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

[457] moved forward, charging the enemy in gallant style, under a heavy fire. Here Lieutenant-Colonel J. B. Tillman, commanding Fourth Tennessee, was wounded in the shoulder, while nobly leading his men. The enemy was driven back, but rallied and returned to the attack in greater force, contesting the ground with unusual obstinacy. For the want of artillery support, the right wing of the brigade fell back beyond the battery, left in the position already described, but was enabled to re-form under cover of the steady fire and unbroken front maintained by the Third and Fiftieth Tennessee (Colonel C. H. Walker), and Seventh Texas (Major R. M. Vanzandt), by whom the guns were saved from capture, and to whom the right wing was indebted for an opportunity to recover from the temporary confusion into which it had been thrown. This being quickly effected, and, perceiving the impossibility of holding the position, if captured, without the aid of artillery, I ordered two guns to be moved to my right, and, believing that the teams would be destroyed if the horses were attacked, I ordered them to be moved up the hill by hand. The brigade was again ordered to charge, the enemy was driven from the ridge and into the hollow beyond; but the guns pushed forward and opened upon him with such telling effect that he made no further effort to recover his lost ground. It was now five o'clock in the afternoon, the brigade having advanced, since eleven o'clock in the morning, fully three miles, describing, in its onward and upward course, through timber and clearing, over hill-tops and ridges, a line approaching in shape very nearly the fourth of a circle. Finding my ammunition exhausted, a supply was ordered, and obtained from the train previously captured from the enemy. Trigg's brigade arriving on the ground at this juncture, I thankfully accepted the proposition of the commanding officer to form line in my front, and ordered the brigade to fall back beyond the crest of the hill and rest for the night; and, no interruption being apprehended from the beaten enemy, the brigade slept on the ground which it had so bravely won.

On the following day, more than one hundred of the enemy's dead were counted on the hillside and in the hollow immediately in front of the brigade. Nor was the series of brilliant successes, thus briefly described, won without heavy loss on our own part, though one greatly inferior to that of the enemy, and inferior, too, to the loss of the brigade on the previous day (Saturday). Where all, both officers and men, did so well, it is difficult, as it would be unfair, to discriminate further than has been already done in this report. At the same time, I should be doing less than justice if I were to omit to make special mention of the very efficient and important service rendered, throughout the day and in every stage of the conflict, by Bledsoe's battery, Lieutenant R. L. Wood commanding.

A statement of the number of men engaged, of the casualties sustained, and of the captures made by the brigade, so far as an estimate of them can now be obtained, will be found subjoined.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,