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watching his opportunity, wheeled to the right, gained the cover of the fence north of the clearing, fired two or three volleys at the battery, and then charged and captured it complete.
The Seventeenth, Third and Forty-first Tennessee, slightly in advance of the main line, encountered a force of the enemy moving by the flank toward the right of the Confederate army, which penetrated the left of the line of Johnson, filed off to the left and fired a volley into its rear, which caused Fulton to fall back, leaving 71 officers and men (including Major Davis of the Seventeenth) and the captured battery in the hands of the enemy.
The enemy's column was then charged by the Third and Forty-first Tennessee and repulsed.
General Johnson reformed his division and bivouacked in line for the next day's battle.
His loss was heavy.
Among the killed was Lieut.-Col. Thomas W. Beaumont, Fiftieth Tennessee, a soldier of experience and eminence, beloved in Tennessee, a man of intellect and culture and practiced in all the graces of life.
He died gloriously at the head of his regiment.
The tribute of Colonel Napier, the historian of the Peninsular war, to the brave Colonel Ridge of the British army, who fell at the siege of Badajos can be extended to Colonel Beaumont: ‘No man died that day with more glory, yet many died, and there was much glory.’
Soon after sunset of the 19th, Cleburne's division, supported by Jackson's and Smith's brigades of Cheatham's division, was ordered to attack the enemy, and if possible drive back his left wing.
The Federals were posted behind hastily-constructed breastworks, and received the attacking force with a heavy fire of artillery and small-arms.
Brigadier-General Polk on the right pressed forward, pushing his artillery within 60 yards of the enemy's line, when the latter ceased firing and disappeared from Cleburne's front.
The darkness was so intense that no attempt was made to advance, and the lines
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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