658
CHICKAMAUGA—THE GREAT BATTLE OF THE WEST.
driven off the field. He estimates their loss at forty per cent. Certainly thatflank march was a bloody one. I have never seen the Federal dead lie sothickly on the ground, save in front of the sunken wall at Fredericksburg .
But that indomitable Virginia soldier, George H. Thomas,☆ was there andwas destined to save the Union army from total rout and ruin, by confrontingwith invincible pluck the forces of his friend and captain in the Mexicanwar. Thomas had ridden to his right to hurry up reinforcements, when hediscovered a line advancing, which he thought at first was the expected succorfrom Sheridan, but he soon heard that it was a rebel column marching uponhim. He chose a strong position on a spur of Missionary Ridge, running east
and west, placed upon it Brannan’s division
ffi
with portions of
two brigades
of Negley’s;
Wood’s division (Crittenden’s) was placed onBrannan’s left. These troops, with such ascould be rallied from the two broken corps,were all he had to confront the forces ofLongstreet, until Steedman’s division ofGranger’s corps came to his relief about 3p. m. Well and nobly did Thomas and hisgallant troops hold their own against foesflushed with past victory and confident offuture success. His new line was nearly atright angles with the line of log-works on thewest side of the Rossville road, his right be-ing an almost impregnable wall-like hill, hisleft nearly an inclosed fortification. Our only hope of success was to get inhis rear by moving far to our right, which overlapped the Federal left.
Bushrod Johnson’s three brigades in Longstreet’s center were the first tofill the gap left by Wood’s withdrawal from the Federal right; but the otherfive brigades under Hindman and Kershaw moved promptly into line assoon as space could be found for them, wheeled to the right, and engaged inthe murderous flank attack. On they rushed, shouting, yelling, running overbatteries, capturing trains, taking prisoners, seizing the headquarters of theFederal commander, at the Widow Glenn’s, until they found themselves fac-ing the new Federal line on Snodgrass Hill. Hindman had advanced a littlelater than the center, and had met great and immediate success. The brigadesof Deas and Manigault charged the breastworks at double-quick, rushed overthem, drove Laiboldt’s Federal brigade of Sheridan’s division off the fielddown the Rossville road; then General Patton Anderson ’s brigade of Hind-man, having come into line, attacked and boat back the forces of Davis,Sheridan, and Wilder J in their front, killed the hero and poet General Lytle,
■jV Bragg had great respect and affection for thefirst lieutenant of his battery. The tones of ten-derness with which he spoke of “ Old Tom ” arestill remembered by me.— I). H. H.
j James Burns, 39th Indiana Mounted Infantry,writes to the editors from Harper, Kansas :
“ Wilder's brigade, witli Colonel T. .1. Harrison's 39thIndiana Mounted Infantry regiment, which was orderedto report to Colonel Wilder about 9 o'clock a. m. ofthe 20th of September, was stationed on a hill aboutone-tliird of a mile in the roar of the line of battle,—■the 39th on the left of the brigade. A few minutes after11 o’clock a. m. the brigade was ordered to advance