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

[439] combat seemed suspended upon a moment's work. The shouts of our gallant patriots presaged success, and every eye was lighted with victory. It came at that propitious moment. The enemy, already daunted by the fierce ordeal through which they had passed from the guns of Walker and Jackson, could no longer bear the trial when the cheers of our reinforcing battalions were wafted to them on the evening breeze. They broke in hopeless confusion and rout, precipitately fled before our pursuing columns, leaving their dead and wounded behind them and several pieces of their artillery. Although my brigade did not reach the position in time to fire but a very few guns from the Thirty-eighth Tennessee regiment, yet it is a source of heart-felt satisfaction that the cheers of the men and their impetuous charge assisted in striking terror into the heart of the foe and in hastening his inglorious flight.

In this engagement and that of Saturday, the brigade captured seventy-one prisoners, including a Captain and two Lieutenants. The loss in the brigade was forty-four killed on the field, forty-three missing (most of whom are known to be, and the others are supposed to be, in the hands of the enemy), and four hundred wounded.

Among the killed I regret to mention Captain Parks, Sixteenth Tennessee regiment; Lieutenant Hainey, Murray's battalion, attached to the Thirty-eighth Tennessee regiment; Lieutenant Wade and Color-bearer Bland, of the Fifty-first and Fifty-second Tennessee regiments; Captain Whaley and Lieutenant Craig, of the Twenty-eighth Tennessee regiment, and Lieutenant Van Vleck, Carnes' battery. Among the wounded were Colonels John H. Anderson and D. M. Donnell; Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. Hall, and Major T. G. Randle; Captains Puryear, Callum, and Bonds, and Lieutenants Cunningham, Leonard, Flynn, and Shaw, Eighth Tennessee regiment; Lieutenants Potter, Owen, and Worthington, Sixteenth Tennessee regiment; Captain McDonald, and Lieutenants Apple, Dauley, and Taylor, Twenty-eighth Tennessee regiment; Adjutant Caruthers, Lieutenants Banks and Ridout, Thirty-eighth Tennessee regiment, and Captain Burton, Lieutenants Billings, Chester, White, Hainey, Tillman, and Wade, Fifty-first and Fifty-second Tennessee regiments. All the field officers of the brigade, and the officers of the battery, acted with such distinguished gallantry that I feel it would be invidious to make a distinction. Company officers and men, with very inconsiderable exceptions that have come to my knowledge, bore themselves with a gallantry and steadiness becoming patriots contending for freedom and all that honorable men hold dear.

I am indebted for valuable assistance during the engagement to my staff officers, Captain Leon Trousdale, Assistant Adjutant-General; Captain E. F. Lee, Assistant Inspector-General; my Aids-de-Camp, Lieutenant E. T. Harris, and Lieutenant Sidney Womack, and Mr. Charles T. Smith. They each discharged their duties with fidelity and zeal. One of my couriers, Mr. William S. Hill, won the commendation of all and my warm thanks, for his gallantry and alacrity in the discharge of his perilous duties. Brigadier-General W. C. Whitthorne, Adjutant-General of Tennessee, volunteered to act as Aid-de-Camp on the first day's march from Chattanooga, and discharged the various duties that I assigned to him with a promptness, courage, and ability which merit and receive my warmest thanks. On the field General Whitthorne conducted himself with conspicuous gallantry. The infirmary corps discharged their duties with such fearlessness and fidelity as to attract my special observation. The provost guard also, under their worthy and gallant Provost-Marshal, Lieutenant Richardson, fully fulfilled the standard of their duties. They lost one killed and two wounded in the engagement of Saturday.

I unite with all true patriots of our country in returning thanks to Almighty God, without whose assistance our strength is weakness, for the substantial victory with which he has crowned our efforts.

I herewith transmit the reports of the regimental commanders of the brigade, to which your especial attention is respectfully invoked.

I regret I cannot accompany them with the report of Captain Carnes, commanding battery, whose absence on business connected with his battery necessarily delays its preparation.

I have the honor to be, Major,

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

Major: On the nineteenth September, 1863, at about seven o'clock in the morning, the brigade which I have the honor to command, being the advance of Major-General Cheatham's division, crossed Chickamauga Creek at Hunt's or Dalton's Ford, about a mile below Lee and Gordon's Mill. The brigade was immediately deployed in line of battle on the west side of the creek, and awaited the crossing by the remainder of the division.

At about nine o'clock A. M., moved by the flank in a north-western direction and formed line in the rear of Major-General Buckner's right, as his reserve. Remained in this position about an hour, when an order was received to move still further to the right to the support of Major-General Walker. Passing rapidly about half a mile northward by the right flank, the brigade reached the road leading from Alexander's Bridge, and proceeded thence westward about half a mile. Here the line of Major-General Walker's troops was reached. My brigade was immediately placed in line of battle and ordered to advance. The order was promptly and cheerfully