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| Chattanooga and vicinity. |
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double line of skirmishers in front, followed at a short distance by the whole body.
Pressing in a continuous line, they created such a panic among the occupants of the rifle-pits at the base of the Ridge, that they fled precipitately toward the crest, swarming up the hill-side, Grant said, “like bees from a hive.”
The Nationals stopped but for a moment to re-form, when, inspired by an irresistible impulse, they pushed vigorously forward up the steep and
rugged declivities in pursuit, in the face of a terrible storm of grape and canister-shot from about thirty guns on the summit, and from murderous volleys of musketry in the well-filled rifle-pits at the crest.1 But the
1 In a letter to his father, written by a friend of the author (Isaac N. Merritt, of the Eighty-ninth Illinois, known as “the Railroad Regiment” ), a few weeks after the battle on the Missionaries' Ridge, he said: “The storming of the ridge by our troops was one of the greatest marvels in military history. No one who climbs the ascent by any of the roads that wind along its front can believe that eighteen thousand men were moved simultaneously upon its broken and uneven surface, unless it was his fortune to witness that daring deed. It seemed as awful as the visible interposition of God. Neither Generals Grant nor Thomas intended it. Their orders were to carry the rifle-pits along the base of the Ridge and cut off their occupants; but when this was accomplished, the unaccountable spirit of the troops bore them bodily up the impassable steeps over the bristling rifle-pits on the hill's crest, and cannon enfilading every gully. The orders to storm appear to have been quite simultaneous by Generals Sheridan and Wood, because the men could not be held back, hopeless as the attempt appeared to military prudence, with any prospect of success. The generals caught the inspiration of the men, and were ready themselves to undertake impossibilities and run fearful risks for the chances of glorious and undying gains.”
General Hazen, in a letter to the author, says: “The men of Willich's and my brigades commenced running forward for security under the Ridge, but as they reached it they commenced its ascent. I then gave the order, ‘Forward!’ and sent my staff officers to carry everybody forward up the Ridge. The fire we passed through was dreadful, but the men, without preserving lines, formed into groups where accidents of the ground gave cover, and each group, led by a color, steadily made its way up. These colors were often shot down — those of the First Ohio six times — but they were at once seized and borne along.”
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