Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 11.
Frank Moore, Ed.

Early in the forenoon the monotony was sadly broken by the death of Major J. B. Hampson, of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Ohio, and Aid to General Wood. He was struck in the left shoulder by a musket ball, which broke the spine, and ended his life in a few hours. He was a general favorite, and his death produced unfeigned sadness among a wide circle of friends.

The play of the artillery was, for the most part, necessarily aimless, and consequently harmless. One gunner, however, by the felling of trees, at last discovered an inviting target, and succeeded in throwing into it a couple of shells, most handsomely. A house was discovered about two miles distant, in the yard of which the rebels had planted a battery, and whose tall red chimney stood out among the trees too temptingly to be refused. A piece was trained on it, and the first shell went home without bursting, and left no indications except its effects. These were sufficiently obvious. Immediately a prodigious flutter was visible about the premises, men vigorously running away among the trees, and most ludicrous and yet most cruel of all, a woman, in white, fleeing out of the house in the greatest apparent terror. The gun was held a little to the left and a second shell lodged directly in the yard, bursting immediately above the surface of the ground, in a position to do the utmost possible slashing among the rebel gunners, if any were there. Two more accurate deliveries, at that distance, are seldom seen.

Early in the afternoon long lines of dust were seen about four miles away to the rear and left, rising over the tops of the trees, and about five o'clock we received a conclusive and stunning explanation of their import. It was simply a rapid concentration to strike our extreme left, which was still weak and unsteady, from its having been continually shoved out in that direction, and from the distance and the roughness of the way over which supporting artillery must pass. The rebels had evidently discovered this state of affairs, and meant to thrust a heavy column in between Schofield and the cavalry before these could be united in a strong line. They were at their old work. Fortunately the game was detected and our combinations made in time to save the line, but not a minute to spare. The blow was parried, but we staggered under it. Wood's division of the Fourth corps had been relieved from line of battle on Schofield's right in the forenoon by the division of General Stanley, and had rested but a short time when it was hurried over to the point of danger. The ground was very rough and the bushes almost impenetrable, but boldness was here again the safe policy and the division was soon engaged. The ground on which it must fight was peculiarly bad. Two parallel ridges hemmed in its flanks, and directly in front was another, on all of which the rebels had guns which delivered at once a direct, enfilading, and cross fire. Their volleys were quick and terrible as cross-lightning; grape, canister, shell, and round shot pouring in all at once, and musket balls flying thick as hail. Out of Wood's division, and Scribner's brigade of Johnson's division, which was supporting on the left, four hundred men fell in thirty minutes, when darkness happily intervened. Our lines had held their own stubbornly in the face of this terrible slaughter, but by ten in the evening were drawn back so that they could be supported by batteries which had in the meantime been planted. Here lay four hundred wounded and dead men in need of immediate care, and the ambulances and stretchers were three miles away, and the road between was very bad. Despite the best endeavors of Captain Tousley, Chief of Ambulance corps, who ordered up the whole corps at once, nearly a hundred men lay on the field all night. Those who could dragged themselves wearily along, with the aid of comrades, to the hospital. This number of wounded and killed were found on the field, and others may have been left in the retreat. Among the missing is Colonel Payne, of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Ohio, who is either a prisoner or killed, and fallen into the hands of the rebels. Another painful loss was that of Captain Harry Stinson, of General Howard's staff, who was shot early in the day through the lungs, and will not probably survive. He is but twenty years of age, and had just been appointed Major by the General, though not yet commissioned. The General himself exposed his person recklessly, and came sufficiently near being a one-legged, as he is already a one-armed veteran. A ragged piece of shell contused his foot severely while he was riding coolly outside the skirmish line, and another piece slightly bruised his forehead. The General's remark that he has already made sufficient sacrifices to the rebels, and must, therefore, be entitled to immunity at their hands, would weigh lightly with the bloody-minded traitors, if any opportunity against him should be presented, and will lack much of dispelling the anxiety of his friends.

The heaviest sufferers by the evening's attack was, probably, Hazen's brigade. Forming the centre of the attacking column, and driving upon the foe in the form of a wedge, it courted the enemy's fiercest, and, as it came, braced itself up stoutly against it, and stood.

Here again the conduct of the troops was all that could be desired. Though melting fast, under the double fire of cannon and musketry, and unsupported by artillery, they remained steadfast. They load and fire until the ammunition is nearly gone, and when there are no more cartridges in the boxes, they stand fast till more is brought. The glorious earnestness of American citizens contending in a just cause is nowhere more nobly evinced than here to-day in the army of General Sherman. The patience, too, with which the men bear wounds and