The re-organization.
The number of men in the battery had been much reduced by its losses in
Louisiana and
Mississippi, so that
Captain Rowan applied to the
Secretary of War for seventy-five conscripts.
While at
Decatur the guns, horses and equipments of a four gun battery were received, and
Dr. Thomas J. Rogers was assigned to the battery as surgeon.
On the 29th of October, it was ordered to Sweet Water,
East Tennessee, to rejoin
Stevenson's division; whence, on the 5th of November, the whole division marched to reinforce
General Bragg at
Missionary Ridge.
On the 12th, twenty-seven men were transferred to the battery from the Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-third, Fifty-second and Fifty-sixth Georgia regiments to act as drivers.
The battery encamped at the foot of
Lookout Mountain on the 13th, and on the 23d joined
Johnston's battalion, which was then encamped across
Lookout Creek, near
Missionary Ridge.
On the morning of the 23d of November, the enemy, under cover of a heavy fog, moved up and attacked the left wing of
General Bragg's army, at the foot of
Lookout Mountain, and drove it back rapidly, the line at that point being weak and the attack unexpected.
The evacuation of
Lookout Mountain followed and
Bragg withdrew to
Missionary Ridge.
Early the following morning
Johnston's battalion was ordered to the extreme right of the
Confederate line, and reached the position assigned it at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
Two of the batteries,
Corput's and
Carnes's, were ordered to the front at once, while the Third Maryland was held in reserve.
In the struggle which ensued, the enemy was three times repulsed by
Stevenson's division, losing a number of prisoners and the colors of three regiments.
Their attack on the center was more successful, our troops at that point of the line giving way and retreating precipitately.
The
Orderly Sergeant of the Third Maryland,
Johnny Hooper, who had been back with the wagons two miles in the rear, came up about dusk with the information that the center of the army was retreating, followed closely by the enemy, and that if we did not soon leave the field we should be
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captured.
Nothing, of course, could be done without orders from
General Stevenson, whose division was yet on the
Ridge, fighting the enemy.
About 7 P. M. he moved off the field, and sent orders to the Third Maryland to march to
Chickamauga station, crossing Chickamauga river at the railroad bridge.
