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

[447] It is seen that every field officer in the brigade, excepting three, were wounded. For further particulars, allow me to respectfully refer to the reports of the commanders of battalions and the battery, which are herewith transmitted.

I cannot close this report without noticing the distinguished services rendered, unworthy as the tribute may be, by my field officers, Colonels Tyler, Smith, Rudler, and Jones, Lieutenant-Colonels Smith, Myer, and Frazier, and Majors Wall, Kendrick, Shye, and Thornton; to each of whom is due the highest meed of praise. It would be invidious to make distinctions when each has played his part so well. Colonels Rudler and Smith and Major Caswell were painfully (the last two seriously) wounded, at the head of their respective commands, early in the engagement of Saturday, and compelled to retire from the field, thus devolving the command of the Twentieth Tennessee on Major Shye; the Thirty-seventh Georgia on Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, and battalion of sharpshooters on Lieutenant Towers, each of whom did his duty gallantly and nobly throughout the conflict. Colonel Tyler, Lieutenant Colonels Myer and Frazier, Majors Wall, Kendrick, and Thornton, were wounded, from which they suffered considerably (the last named officer prostrated by the explosion of a shell), but still remained at the post of duty, bearing themselves with distinguished gallantry.

To each of my staff, Major Winchester (who, notwithstanding his leg was badly hurt from the fall of his horse when shot Friday evening, continued in the field until the close of the fight), Lieutenants Blanchard and Bate, I am indebted for their hearty co-operation and prompt execution of my orders, notwithstanding each was unhorsed by shots from the enemy. Also, to James E. Rice, Brigade Ordnance Officer, I am indebted for the prompt discharge of his duties; but to none are my thanks more signally due, or more cordially awarded, than to my gallant young Adjutant, Captain W. C. Yancey, who while cheering and encouraging my right wing, in its desperate charge on Sunday, received a fearful wound, shattering his foot, and compelling him to retire from the field. I take pleasure, also, in adding my testimony, humble as it may be, to the hearty co-operation of the two gallant brigades of Stewart's division, General Clayton's and Brown's, in every discharge in which it was the fortune of my command to engage.

Major-General Stewart will accept my thanks, as a soldier's tribute, for his polite and genial bearing, and personal assistance in the thickest of the fight, the time when I felt I much needed it. While I recount the services of the living, I cannot pass unremembered the heroic head; the cypress must be interwoven with the laurel. The bloody field attested the sacrifice of many a noble spirit in the fierce struggle — the private soldier vieing with the officer in deeds of high daring and distinguished courage. While the “River of death” shall float its sluggish current to the beautiful Tennessee, and the night wind chant its solemn dirges over their soldier-graves, their names, enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen, will be held in grateful remembrance as the champions and defenders of their country, who had sealed their devotion with their blood, on one of the most glorious battle-fields of our revolution.

I am, Major, most respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

Major: I respectfully beg leave to submit the following as a report of the part performed by my command in the battle of Chickamauga, on the nineteenth and twentieth of September, 1863:

My brigade consisted of the Eighteenth Tennessee, Colonel J. B. Palmer; Forty-fifth Tennessee, Colonel A. Searcy; Thirty-second Tennessee, Colonel Edward C. Cook; Newman's battalion, Major Tazewell W. Newman, and the Twenty-sixth Tennessee, Colonel John M. Lillard, forming line from right to left in the order stated, numbering twelve hundred effective men. On the morning of the nineteenth, Dawson's battery of Georgia light artillery, four pieces, commanded by Lieutenant R. W. Anderson, also reported to me.

At early dawn of the nineteenth, I crossed the Chickamauga at Ledford's Ford, and formed in rear of Brigadier-General Clayton, six hundred yards from that stream, Bate forming soon after in my rear. A little after sunrise we moved to the front in that order, swinging the right a little forward, until we came up with the division commanded by Brigadier-General Johnson, and formed on its left. About eleven o'clock, we moved by the right flank four or five hundred yards in rear of Johnson's division and soon afterwards eight hundred yards further, halting immediately in rear of the left of Cheatham's division, which was then hotly engaged. His left brigade, being numerically overpowered and repulsed, was relieved by Brigadier-General Clayton, immediately in my front. I followed this movement closely, being so near to Clayton's line that many of my command were wounded and a few killed before I could return the fire. The front line advanced but little under the combined fire of the enemy's artillery and small arms, until General Clayton reported his ammunition exhausted.

At about two P. M., in obedience to orders received in person from the Major-General commanding, I relieved him, and encountered the enemy in an unbroken forest, rendered the more difficult of passage by the dense under-growth which for more than two hundred yards extended along my entire line. And difficulties