Transferred to Georgia--Scenes Along the Route.
While in camp great stress was laid on drills. The brigade drill
was the most important. Every day at 3 o'clock the whole brigade was
marched to a large old field, and all the evolutions of the brigade
drill were gone through with. Crowds of citizens from the surrounding
country came to witness our maneuvers, especially did the ladies grace
the occasions with their presence. The troops were in the very best of
spirits--no murmurs nor complaints. Clothing and provision boxes began
coming in from home. A grand corps review took place soon after our
encampment was established, in which Generals Lee and Longstreet
reviewed the troops.
All expected a good, long rest after their many marches and bloody
battles in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but we were soon to be called
upon for work in other fields. General Bragg had been driven out of
Tennessee to the confines of Georgia, and it seemed that, without
succor from the Army of the East to aid in fighting their battles, and
to add to the morale of the Western Army, Bragg would soon be forced
through Georgia. It had long been the prevailing opinion of General
Longstreet that the most strategic movement for the South was to
reinforce General Bragg with all the available troops of the East (Lee
standing on the defensive), crush Rosecrans, and, if possible,
drive him back and across the Ohio. With this end in view, General
Longstreet wrote, in August, to General Lee, as well as to the
Secretary of War, giving these opinions as being the only solution to
the question of checking the continual advance of Rosecrans--renewing
the morale of the Western Army and reviving the waning spirits of the
Confederacy, thus putting the enemy on the defensive and regaining
lost territory.
It should be remembered that our last stronghold on the Mississippi,
Vicksburg, had capitulated about the time of the disastrous battle of
Gettysburg, with thirty thousand prisoners. That great waterway was
opened to the enemy's gun boats and transports, thus cutting the
South, with a part of her army, in twain.
This suggestion of General Longstreet was accepted, so far as sending
him, with a part of his corps, to Georgia, by his receiving orders
early in September to prepare his troops for transportation.
The most direct route by railroad to Chattanooga, through Southwest
Virginia and East Tennessee, had for some time been in the hands
of the enemy at Knoxville. We were, therefore, forced to take the
circuitous route by way of the two Carolinas and Georgia. There
were two roads open to transportation, one by Wilmington and one by
Charlotte, N.C., as far as Augusta, Ga., but from thence on there was
but a single line, and as such our transit was greatly impeded.
On the morning of the 15th or 16th of September Kershaw's Brigade was
put aboard the trains at White Oak Station, and commenced the long
ride to North Georgia. Hood's Division was already on the way.
Jenkins' (S.C.) Brigade had been assigned to that division, but it and
one of the other of Hood's brigades failed to reach the battleground
in time to participate in the glories of that event. General McLaws,
also, with two of his brigades, Bryan's and Wofford' (Georgians),
missed the fight, the former awaiting the movements of his last
troops, as well as that of the artillery.
Long trains of box cars had been ordered up from Richmond and the
troops were loaded by one company being put inside and the next on
top, so one-half of the corps made the long four days' journey on
the top of box cars. The cars on all railroads in which troops were
transported were little more than skeleton cars; the weather being
warm, the troops cut all but the frame work loose with knives and
axes. They furthermore wished to see outside and witness the fine
country and delightful scenery that lay along the route; nor could
those Inside bear the idea of being shut up in a box car while their
comrades on top were cheering and yelling themselves hoarse at the
waving of handkerchiefs and flags in the hands of the pretty women and
the hats thrown in the air by the old men and boys along the roadside
as the trains sped through the towns, villages, and hamlets of the
Carolinas and Georgia, No, no; the exuberant spirits of the Southern
soldier were too great to allow him to hear yelling going on and not
yell himself. He yelled at everything he saw, from an ox-cart to
a pretty woman, a downfall of a luckless cavalryman to a charge in
battle.
The news of our coming had preceded us, and at every station and
road-crossing the people of the surrounding country, without regard
to sex or age, crowded to see us pass, and gave us their blessings and
God speed as we swept by with lightning speed. Our whole trip was one
grand ovation. Old men slapped their hands in praise, boys threw up
their hats in joy, while the ladies fanned the breeze with their flags
and handkerchiefs; yet many a mother dropped a silent tear or felt a
heart-ache as she saw her long absent soldier boy flying pass without
a word or a kiss.
At the towns which we were forced to stop for a short time great
tables were stretched, filled with the bounties of the land, while the
fairest and the best women on earth stood by and ministered to every
wish or want. Was there ever a purer devotion, a more passionate
patriotism, a more sincere loyalty, than that displayed by the women
of the South towards the soldier boys and the cause for which they
fought? Was there ever elsewhere on earth such women? Will there
ever again exist circumstances and conditions that will require such
heroism, fortitude, and suffering? Perhaps so, perhaps not.
In passing through Richmond we left behind us two very efficient
officers on a very pleasant mission, Dr. James Evans, Surgeon of the
Third, who was to be married to one of Virginia's fair daughters, and
Captain T.W. Gary, of same regiment, who was to act as best man. Dr.
Evans was a native South Carolinian and a brother of Brigadier
General N.G. Evans, of Manassas fame. While still a young man, he was
considered one of the finest surgeons and practitioners in the army.
He was kind and considerate to his patients, punctual and faithful in
his duties, and withal a dignified, refined gentleman. Such confidence
had the soldiers in his skill and competency, that none felt uneasy
when their lives or limbs, were left to his careful handling. Both
officers rejoined us in a few days.
We reached Ringold on the evening of the 19th of September, and
marched during the night in the direction of the day's battlefield.
About midnight we crossed over the sluggish stream of Chickamauga,
at Alexander's Bridge, and bivouaced near Hood's Division, already
encamped. Chickamauga! how little known of before, but what memories
its name is to awaken for centuries afterwards! What a death struggle
was to take place along its borders between the blue and the gray,
where brother was to meet brother--where the soldiers of the South
were to meet their kinsmen of the Northwest! In the long, long ago,
before the days of fiction and romance of the white man in the New
World, in the golden days of legend of the forest dwellers, when the
red man chanted the glorious deeds of his ancestors during his death
song to the ears of his children, this touching story has come down
from generation to generation, until it reached the ears of their
destroyers, the pale faces of to-day:
Away in the dim distant past a tribe of Indians, driven from their
ancestral hunting grounds in the far North, came South and pitched
their wigwams along the banks of the "river of the great bend," the
Tennessee. They prospered, multiplied, and expanded, until their tents
covered the mountain sides and plains below. The braves of the hill
men hunted and sported with their brethren of the valley. Their
children fished, hunted, played, fought, and gamboled in mimic warfare
as brothers along the sparkling streamlets that rise in the mountain
ridges, their sparkling waters leaping and jumping through the gorges
and glens and flowing away to the "great river." All was peace and
happiness; the tomahawk of war had long since been buried, and the
pipe of peace smoked around their camp fires after every successful
hunting expedition. But dissentions arose--distrust and embittered
feelings took the place of brotherly love. The men of the mountains
became arrayed against their brethren of the plains, and they in
turn became the sworn enemies of the dwellers of the cliffs. The war
hatchet was dug up and the pipe of peace no longer passed in brotherly
love at the council meeting. Their bodies were decked in the paint
of war, and the once peaceful and happy people forsook their hunting
grounds and entered upon, the war path.
Early on an autumn day, when the mountains and valleys were clothed in
golden yellow, the warriors of the dissenting factions met along
the banks of the little stream, and across its turbid waters waged a
bitter battle from early morn until the "sun was dipping behind the
palisades of Look-Out Mountain"--no quarters given and none asked. It
was a war of extermination. The blood of friend and foe mingled in the
stream until its waters were said to be red with the life-blood of the
struggling combatants. At the close of the fierce combat the few that
survived made a peace and covenant, and then and there declared that
for all time the sluggish stream should be called Chickamauga, the
"river of blood." Such is the legend of the great battleground and the
river from whence it takes its name.
General Buckner had come down from East Tennessee with his three
divisions, Stewart's, Hindman's, and Preston's, and had joined General
Bragg some time before our arrival, making General Bragg's organized
army forty-three thousand eight hundred and sixty-six strong. He was
further reinforced by eleven thousand five hundred from General Joseph
E. Johnston's army in Mississippi and five thousand under General
Longstreet, making a total of sixty thousand three hundred and
thirty-six, less casualties of the 18th and 19th of one thousand one
hundred and twenty-four; so as to numbers on the morning of the 20th,
Bragg had of all arms fifty-nine thousand two hundred and forty-two;
while the Federal commander claimed only sixty thousand three hundred
and sixty six, but at least five thousand more on detached duty
and non-combatants, such as surgeons, commissaries, quartermasters,
teamsters, guards, etc. Bragg's rolls covered all men in his army.
Rosecrans was far superior in artillery and cavalry, as all of the
batteries belonging to Longstreet's corps, or that were to attend him
in the campaign of the West, were far back in South Carolina, making
what speed possible on the clumsy and cumbersome railroads of that
day. So it was with Wofford's and Bryan's Brigades, of McLaw's
Division, Jenkins' and one of Hood's, as well as all of the
subsistence and ordnance trains. The artillery assigned to General
Longstreet by General Lee consisted of Ashland's and Bedford's
(Virginia), Brooks' (South Carolina), and Madison's (Louisiana)
batteries of light artillery, and two Virginia batteries of position,
all under the command of Colonel Alexander.
As for transportation, the soldiers carried all they possessed on
their backs, with four days of cooked rations all the time. Generally
one or two pieces of light utensils were carried by each company, in
which all the bread and meat were cooked during the night.
Our quartermasters gathered up what they could of teams and wagons
from the refuse of Bragg's trains to make a semblance of subsistence
transportation barely sufficient to gather in the supplies. It was
here that the abilities of our chiefs of quartermaster and commissary
departments were tested to the utmost. Captains Peck and Shell, of
our brigade, showed themselves equal to the occasion, and Captain
Lowrance, of the Subsistence Department, could always be able to
furnish us with plenty of corn meal from the surrounding country.
The sun, on the morning of the 20th, rose in unusual splendor, and
cast its rays and shadows in sparkling brilliancy over the mountains
and plains of North Georgia. The leaves of the trees and shrubbery, in
their golden garb of yellow, shown out bright and beautiful in their
early autumnal dress--quite in contrast with the bloody scenes to be
enacted before the close of day. My older brother, a private in my
company, spoke warmly of the beautiful Indian summer morning and the
sublime scenery round about, and wondered if all of us would ever see
the golden orb of day rise again in its magnificence. Little did he
think that even then the hour hand on the dial plate of destiny was
pointing to the minute of "high noon," when fate was to take him by
the hand and lead him away. It was his turn in the detail to go to the
rear during the night to cook rations for the company, and had he done
so, he would have missed the battle, as the details did not return in
time to become participants in the engagement that commenced early
in the morning. He had asked permission to exchange duties with a
comrade, as he wished to be near me should a battle ensue during the
time. Contrary to regulations, I granted the request. Now the
question naturally arises, had he gone on his regular duties would the
circumstances have been different? The soldier is generally a believer
in the doctrine of predestination in the abstract, and it is well he
is so, for otherwise many soldiers would run away from battle. But
as it is, he consoles himself with the theories of the old doggerel
quartet, which reads something like this:--
"He who fights and runs away,
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain,
Will ne'er live to fight again."
Longstreet's troops had recently been newly uniformed, consisting of
a dark-blue round jacket, closely fitting, with light-blue trousers,
which made a line of Confederates resemble that of the enemy, the only
difference being the "cut" of the garments--the Federals wearing a
loose blouse instead of a tight-fitting jacket. The uniforms of
the Eastern troops made quite a contrast with the tattered and torn
homemade jeans of their Western brethren.
General Bragg had divided his army into two wings--the right commanded
by Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk (a Bishop of the M.E. Church,
and afterwards killed in the battles around Atlanta.) and the left
commanded by that grand chieftain (Lee's "Old War Horse" and commander
of his right), Lieutenant General James Longstreet. Under his
guidance were Preston's Division on extreme left, Hindman's next,
with Stewart's on extreme right of left wing, all of Major General
Buckner's corps. Between Hindman and Stewart was Bushrod Johnson's new
formed division. In reserve were Hood's three brigades, with Kershaw's
and Humphries', all under Major General Hood, standing near the center
and in rear of the wing.
The right wing stood as follows: General Pat Cleburn's Division on
right of Stewart, with Breckenridge's on the extreme right of the
infantry, under the command of Lieutenant General D.H. Hill, with
Cheatham's Division of Folk's Corps to the left and rear of Cleburn as
support, with General Walker's Corps acting as reserve. Two
divisions of Forrest's Cavalry, one dismounted, were on the right
of Breckenridge, to guard that flank, while far out to the left of
Longstreet were two brigades of Wheeler's Cavalry. The extreme left of
the army, Preston's Division, rested on Chickamauga Creek, the right
thrown well forward towards the foot hills of Mission Ridge.
In the alignment of the two wings it was found that Longstreet's right
overlapped Folk's left, and fully one-half mile in front, so it became
necessary to bend Stewart's Division back to join to Cleburn's left,
thereby leaving space between Bushrod Johnson and Stewart for Hood to
place his three brigades on the firing line.
Longstreet having no artillery, he was forced to engage all of the
thirty pieces of Buckner's. In front of Longstreet lay a part of the
Twentieth Corps, Davis' and Sheridan's Divisions, under Major General
McCook, and part of the Twenty-first Corps, under the command of
General Walker. On our right, facing Polk, was the distinguished Union
General, George H. Thomas, with four divisions of his own corps, the
Fourteenth, Johnson's Division of the Twentieth, and Van Cleve's of
the Twenty-first Corps.
General Thomas was a native Virginian, but being an officer in the
United States Army at the time of the secession of his State, he
preferred to remain and follow the flag of subjugation, rather than,
like the most of his brother officers of Southern birth, enter into
the service of his native land and battle for justice, liberty, and
States Rights. He and General Hunt, of South Carolina, who so ably
commanded the artillery of General Meade at Gettysburg, were two of
the most illustrious of Southern renegades.
In the center of Rosecrans' Army were two divisions, Woods' and
Palmer's, under Major General Crittenden, posted along the eastern
slope of Mission Ridge, with orders to support either or both wings of
the army, as occasions demanded.
General Gordon Granger, with three brigades of infantry and one
division of cavalry, guarded the Union left and rear and the gaps
leading to Chattanooga, and was to act as general reserve for the
army and lay well back and to the left of Brannan's Division that was
supporting the front line of General Thomas.
The bulk of the Union cavalry, under General Mitchell, was two miles
distant on our left, guarding the ford over Chickamauga at Crawfish
Springs. The enemy's artillery, consisting of two hundred and
forty-six pieces, was posted along the ridges in our front, giving
exceptional positions to shell and grape an advancing column.
Bragg had only two hundred pieces, but as his battle line occupied
lower ground than that of the enemy, there was little opportunity to
do effective work with his cannon.
The ground was well adapted by nature for a battlefield, and as the
attacking party always has the advantage of maneuver and assault in
an open field, each commander was anxious to get his blow in first. So
had not Bragg commenced the battle as early as he did, we would most
assuredly have had the whole Federal Army upon our hands before the
day was much older. Kershaw's Brigade, commanded by General Kershaw,
stood from right to left in the following order: Fifteenth Regiment
on the right, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Gist; Second
Regiment, Colonel James D. Kennedy; Third, Colonel James D. Nance;
Third Battalion, by Captain Robert H. Jennings; Eighth, Colonel John
W. Henagan; Seventh, Colonel Elbert Bland.
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