‘He [Bragg] did not wait, nor did he express approval or disapproval of the operations of the left wing, but rode for his headquarters at Reed's bridge. There was nothing for the left wing to do but to work along as best it could.’A pause in the fighting now ensued, which the Federals employed in forming a new line for their centre and right with the troops remaining on the field, — Baird, Johnson, Palmer, and Reynolds, — whose positions had not been changed, and Brannan, with fragments of Wood, Negley, and Van Cleve. With these troops a short and very strong line was formed scarcely a mile in extent from right to left, and occupying favorable ground in the forest which gave it protection from artillery fire. In plan the right wing of this line covered two reentrant
This text is part of:
[461]
fugitives.
Hindman's brigades, diverging to the left, routed the division of Davis and captured 27 guns and over 1000 prisoners. Rosecrans, McCook, and Crittenden were all caught and involved in the confusion of a retreat which soon became a panic.
It was not, however, pursued and might have halted and been re-formed within a mile of the field without seeing the enemy.
The retreat, however, was continued to Chattanooga.
A severe check was sustained by Manigault, who attacked Wilder's brigade.
This brigade had two regiments armed with Spencer repeating rifles, and the 29th Ill. serving with it on this occasion, carried the same arm. They occupied a very favorable position on a steep ridge and their fire at close quarters was very severe and drove back the first advance.
Then, finding themselves isolated, they presently withdrew from the field.
About this time, Longstreet was sent for by Bragg, who was some distance in rear of Longstreet's present position.
The change in the order of battle was explained to Bragg and the route of two divisions of the enemy, and he was requested to draw the forces from the right wing to unite with the left, and move behind Thomas, where a gap of great extent had been opened, and drive him out of his fortified position.
Bragg, however, was discouraged, and said ‘there was no fight left in the right wing.’
Cheatham's division had not been engaged.
Longstreet's account of the interview states:—
1907.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.