed his army in a somewhat better position, both flanks well refused. Prom left to right his divisions were:	Baird’s, R. W. Johnson’s,
Palmer’s, Reynolds’s, Brannan’s, Negley’s, Davis’s, Sheridan’s; Wood’s and Van Cleve’s were in reserve ; and three brigades of Granger’s corps were near Rossville, four miles away. Thomas commanded six divisions at the left, McCook two at the right, and Crittenden the two in reserve. Thomas covered his front with a slight barricade of rails and old logs found in the woods, and so greatly aided his men.
Early in the morning Thomas discovered, and reported to Rosecrans, that another division was needed to maintain our extreme left against the enemy’s longer line. Rosecrans, therefore, brought Wood from reserve to relieve Negley, and ordered Negley at once to report his division to Thomas; and Thomas was informed that Negley would immediately join him at the left. But Negley, disappearing from the line, drifted away from the field to Rossville. Two of his brigades reached the left, but so far apart, and so ill-timed, as to be of little value. It is important to remember Negley’s conduct, because from it came the misapprehensions that were soon to result in disaster to our right wing.
The Confederate plan was to turn and envelop our left, and then to advance upon our divisions in succession, and involve the whole in one common ruin. Their right wing was commanded by Polk, and their left by Longstreet.
Polk was ordered to begin the battle at day-
val to retreat to Rossville, but, stout soldier as he was, he resolved to hold his ground until nightfall. An hour more of daylight would have insured his capture. Thomas had under him all the Federal army, except the six brigades which had been driven off by the left wing.
Whatever blunders each of us in authority committed before the battles of the 19th and 20th, and during their progress, the great blunder of all was that of not pursuing the enemy on the 21st. The day was spent in burying the dead and gathering up captured stores. Forrest, with his usual promptness, was early in the saddle, .and saw that the retreat was a rout. Disorganized masses of men were hurrying to the rear; batteries of artillery were inextricably mixed with trains of wagons ; disorder and confusion pervaded the broken ranks struggling to get on. Forrest sent back word to Bragg that “every hour was worth a thousand men.” But the commander-in-chief did not know of the victory until the morning of the 21st, and then he did not order a pursuit. Rosecrans spent the day and the night of the 21st in hurrying his trains out of town. A breathing-space was allowed him; the panic among his troops subsided, and Chattanooga
—	the objective point of the campaign — was held. There was no more splendid fighting in ’61, when the flower of the Southern youth was in the field, than was displayed in those bloody days of September, ’63. But it seems to me that the elan of the Southern soldier was never seen after Chickamauga
—	that brilliant dash which had distinguished him was gone forever. He was too intelligent not to know that the cutting in two of Georgia meant death to all his hopes. He knew that Longstreet’s absence was imperiling Lee’s safety, and that what had to be done must be done quickly. The delay in striking was exasperating to him; the failure to strike after the success was crushing to all his longings for an independent South. He fought stoutly to the last, but, after Chickamauga, with the sullenness of despair and without the enthusiasm of hope. That “barren victory” sealed the fate of the Southern Confederacy.
THE UNION SIDE.
RECEIVING THE ATTACK.
BY EMERSON OPDYCKE, BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. V.
Colonel of tliel25tli Oliio at tliebattle of Chickamauga.
. . . Rosecrans slowly concentrated his corps on the north bank of the Chickamauga River, at Lee and Gordon’s Mills, twelve miles south of Chattanooga. Bragg decided to move down the valley up which he had retired because, first, of all the routes open to him that one was least obstructed; and, secondly, because it would continue his army near the railway of his supplies, which was also bringing him Longstreet.
Rosecrans did not get his corps united and well in position, before the enemy, on the 19th, began the battle of Chickamauga.
The country in which the next two days’ operations took place lies between the river and Missionary Ridge, and was covered by woods of varying density, broken here and there by cleared fields. The Chickamauga River, winding slowly through 222 __________________________________________
ascertain whether they were foes or friends, and soon recognized General Buckner. The cheers that went up when the two wings met were such as I had never heard before, and shall never hear again.
Preston gained the heights a half hour later, capturing 1000 prisoners and 4500 stand of arms. But neither right nor left is entitled to the laurels of a complete triumph. It was the combined attack which, by weakening the enthusiasm of the brave warriors who had stood on the defense so long and so obstinately, won the day.
Thomas had received orders after Granger’s arri-
to within three hundred yards of the enemy’s breastworks, pushed forward his infantry, and carried them. General J. K. Jackson, of Cheatham’s division, had a bloody struggle with the fortifications in his front, but had entered them when Cheatham with two more of his brigades, Maney’s and Wright’s, came up. Breckinridge and Walker met with but little opposition until the Chattanooga road was passed, when their right was unable to overcome the forces covering the enemy’s retreat. As we passed into the woods west of the road, it was reported to me that a line was advancing at right angles to ours. I rode to the left to