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

[443] position on the left, supported by the Thirty-eighth Alabama regiment, and directed the other regiments to bivouac immediately upon the bank of the creek. On the morning of the nineteenth, the other brigades (Brown's and Bate's) of the division (Stewart's) having crossed the creek and formed in my rear, my brigade moved forward in line of battle at an early hour, a distance of between one and two miles, until it reached a position from which the enemy could be seen upon the distant hills. The brigade, and so far as I could learn, the whole army, except upon the extreme right, where the engagement had already begun, halted until half-past 1 o'clock P. M., when it was ordered to the right about one mile. Having received instructions as to the point upon which I should direct my brigade, with the further admonition that, after having more definitely located the enemy, I would have to act for myself and be governed by circumstances, I moved forward in line of battle with skirmishers in front. Having proceeded a few hundred yards through a dense under-growth and being about to enter a cultivated field, I halted for the purpose of correcting the alignment, when Colonel John C. Carter, of the Thirty-eighth Tennessee regiment, Wright's brigade, Cheatham's division, came on foot from my left in great haste and informed me that my brigade was marching in the wrong direction, and that unless I changed my direction nearly perpendicularly to the left, my brigade would soon be in range of the enemy's small arms and artillery, which would enfilade my line; and that, as I then stood, the right of the enemy was in rear of my left. I immediately changed my direction, and, marching by the left flank and filing obliquely to the left and rear (the nature of the ground not admitting of any other movement), had scarcely changed for the purpose of moving in the new direction, when the enemy opened fire upon us, which was promptly returned. The firing seeming to be too much at random, I passed down and up the line calling the attention of officers to the fact. I then directed my staff to inform regimental commanders that I was about to order a charge. Passing again down the line, I was informed by several officers that their ammunition was expended, and I therefore reconsidered my first intention to charge the enemy, being unable on account of the thick under-growth to form a satisfactory idea of his strength, and with-drew for the purpose of replenishing the ammunition. This was done in good order and with little loss, the enemy having almost simultaneously ceased firing. In this engagement the brigade lost near four hundred officers and men killed and wounded. It began about half-past 2 o'clock and lasted one hour. The enemy was formed in a semi-circle around and over a slight elevation or hill, which gave him great advantage in position, and the manner in which both ends of my line were cross-fired upon induce the opinion that we were greatly out-numbered. I again moved forward about four o'clock, the brigades of Generals Brown and Bate having successively advanced and engaged the enemy. Passing Bate's brigade, then in front, my line continued steadily forward with promptness and spirit, accompanied nearly to the Chattanooga road by the Fifty-eighth Alabama regiment, Colonel Bush. Jones (which attracted my attention by the excellent order in which it moved), and a small portion of another regiment, which I did not recognize, both of Bate's brigade. The enemy continued to retreat to and beyond the Chattanooga road, near which my brigade captured two pieces of artillery, which were brought off in the manner stated by my regimental commanders, whose reports accompany this. My brigade continued the pursuit of the enemy one-half mile beyond the road, when a staff officer reporting the enemy advancing in strong force from the right, and it also having been reported to me through my Assistant Adjutant-General, by a staff officer, whom he did not recognize, that the enemy's cavalry had been seen in force upon the left as if preparing to advance, my brigade fell back across the road at leisure, where I halted and re-formed it in connection with the portion of General Bate's brigade already referred to. I take pleasure in mentioning that Captains Crenshaw and Lee, with their companies, from the Fifty-eighth Alabama regiment, of Bate's brigade, accompanied mine beyond the road. They are gallant officers. In this charge my brigade captured fifty or sixty prisoners, besides the two pieces of artillery; and I have reason to believe that the loss in killed and wounded inflicted upon the enemy, to some extent, compensated for our own in the earlier engagement. Changing the direction of my line by a front forward upon the right, and the other two sides of a triangle being formed by Generals Brown and Bates, night coming on, the troops slept upon their arms within a few hundred yards of the enemy, who could be distinctly heard erecting breastworks. During the night my pickets brought in about forty prisoners, among whom were several officers of the lower grades. Early on the morning of the twentieth, the brigade was moved to the right, and in a position about three hundred yards from and parallel to the Chattanooga road. Here it remained until eleven o'clock, subjected the most of the time to a severe fire from the enemy's artillery, by which several men were wounded. About eleven o'clock, General Brown being in front, and General Bate on my right, the whole division advanced under a most terrible fire of grape and canister from the enemy's artillery, before which several most gallant officers fell bravely leading their men, among whom I cannot forbear to mention the name of the chivalrous and accomplished Lieutenant-Colonel R. F. Juge, of the Eighteenth Alabama regiment. Notwithstanding this, the brigade pressed forward through a narrow corn field to the first pieces of artillery by the roadside, when two other batteries, one in front and one upon the right, assisted by small arms, began a most murderous fire, before which all were compelled