Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[512] followers were on its right, the divisions of Generals J. C. Veatch and C. C. Andrews, of the Thirteenth Corps, formed the center, and Garrard's division of the Sixteenth Corps composed its left. Other divisions of the Sixteenth Corps were near, ready to afford aid to the battle-line, if necessary.

It was Sunday, the 9th of April. Half-past 5 o'clock in the afternoon was appointed as the time for the. assault. At that hour dark clouds were rolling up from the west, and the low bellowing of distant thunder was heard. That “artillery of heaven” was soon made inaudible to the armies, by the roar of cannon. Hawkins's division first skirmished heavily toward the works, when Garrard sent one-third of his command,¹ under a heavy fire of the Seventeenth Ohio Battery, and in the face of a storm of shells, to discover the safest avenues for an attack in force. These gained a point within fifty yards of the works, and found that every way was equally perilous, and all extremely so. But the work must be done. So Garrard gave the magnetic word, “Forward!” when his whole division bounded toward the enemy with a loud shout, meeting the galling fire of a score of guns. For more than half an hour they struggled with the obstacles in front of the works, sometimes recoiling as the dreadful storm of shells and canister-shot became more dreadful, yet continually making headway, inspirited by the voice of Garrard, who was in the thickest of the fight. At length, the obstructions were cleared, and while Harris's brigade was passing the ditch and climbing the face of the works, those of Gilbert and Rinaker turned the right of the fort and entered it, capturing General Thomas and a thousand men. In an instant, a loud cheer arose, and several National flags were unfurled over the parapets.

While the struggle was going on upon the left, the whole line was participating in the assault. The center was feeling the storm from the Works more seriously than the left. Dennison's brigade, of Veatch's division, and those of Spicely and Moore, of Andrews's division, were nobly braving the hail as they pushed onward in a charge, so soon as Garrard was fairly at work. Steadily they pressed forward, men falling at almost every step; and when Andrews's column was within forty yards of the works, it was terribly smitten by the fire of eight guns, that made lanes through its ranks. At the same time, the Eighty-third Ohio and Ninety-seventh Illinois, pushing forward as skirmishers, were just on the borders of a ditch, when more than a dozen torpedoes exploded under their feet, which threw them into confusion for a few minutes. This was followed by a tempest of grape and canister-shot, but the assault was pressed with vigor and steadiness, not only by the center, but by the right, where the brigades of Pile, Schofield, and Drew, of Hawkins's negro division, were at work, at twilight, fighting Mississippians, as their dusky brethren did at Overton's Hill, in the battle of Nashville.² At length, when ordered to carry the works at all hazards, their fearful cry of “Remember Fort Pillow!” ran from rank to rank, and they dashed forward over the Confederate embankments, scattering every thing before them. But these black men were more humane than Forrest and his fellow-butchers at Fort Pillow, for, unlike those ferocious men, they did not murder their captives.