Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7.
Frank Moore, Ed.

The whole line was then revised and posted, and a forward movement in all its length ordered. The right swung round with an extended sweep, with its firm supports, and the left rallied once more to the charge of the works, before which it had suffered so severely in the morning. Never did troops move up to their work with more resolution; the daring Breckinridge with his Kentuckians and Louisianians, and Cleburn with his Arkansians and Alabamians, and Walker with his South-Carolinians, Mississippians, and Georgians, and Cheatham with his Tennesseeans, all moved forward in one mighty tide, amidst the thunders of some twenty batteries and the roar of thousands of muskets and rifles. The scene was one of surpassing sublimity and grandeur. Sweeping forward as the flood of a mighty river, it carried every thing before it, nothing being able to stand before it in the resistless line of its path. The enemy's works, which opposed such a stubborn resistance in the morning, succumbed before the onmoving torrent, and the brave men of Cleburn's division, which had been repulsed in the morning, had, by their extraordinary gallantry in the evening, the opportunity of avenging the experiences of the earlier part of the day. The whole field was carried triumphantly, and the enemy driven as chaff before the wind. He withstood as long as human powers of endurance could bear up against such a pressure, then yielded and fell back partly upon and into the hands of the right wing, where several hundred were captured, the residue crossing the Chattanooga road, and retreating in the direction of Mission Ridge. Night interposed, and though it brought with it a magnificent moon, no orders were received to pursue, and the troops were halted, giving expression to their sense of the glorious victory won, and unconquerable desire to pursue it to an absolute success in the enemy's utter annihilation, in such long, loud, and triumphant cheering, as would almost seem to rend the heavens. Such cheering has never been heard at the close of any battle, since the war began.

Such were the operations on the right wing. The battle beginning on the right, its tide ran from right to left, and reached Longstreet's extreme left about eleven o'clock, and was availed of and directed by that eminent chief — who very much resembles the Duke of Wellington in the aspects, moral and intellectual, of his character, as he has resembled him in the fortune of a uniform success — in a manner as prompt and energetic as it was wise and skilful. While Hood and others were ordered by him to make a vigorous assault in front, Buckner was made to execute a successful flank movement, the joint effect of which was to force the Federals to abandon that part of the field, and to seek a position on a high ridge. From this position they were driven, with heavy loss in killed, wounded, prisoners, artillery, small-arms, and colors, after a desperate struggle, by the brigades of Kershaw and Humphries, under the command of Brigadier-General Kershaw, in the absence of Major-General McLaws, reenforced by Gracise's, Kelley's, and Trigg's brigades, of Major-General Preston's division, Major-General Hindman completing the general work of the line on the left, by driving the enemy on his front before him, along with those driven from the ridge by Preston and Kershaw. Rosecrans, perceiving what was taking place on his right, ordered up reenforcements from his left, to support his retiring, or, rather, frightened battalions, which, finding a good position, waited for their arrival, turning upon their pursuers with the fierceness of a temporary and desperate energy. Brigadier-General Law, commanding Hood's division, perceiving this movement, ordered a battery of ten guns to a position from which he could enfilade the reenforcing column as it advanced. The battery opened just as it was about wheeling into position, and, at the same time, Stewart's division, posted on the extreme right, was thrown forward on its flank.

These movements, made contemporaneously with the movements of Polk's wing, as mentioned above, led to the almost simultaneous rout of the whole Federal army, and ensued in the glorious victory described, one of the most absolute and decisive of the war. From this moment, panic, confusion, disorder became the condition of an army which had never before acknowledged defeat, and which for two days had been contesting every inch of ground with valor the most obstinate. And what did the confederate commander do? Did he pursue an enemy thus demoralized, and furnished, by his not forming his line of battle at right angles with his actual line, with opportunity of retreat upon Chattanooga, whose possession was the object of the campaign — an enemy not only demoralized, but encumbered with heavy trains, and no mode of exit save through two gaps of Mission Ridge, a mountain? No. Night had set in, and he deemed it prudent to halt, notwithstanding his men were eager for pursuit, and a brilliant moon furnished almost the light of day. Three hours were lost in the morning by Polk's failure to attack at daylight; and, therefore, the condition of the troops was such as to forbid the possibility of pursuit. But granting that reasons, substantive reasons, existed for not pursuing on Sunday night, what hindered the Commander-in-Chief from pursuing on Monday morning at daylight? Chattanooga was only ten miles from the battle-field, and, unfortified, our pursuing cavalry could see the head of their column, and urged General Bragg by repeated messages to pursue, that every hour's delay would be equal to the loss of a thousand men. Citizens along the road reported that many of their commands passed their dwellings in the utmost disorder, without arms or accoutrements, and many without hats, as a confused and routed mob, not as troops in column, every thing in Chattanooga and on the