James D. Porter, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, Tennessee
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[137] Gen. Alexander W. Campbell, the first colonel of the regiment, made this tribute: ‘It may be truly said of them and of their regiment, as of all that immortal band which will be known in history as Cheatham's Tennessee division, none were braver, none more cheerful in the discharge of duty, nor more patriotic in their devotion to the cause they had espoused.’

Capt. Richard Beard, of the Fifth (Confederate) Tennessee regiment, published the following statement in relation to the death of Maj.-Gen. J. B. McPherson, the distinguished Federal soldier who fell in the battle of the 22d of July. Captain Beard was in the line ordered by General Cleburne to advance and never halt until the breastworks were captured. ‘We ran through a line of skirmishers and took them without firing a gun, and suddenly came to the edge of a narrow wagon road running parallel with our line of march, and down which General McPherson came thundering at the head of his staff. He came upon us suddenly. My own company had reached the verge of the road when he discovered us. I was so near him as to see every feature of his face. I threw up my sword as a signal for him to surrender. He checked his horse, raised his hat in salute, wheeled to the right and dashed off to the rear in a gallop. Corporal Coleman, standing near me, was ordered to fire, and it was his shot that brought General McPherson down. He was passing under the branches of a tree, bending forward, when the fatal bullet struck him. It ranged upward and passed near the heart. A volley was fired at his fleeing staff. I ran up to the general, who had fallen upon his knees and face, but no sign of life was perceptible. Right by his side lay a signal officer of his staff whose horse had been shot from under him, who if hurt at all, was slightly wounded. He informed me that the dead man was General McPherson. General Sherman, in his history of the campaign, alleged that McPherson's pocket-book and papers were found in the haversack of a prisoner; but ’