[132] by Cheatham's reserve, Vaughan's brigade. After maintaining the contest for three-quarters of an hour, until more of their best soldiers lay dead and wounded than the number of British veterans that fell in General Jackson's celebrated battle of New Orleans, the foremost dead lying against our breastworks, they retired unsuccessful, because they had encountered intrenched infantry unsurpassed by that of Napoleon's Old Guard, or that which followed Wellington into France, out of Spain.Cheatham lost 195 officers and men, Cleburne, 11. The attempt to turn Cheatham's left was defeated by the prompt action of Brig.-Gen. O. F. Strahl with his brigade. Brig.-Gen. C. G. Harker fell in the attempt to lead his command to a second assault. The ‘angle’ in Cheatham's line, known to the survivors of Harker's division as ‘dead angle,’ was held by parts of Maney's and Vaughan's brigades, Maney's brigade commanded by Col. F. M. Walker, Nineteenth Tennessee. It was the weak point in the line, and when the preparation for the assault was made, the division general instructed his command that the position must be held at any cost; that its loss meant more than the loss of a battle. The First and Twenty-seventh, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth and Thirteenth Tennessee held the post of danger and of honor, and to the order of their chief they responded with a ringing cheer that must have chilled the hearts of the advancing hosts. On the right and left of these two (consolidated) regiments stood their veteran comrades of the division, ready to support them or to take their places and join in the defense. The advancing column came like a great surge of the sea, and the resistance was like that of the rock upon which the billows break; 385 Federal dead were left lying in front of Maney's brigade, and 415 in front of Vaughan's. Gen. Geo. H. Thomas officially reported the loss of the army of the Cumberland during the month of June at 5,747, three-fourths of which must have occurred
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Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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