Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 10.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[388] charge on Sunday evening, which drove the enemy from his breastworks and gave us the battle. Colonel Mills, also, is entitled to be remembered. Leading his regiment through the battle until the fall of his Brigadier (the lamented Deshler), he was then called by seniority to command the brigade, which he did with gallantry and intelligence.

To my staff--Major Calhoun Benham, Assistant Adjutant-General (who received a contusion in the right shoulder from a grapeshot or fragment of shell); Captain Irving A. Buck, Assistant Adjutant-General (whose horse was shot under him); Major Joseph K. Dixon, Assistant Inspector-General; Captain B. F. Phillips, Assistant Inspector-General; Lieutenant J. W. Jetton, Aid-de-Camp and Acting Assistant Inspector-General; Major T. R. Hotchkiss, Chief of Artillery (who received a wound from a Minie ball in the foot on Saturday, which deprived me of his valuable services afterwards); Captain Henry C. Semple (who replaced Major Hotchkiss as Chief of Artillery, when disabled); Captain C. F. Vandeford, Chief of Ordnance; Lieutenant L. H. Mangum, Aid-de-Camp, and Lieutenant S. P. Hanly, Aid-de-Camp (who received a contusion from a grapeshot)--I am indebted for the faithful and indefatigable manner in which they performed their vital (though, perhaps, not showy) duties throughout these operations. Major T. R. Hotchkiss, Chief of Artillery; Captain Semple, with his battery, and Lieutenant Thomas J. Key, commanding Calvert's battery, rendered invaluable service, and exhibited the highest gallantry on Saturday night in running their pieces up, as they did, within sixty yards of the enemy. In this they were ably sustained by Lieutenant Richard Goldthwaite, of Semple's battery. Here Major Hotchkiss received his wound. Captain Semple also displayed skill and judgment as Acting Chief of Artillery, particularly in the selection of a position for his own and Douglass's batteries on Sunday evening, which gave an oblique fire upon the enemy in his works, contributing to the success of the final charge by Polk's brigade. Captain O. S. Palmer, Assistant Adjutant-General of Wood's brigade, was conspicuous for his coolness and attention to duty on the field, and has my thanks. I am much indebted also to Dr. A. Linthicum, Chief Surgeon of my division. The completeness of his arrangements, his careful supervision of subordinates, both on the field, under fire, and elsewhere, and in the hospital, secured our gallant wounded prompt attention, and all the alleviation of pain attainable in the exigencies of battle. Surgeon A. R. Erskine (then acting, now actual Medical Inspector of my division) rendered most efficient service. Assistant-Surgeon Alfred B. DeLoach particularly distinguished himself by his unselfish devotion going repeatedly far forward under fire, and among the skirmishers, to attend the wounded. James P. Brady and Melvin Overstreet, privates in the Buckner Guards (my escort), specially detailed to attend me through the battle, went with me wherever my duty called me. Brady was wounded in the hand. Overstreet had his horse shot. To Captain C. F. Vandeford, my Chief of Ordnance, my thanks are especially due. His trains were always in the best order, and in the most accessible position, and to his care in this respect I am indebted for a prompt supply of ammunition in every critical emergency which arose. I carried into action on Saturday, the nineteenth, five thousand one hundred and fifteen officers and men, four thousand eight hundred and seventy-five bayonets. On Sunday, the twentieth, I carried in four thousand six hundred and seventy-one officers and men, four thousand four hundred and thirty-seven bayonets. In the two days my casualties were two hundred and four killed, fifteen hundred and thirty-nine wounded, six missing--making in all one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine.

Respectfully,

Colonel: Sickness prevented me from exercising command on Saturday, September nineteenth, until about three P. M. My division had then crossed the Chickamauga at Hunt's Ford, and was soon after ordered to the support of Major-General Hood. The order was executed under a heavy artillery fire from the enemy, causing some loss. My position was on Hood's left and Buckner's right, near the centre of the left wing of the army, facing west, parallel with the Lafayette and Chattanooga road, six or eight hundred yards distant. The brigades of Deas and Manigault constituted my first line, and Anderson's my reserve. Nothing important happened during the remainder of the day. After dark, in the readjustment of my line, a sharp skirmish occurred on Manigault's left, the enemy retiring.

About eleven A. M., on Sunday, September twentieth, under orders from Lieutenant-General Longstreet, commanding the left wing, my command moved forward simultaneously with the troops on my right. At the distance of three hundred yards, skirmishing commenced and immediately my whole line was engaged. Rushing on at a double-quick, through a storm of bullets, shot and shell, Deas' brave Alabamians and Manigault's Alabamians and South Carolinians, equally brave, drove the enemy from his breastworks, then pushed his beyond the Lafayette road, and charged his second line of breastworks three hundred yards further on. The troops on Manigault's left not advancing with him, he was enfiladed on that flank by infantry and artillery, checked, and at length forced to retire. One gun of his battery, temporarily disabled, was left exposed to capture, when Colonel J. C. Reid's Twenty-eighth Alabama gallantly faced about and brought it off in safety.