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

[421] of another command being mistaken for mine, beyond the right of my line, and was put in position at a point where the infantry supporting it was forced to fall back before a superior force of the enemy, after a short engagement. All the horses of one piece were killed, and all but one of the other either killed or wounded. One piece was lost, but afterwards recaptured; the other was brought off. The loss in killed and wounded in this section was heavy, and the pieces used with great effect.

In the engagement on Saturday afternoon Major Pegram, commanding the Thirty-fourth Mississippi regiment, and Major Staples, commanding the Twenty-fourth Mississippi regiment, were severely wounded, and Captain Smith, the senior Captain of the latter, having been slightly wounded, the command of that regiment devolved on Captain Toomer till the next morning, when Captain Smith reported for duty and assumed command. The command of the Thirty-fourth regiment devolved on Captain Bowen after Major Pegram was wounded. When Captain Fowler reported that one of the pieces under Lieutenant Phelan had been lost on my right, the line in the meantime having fallen back, and the firing having ceased, the Twenty-fourth Mississippi regiment, under command of Captain Toomer, was sent to the right, under the supervision of Lieutenant-Colonel Reynolds, field officer of the day, to a point opposite where the gun was said by Lieutenant Phelan to have been taken by the enemy, and moved forward, driving back the enemy's skirmishers, till it was ascertained that the enemy, who had retired from the position he occupied when the gun was taken, had removed the gun before falling back. The regiment was then ordered back to its proper position in line.

At an early hour on Sunday morning my command was moved by the left flank, by order of the Brigadier-General commanding, to the rear of Major-General Cheatham's line and then back, past the position where it had spent the night, to the right, a distance of about a mile and a-half in rear of where Major-General Breckinridge's forces were engaged, and halted about three-quarters of a mile from the Chattanooga road. About twelve o'clock, and after one or two unimportant changes of position, Lieutenant-General Polk directed me to move to the left, to a point to be indicated by Major Ratchford, of Lieutenant-General Hill's staff, to the support of Brigadier-General Polk. I moved by the left flank to the point indicated by Major Ratchford, who accompanied me, and advanced my line under a heavy fire from the enemy, which commenced before I got into position. I pressed forward two or three hundred yards under this fire through dense under-growth, until the enemy opened fire on my left flank from the angle of his fortifications just opposite. About the same time an impression — afterwards shown to be unfounded — was produced by stragglers, and among them one officer, falling back from some line to the right of my immediate front, that the right of my line had fired into our own friends; so dense was the thicket that it was impossible to ascertain, at the moment, the exact position of any line, nor was I able to find Brigadier-General Polk's command. My left having been driven back, I ordered the right to cease firing and retired it, and re-formed my line under cover of the hill, and reported the fact to Lieutenant-General Hill, who directed me to hold the position which I occupied, guarding well my left; my right and centre being then covered by another command, which had fallen back, and was re-forming very near me. Lieutenant-Colonel Reynolds, of the Thirtieth Mississippi regiment, whom but a short time before I had assigned to the command of the Thirty-fourth Mississippi regiment, fell, mortally wounded, at his post of duty, just before the left of my line gave way under a flank fire, as above stated, and died soon afterwards. No braver man or better soldier fell upon the field of Chickamauga than this faithful and accomplished officer, whose loss is deeply deplored throughout this command. In his death the service sustains a heavy loss. Major Johnson, of the Thirtieth Mississippi regiment, was wounded about the same time, but, his wound being slight, he did not quit the field.

In a short time after my line was re-formed, I was ordered by the Brigadier-General commanding to move my command by the right flank some four hundred yards, and forward about half that distance, and await orders. The right of my brigade rested in a field, near a fence, and the centre and left in the woods, just in rear of a little prairie. In this position, with my battery posted near the centre of my line, and Govan's brigade on my left, I remained until about five o'clock, when I received orders from the Brigadier-General commanding that the line would advance, and to move my command forward, guiding left. I put it in motion, my brigade being then on the extreme right of the line, and met no opposition even from the enemy's skirmishers until I was in sight of the Chattanooga road, near McDonald's house. Here the skirmishers, firing from behind the house and the out-houses of the settlement, resisted my advance for a moment, but soon most of them fled, a few surrendering. I moved across the road and into the open field beyond, and was ordered by the Brigadier-General commanding to halt about two hundred yards from the road, and let the men lie down till he could put the batteries of his division on my right; and to this he gave his personal attention. While my line was advancing unopposed, a continuous fire was heard to my left, and most of it seemed to be on the left of Govan's brigade, and as the division advanced this firing was continued to its left and rear. In the field in which my line was halted, Govan's brigade also halted, in extension of my line. Skirmishers were kept two or three hundred yards in front. The order to lie down had scarcely been given and executed, when the whole line was enfiladed from three batteries--one