‘
[34]
shortly after seven o'clock the enemy appeared in force, presenting himself in columns of regiments at least four deep.
He opened upon our camp a heavy fire from infantry, which was immediately followed by bell.
Having formed my brigade in line of battle, I ordered an advance.
The Seventy-seventh and, Fifty-seventh Regiments were thrown forward to occupy a certain position, but encountered the enemy in force within three hundred yards of our camp.’
Captain Samuel E. Barrett, commanding First Regiment Illinois Artillery, says:
‘We were stationed near the outposts, and on the alarm being given, at about half past 7 o'clock on Sunday morning, the battery was promptly got in readiness, and in ten minutes thereafter commenced firing on the right of the log church, some one hundred yards in front of General Sherman's headquarters, where the attack was made by the enemy in great force.’
Lieutenant-Colonel Parlin, commanding Forty-eighth Ohio Infantry, says:
‘On the morning of the 6th our regiment met the enemy about two hundred yards in front of our color line; they came upon us so suddenly that for a short time our men wavered, but soon rallied again, when we kept him back for two hours and until General Sherman ordered us to fall back to the Purdy road.’
As to the distances of the picket from his front, and the limits reached by his reconnoissance, it is notable that
General Sherman fixes them much further from camp than all the other officers who have given testimony or made statements upon these points.
An officer of
General Beauregard's staff, who was helping direct the rebel advance, wrote thus of the matter:
‘The total absence of cavalry pickets from General Grant's army was a matter of perfect amazement.
There were absolutely none on Grant's left, where Breckinridge's division was meeting him, so that we were able to come up within hearing of their drums entirely unperceived.
The Southern generals always kept cavalry pickets out for miles, even when no enemy was supposed to be within a day's march of them The infantry pickets of Grant's forces were not above three-fourths of a mile from his advance camps, and they were too few to make any resistance.’
The officers of
General Thomas' army, who had charge of
