John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[263] staff-officers, including Horace Porter and J. P. Drouillard, were also borne irresistibly to the rear by the troops who had fled in what Dana designates as “wholesale panic.” ¹ These officers, with only one exception, were regulars, with two West-Pointers of approved experience and unimpeachable valor. Had they known or even supposed that the left and left centre would hold fast they would surely have stayed on the field till the battle was over. They did the very best they could with the light they had, and history must so record it, notwithstanding the criticism which was so freely visited upon their conduct at that time and afterwards.

The story of the battle, and the events of that afternoon and night, have been told many times and in many different ways from that day to this. Dana's despatches give the essential details as they came to his knowledge, but there is on the whole no better nor more comprehensive summary of what actually took place than is contained in a letter which he wrote to me just a fortnight after the battle. It is dated Chattanooga, October 3, 1863, and as it has not been previously printed I give it in full as a part of this narrative:

... I have been here now some four weeks, having witnessed the movements of the campaign for some ten days previous to the battle of Chickamauga, and seen the greatest but not the best part of that battle. I was standing with General Rosecrans just in the rear of the right of Jeff. C. Davis's division when it was broken by the rebel columns and fled in utter panic. Bull Run had nothing more terrible than the rout and flight of these veteran soldiers. The enemy came upon them in columns six lines deep, formed with brigade fronts, three brigades being massed behind each other, firing as they advanced. The fire was more violent