previous next

[656] Pender's, which had entered the same wood to the right of my brigade, and had halted for the same purpose. During the movement through the wood, our brigades had crossed each other's directions, and I found myself on his right, instead of on his left, as at the beginning. From this point our brigades moved on together to the Lewis house, where, a little after dark, we encountered, in the field to the left of the house, a body of the enemy's infantry, whose numbers we could not ascertain for the darkness of the night, and with whom, after they had to our challenge answered, “For the Union,” we exchanged a single volley, and then drove them from the field. Here we found a large hospital filled with wounded, and during the night and next morning captured about----prisoners, and collected a large number of arms.

In this engagement my loss was seventeen killed and one hundred and ninety-six wounded. Amongst the former, Captain Bush, commanding the Fifth Alabama battalion, killed twenty-ninth August; and, among the latter, Colonel W. A. Forbes, Fourteenth Tennessee, mortally, on the thirtieth August, near the enemy's battery. Colonel Forbes died of his wounds a few days after.

The regiments of my brigade were commanded as follows, viz.: First Tennessee, Colonel Turney; Seventh Tennessee, Major Sheppard; Fourteenth Tennessee, Colonel Forbes, until wounded, and then by Major Lockhart; Nineteenth Georgia, Captain F. Johnson; and the Fifth Alabama battalion on the twenty-ninth August by Captain Bush, and on the thirtieth August by Lieutenant Hooper.

Among the officers whose gallantry I especially noticed in this action were Lieutenant-Colonel N. J. George, First Tennessee, and Lieutenant Charles Hooper, Fifth Alabama; and, among the privates, Dr. J. H. G. Quarkett, of Captain----'s company, Hampton legion, detailed as courier at my headquarters, who, after his horse was killed under him on Friday, fought with conspicuous valor, and private F. M. Barnes, of company A, Fourteenth Tennessee regiment, who seized the colors from the hands of the wounded color-bearer, and bore them bravely through the fight. My thanks are especially due to Aid-de-camp O. H. Thomas, the only officer of my staff present, my Assistant Adjutant-General being absent sick since a few days after the battle of Cedar Run, for most gallant, intelligent, and efficient service throughout the action.

Ox Hill, September 1ST.

At the battle of Ox Hill my brigade was held in reserve, within supporting distance of Gregg's and Thomas's brigades. Night came on, and the battle ceased before its support was needed.

Harper's Ferry, September 14TH and 15TH.

The evening of the fourteenth of September, my brigade, Field's, and Pender's moved from a point on the railroad by a by-road, toward the southern defences of Bolivar Heights. My skirmishers, on the right of the road, soon became engaged with those of the enemy. I immediately formed line of battle, my left resting on the road, and advanced steadily, driving the enemy's pickets before us, until I approached the crest of the hill, in full view and range of their batteries, when I filed out of the field into the woods on my right, in order to flank the enemy's guns, and continued to advance as rapidly as the rough ground and abatis would permit, until it became dark, and I had become entangled in the almost impenetrable abatis, when I halted, and we lay on our arms, within four hundred yards of the enemy's batteries, during the night.

The next morning, our artillery, which had been placed in position during the night, opened a destructive fire, and while I was struggling through the abatis, endeavoring to execute an order from General Hill to get in rear of the guns, the place surrendered. My loss in this action was one killed and twenty-two wounded.

The regiments of my brigade were commanded as follows, viz.: First Tennessee, Colonel Turney; Seventh Tennessee, Major Sheppard; Fourteenth Tennessee, Lieutenant-Colonel Lockhart; Nineteenth Georgia, Major Neal; and Fifth Alabama battalion, Captain Hooper.

Sharpsburg, 17TH September.

The next morning, after the capture of Harper's Ferry, being too unwell for duty, I turned over the command of the brigade to Colonel Turney, First Tennessee, under whom, with the exception of the Fifth Alabama, it marched to the battle-field of Sharpsburg, while I followed in an ambulance. This was a long and fatiguing march. Many of the men fell exhausted from the march by the way, so that when the four regiments of my brigade reached the battle-field, there were only three hundred and fifty men.

I resumed command just as the brigade was forming into line on the ground assigned to it by General Hill, on the extreme left of his division, but not in sight of any of its other brigades. Marching by flank, right in front, along the Sharpsburg road, the brigade was halted and faced to the right, forming line of battle faced by the rear rank. General Toombs was in line on the same road, about three hundred yards to my left, with open ground in front. In front of my position was a narrow cornfield, about one hundred yards wide, then a ploughed field about three hundred yards wide, on the opposite side of which was a stone fence. I moved forward, under a scattering musket fire, through the tall corn, to the edge of the ploughed field, when I found only the right regiment (the Fourteenth Tennessee) with me, the others having fallen back to the road. Some one had called out, “Fall back,” which was mistaken for an order from me. I reformed the line as rapidly as possible, and again moved forward against the enemy, posted in force behind the stone fence. In passing over the short distance of two hundred and fifty yards from the cornfield, I lost nearly one third of my


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)
hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Turney (3)
Charles Hooper (3)
W. A. Forbes (3)
O. H. Thomas (2)
Sheppard (2)
Lockhart (2)
A. P. Hill (2)
Bush (2)
R. Toombs (1)
J. H. G. Quarkett (1)
W. D. Pender (1)
Neal (1)
F. Johnson (1)
Wade Hampton (1)
Maxcy Gregg (1)
N. J. George (1)
J. G. Field (1)
F. M. Barnes (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
September 14th (2)
August 30th (2)
August 29th (2)
September 17th (1)
September 15th (1)
September 1st (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: