The late battle.
A correspondent of the Knoxville
Register furnishes the following particulars of the late battle near
Chattanooga:
‘
The morning of the 25th came thick and foggy.
During the night our forces had evacuated Look-out Mountain, and withdrawn to the right of
Chattanooga creek.
About 8 o'clock A. M. the fog cleared and revealed an immense force of Yankees along the base of
Missionary Ridge.
Gen. Bragg had vacated his quarters during the night, hence when the enemy opened their terrific cannonading on that point they found no game.
’
The fight continued furiously during several hours, when comparative quiet reigned.
We could not perceive the result, but from the fact that point is only four and half miles from
Chickamauga Station, and that the enemy had not made any demonstration on that place, they could not have gained much advantage over our left.
At 9 o'clock heavy cannonading was heard on our extreme right.
Soon the battle raged furiously.
General Cleburne had taken position during the night on the extreme right of
Missionary Ridge, and massed the greater portion of his forces near the Tunnel.
At this point
Swett's battery was posted, and during the entire day it kept up its continuous music.
The
Yankees marshalled their forces in long and broad columns from
Chattanooga and the various positions along the
Office Creek, advancing like the cloud on the unflinching heroes of
Cleburne's and
Cheatham's commands.
Sherman's corps, supposed to number 35,000 men, advanced to the assault, and made assault after assault against the impregnable position.
During the hours between 11 A. M. to 5 P. M. the firing of musketry and cannon was incessant.
We have never heard it equalled on any field on which it has been our lot to do battle.
But their charges were unavailing.
They were beaten back time and again.
At one time they came within fifteen feet of
Swett's battery, when the 5th Arkansas, with a yell and a volley that echoed high above the din of war, drove them back.
Numbers of the men finding their guns so fouled as to be us less, cast them away and threw rocks into the faces of the foe.
One Irishman, whose left hand was so shattered that he could not hold his gun, threw stones until he was exhausted, and came back swearing that while old
Pat was there the boys could whip all the damned
Yankees they could bring against them.
The Second Tennessee also was supporting this batters, and for infernal stubborn fighting it has never been surpassed.
One more assault at 4 P. M., and
Sherman's corps received a terrific punishment that made them turn and fly dow the hill, and soon they were lost to view in the stinking murky clouds of war. Our forces pursued them rapidly, and the last account we had from the foe was that they had crossed the
Tennessee, and we had destroyed their pontoons at the mouth of the Chickamauga.
At half-past 4 P. M. an attack was made some distance down the ridge towards our centre, and judging from the terrible and rapid firing of musketry our forces were slowly retiring over the crest of the ridge.
The continuous and heavy firing was heard at half-past 5 P. M. when the train left.
We can form no estimate of our loss, though we know a large number of wounded were received at the field and general hospitals.
But the
Yankees turned their pale and bloody faces to the setting sun on the western slops of the ridge by so many hundreds, that we are satisfied that hell had one of the grandest jubilees over its accessions from their ranks.
The slaughter in the path of our batteries was awful and immense, but not one assault thus proved successful.
