This text is part of:
[95]
to begin at 6 o'clock on the following morning, by the extreme right, at Reed's bridge.
The resistance offered by the enemy's cavalry, and the narrow country roads, delayed the advance until late in the afternoon.
The movement forward was resumed at daylight on the 19th, and Buckner's corps and Cheatham's division crossed and formed.
The division of Gen. W. H. T Walker had crossed at Byram's ford after night on the 18th.
A sharp engagement was opened on the 19th with Forrest's cavalry on the extreme right.
Wilson's brigade of Walker's division reinforced Forrest, and soon thereafter Walker's entire division, with Liddell's, was ordered to attack the enemy.
Forrest, judging the enemy too strong for Pegram's small division and Wilson's brigade, was reinforced by Ector's brigade, when the enemy was driven back and a second battery captured; but a largely superior force compelled Forrest to retire.
Dibrell's brigade participated in the second advance, dismounted, and moved up in line with the veterans of Ector and Wilson.
Rosecrans concluded that his left, held by Thomas' corps, was the chief point of attack, and that Bragg was seeking to turn it and gain possession of the Lafayette road between him and Chattanooga.
Johnson's division of McCook's corps was sent to the assistance of Thomas, whom Crittenden in the meantime had reinforced with Palmer's division.
Walker attacked this force with his own division and Liddell's, with extraordinary vigor, but was forced back for reformation.
Cheatham with five brigades was ordered to support Walker, but on coming up in supporting distance, found that he had nothing in his front to support.
Communicating the condition of the field to the commanding general, he was ordered to advance and attack the enemy.
In his report it appears that his brigade commanders were notified that he had no support on his right or left.
Moving forward he met the enemy advancing
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.