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

[236] Lyne Starling, of General Crittenden's staff, rode up and reported to me that his chief had gone to Chattanooga to report to General Rosecrans. I then decided to report to General Rosecrans at once for instructions, as my last orders from his headquarters required.

Finding the General Commanding at Chattanooga, he directed me to go out on the road to Rossville, collecting all the troops possible, and report to General Thomas. Leaving Chattanooga at midnight, I arrived at Rossville at about four A. M., on the morning of the twenty-first, when the line of battle above referred to was formed and strong barricades erected.

The conduct of the troops of the Twentieth corps was every thing that could be expected of men.

During the second day's battle, Johnson's division fought on the left, separated from the corps. All acknowledged the gallantry of this division. It never attacked that it was not successful, and the enemy never attacked it without being handsomely repulsed. I depend upon General Thomas and the official reports to do this gallant division justice.

The troops of Sheridan's and Davis's divisions behaved with great courage, never yielding, except to overwhelming numbers, when it would have been suicidal to have contested the ground longer.

To the families of the heroic dead the sympathies of the nation are due. Such names as Heg, Lytle, and Baldwin, Brigade Commanders, and Colonels Alexander, Gilmer, and McCreary, and many other distinguished field and line officers who fell upon this memorable battle-field, will make a radiant space in our history as a nation. These expressions should also extend to the many non-commissioned officers and privates who gave their lives in defence of their country and flag.

To Major-General Sheridan, commanding Third division; Brigadier-General Johnson, commanding Second division, and Brigadier-General Davis, commanding First division, of my corps, my thanks are due for their earnest cooperation and devotion to duty.

Major-General Sheridan is commended to his country, and Brigadier-Generals Johnson and Davis are commended to their country and recommended to my superiors for promotion.

Brigadier-General Aug. Willich, commanding First brigade. Second division, and Colonel W. W. Berry, Fifth Kentucky volunteers, commanding Third brigade, are strongly recommended by General Johnson for promotion.

Lieutenant-Colonel Bradley, Fifty-first Illinois volunteers, commanding Third brigade, Third division, and Colonel Laibold, Second Missouri volunteers, commanding Second brigade, Third division, are strongly recommended for promotion by General Sheridan.

It affords me great pleasure to add my testimony as to the gallantry of these distinguished soldiers, and commend them to my superiors for promotion.

The Twentieth corps, during the two days battle, lost five pieces of artillery, and captured seven from the enemy; also, retaking the Eighth Indiana battery, lost on Saturday. Two guns lost by Johnson's division were so disabled by shot, and the killing of the horses, that it was impossible to move them. Davis's division did not lose a gun or wagon during the conflict.

To my staff--Lieutenant-Colonel G. P. Thurston, A. A. G. and Chief of Staff; Major Caleb Bates, A. D. C.; Captain B. D. Williams, A. D. C.; Captain F. J. Jones, A. D. C.; Captain J. M. Fisher, volunteer A. D. C.; Lieutenant-Colonel H. A. Fisher, Assistant Inspector-General; Lieutenant-Colonel J. F. Boyd, Quartermaster; Lieutenant-Colonel G. W. Burton, Commissary of Subsistence; Major G. A. Hensel, Chief of Artillery; Captain A. C. McClurg, A. A. A. G. and Ordnance Officer; Surgeon J. Perkins, Medical Director; Captain A. T. Snodgrass, Provost-Marshal; Captain J. C. McElpatrick, Topographical Engineer; Lieutenant B. R. Wood, Signal Officer--my thanks are due for their devotion to duty, gallantry in action, and intelligence on the field.

For particular instances of individual bravery, I refer you to the inclosed reports of division and brigade commanders.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

In obedience to instructions I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the troops under my command, in the battles of the nineteenth and twentieth instant. The narrative commences with the crossing of the Tennessee River, September tenth, when the brigade consisted of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Ohio volunteers, Colonel O. H. Payne; Forty-first Ohio volunteers, Colonel Aquila Wiley; the Ninth Indiana volunteers, Colonel J. C. B. Suman; the Sixth Kentucky volunteers, Colonel George F. Shackelford; and battery F, First Ohio volunteer artillery, Lieutenant G. J. Cockerill; in all, an effective aggregate of one thousand five hundred and thirty-one officers and men.

My brigade moved to Graysville, and there joined its proper division on the eleventh. We reached Ringgold the same day, and the next day moved over to Gordon's Mills, skirmishing a portion of the way, losing two men and wounding and capturing three from the enemy. In the evening of this day the brigade made a reconnoissance about three miles in the direction of La Fayette, meeting the enemy and skirmishing briskly with him, when we returned to the Mills. The next day the division marched to Chattanooga Creek, and the day after, to Gowen's Ford on the West-Chickamauga, where we remained quietly until the morning of the seventeenth, when my pickets on the La Fayette road were vigorously attacked. They, however, repulsed the