Chapter 17:
- Rosecrans flanks Chattanooga and Bragg Evacuates -- Burnside Enters East Tennessee and Buckner Joins Bragg -- movements of opposing armies preceding battle -- Longstreet Joins Bragg with his corps -- battle of Chickamauga -- Arrangement of lines of battle -- important part played by Kentucky officers and soldiers -- severe losses -- death of General Ben Hardin Helm and Colonel James Hewitt -- great Confederate victory -- Charles A. Dana's opinion -- Breckinridge, Buckner and Preston.
The danger threatening Chattanooga and east Tennessee now called for the concentration of all the troops which could be made available for its defenses. Rosecrans advanced slowly and cautiously, while Bragg was busily engaged in fortifying at Chattanooga, through the months of July and August. Rosecrans, declining a direct attack, projected a heavy movement up Will's valley on the western side of Lookout mountain, threatening Rome and Bragg's communications, thus forcing the evacuation of Chattanooga on the 9th day of September, Bragg's object being by a coup to crush the right wing of Rosecrans' army, which was moving into Georgia through the gaps south of Chattanooga, and then to turn suddenly upon its left, which occupied the city. Meanwhile, General Burnside having advanced into east Tennessee from Kentucky, General Buckner had evacuated Knoxville on the 25th of August, and joined Bragg with his division, commanded by General Preston, [175] who with the Fifth Kentucky and some other troops came from southwest Virginia to reinforce General Bragg. Buckner was then placed in command of a corps consisting of the divisions of Gen. A. P. Stewart and General Preston, the latter embracing the troops of General Buckner's department, composed of Gracie's, Trigg's and Kelly's brigades. General Breckinridge's division, which had previously arrived from Mississippi, was placed in the corps of Gen. D. H. Hill. When General Bragg moved out of Chattanooga to attack Rosecrans' flanking corps, his Federal opponent thought he was in full retreat toward Rome. Crittenden's corps was therefore started after him and proceeded as far as Ringgold, when it was discovered that the report was false. Bragg's whole army was between the wings of Rosecrans', which were almost fifty miles apart. He tried to crush the right wing under Thomas at McLemore's Cove, but it evaded battle and with McCook's and Crittenden's corps turned toward Chattanooga for better security. Bragg then also moved towards Chattanooga, aiming to intercept Rosecrans and cut him off from his stronghold. On the afternoon of the 18th of September he crossed Chickamauga creek at Lee & Gordon's mill, with the view of throwing himself across the main road leading from Crawfish Springs to Chattanooga. Thomas, divining his purpose, crossed the creek at Crawfish Springs and by a night march parallel to Bragg, secured the position he occupied in the subsequent battle. The morning of the 19th found Bragg in the act of forming his line in a direction generally parallel with the road to Chattanooga, with his left wing resting on the Chickamauga at Lee & Gordon's mill. General Buckner's corps was placed on the left, with Preston's division at Lee & Gordon's mill, and Stewart's on his right. General Longstreet, whose corps had arrived from Virginia the day before, was on Buckner's right Hill's [176] corps and Polk's corps were still on the east side of the Chickamauga. While General Bragg was making his alignment on the morning of the 19th his right came in contact with part of the Federal forces under General Thomas, and a heavy engagement ensued in the thick woods, which prevented either side from determining well what was in its front. In the afternoon, General Preston's division was for a time hotly engaged, but repulsed the attack and held its position with the loss of 150 men killed and wounded. The enemy had also suffered on our right, but the army not being united, further advance was not made. At night both armies prepared for the great battle of the next day. General Breckinridge crossed the river and at daylight was placed on the extreme right, his left resting on the right of Cleburne's division. General Polk was in command of the right wing, consisting of his own and Hill's corps; and General Longstreet of the left, composed of his own and Buckner's corps. During the night, General Thomas, who had been severely pressed the day before, had felled timber and made a breastwork in the thick forest of small trees parallel to our line, so located as not to be discernible until closely approached. These works covered Breckinridge's left and Cleburne's right. The break of day found the two armies in lines of nearly equal length, the Federals near and a little in front of the main Chattanooga road, McCook's corps on the right, his right resting on Crawfish Springs, Crittenden's in center, and Thomas' on the left, and the Confederates a few hundred yards east of them. It had been Bragg's intention to attack early in the morning, but there was delay in perfecting his dispositions on the right in support of Cleburne, and to his left, and it was not until half-past 9 that the advance was made. The thick woods and generally level nature of the ground prevented the use of much artillery, and until positions were changed later in the day, but little was used. [177] Bragg's plan of battle was that which characterized his other fights, to open on the right and swing on his left as a pivot. Rosecrans' policy was, as at Murfreesboro, waiting and defensive. Breckinridge's division was posted as follows: Helm's Kentucky brigade on the left, Stovall's in the center, and Adams' on the right. At the hour named the advance was made and in a few minutes the battle opened with great fury, extending to the right of Longstreet's line; but that part of the line which came upon the breastworks of Thomas met with heavy loss and was forced to fall back after having advanced within pistol shot of it. General Breckinridge in his report says:
The battle was opened by Helm with great fury. The Second and Ninth Kentucky, with three companies of the Forty-first Alabama regiment, encountered the left of a line of breastworks before reaching the Chattanooga road, and though assailing them with great courage, were compelled to pause. From some cause the line on my left had not advanced simultaneously with my division, and in consequence these brave troops were at first, in addition to the fire in front, subjected to a severe enfilading fire from the left. The rest of Helm's brigade, in whose front there were no works, after a short but sharp engagement, routed a line of the enemy, pursued it across the Chattanooga road, and captured a section of artillery in the center of the road. This portion of the brigade was now brought under a heavy and enfilading fire, and being separated from its left, I ordered Col. Jos. H. Lewis of the Sixth Kentucky, who succeeded to the command upon the fall of General Helm, to withdraw the troops some two hundred yards to the rear, reunite the brigade and change his front slightly to meet the new order of things by throwing forward his right and retiring his left. The movement was made without panic or confusion. This was one of the bloodiest encounters of the day. Here General Helm, ever ready for action, and endeared [178] to his command by his many virtues, received a mortal wound, while in the heroic discharge of duty. Col. J. W. Hewitt of the Second Kentucky was killed, acting gallantly at the head of his regiment. Captains Madeira, Rogers, and Dedman, of the Second, Captain Daniel of the Ninth Kentucky, and many officers and men met their deaths before the enemy's works; while Colonel Nuckols of the Fourth Kentucky, Colonel Caldwell of the Ninth, and many more officers and men, were wounded. In the meantime Adams and Stovall advanced steadily, driving two lines of skirmishers. Stovall halted at the Chattanooga road. Adams, after dispersing a regiment and capturing a battery, crossed at Glenn's farmhand halted a short distance beyond in an open field. When Helm's brigade was checked, and I had given Colonel Lewis orders in reference to his new position, I rode to the commands of Adams and Stovall on the right. It was now evident from the comparatively slight resistance they had encountered and the fact they were not threatened in front, that our line extended beyond the enemy's left. I at once ordered these brigades to change front perpendicularly to the original line of battle, and with the left of Adams and the right of Stovall resting on the Chattanooga road, to advance upon the flank of the enemy. Slocomb's battery, which had previously done good service, was posted on favorable ground on the west of the road to support the movement. The brigades moved in fine order over a field and entered the woods beyond. Stovall soon encountered the extreme left of the enemy's works, which retiring from the general north and south direction of his intrenchments, extended westward to the Chattanooga road. After a severe and well-contested conflict, he was checked and forced to retire. Adams on the west side of the road met two lines of the enemy, who had improved the short time to bring up reinforcements and reform nearly at right angles to the troops in his main line of works.General Breckinridge compliments [179] Cobb's battery for its action in the fight. Some further fighting occurred here, but General Breckinridge, finding himself confronted by a largely superior force and having no support, after getting actually in rear of Thomas' main line, reformed his command east of the Chattanooga road, about six hundred yards in front of his first line of the morning. His account of this movement, in advancing independently, and upon his own responsibility changing front, and moving upon the enemy's flank and rear, has been presented here for the purpose of giving him the credit which his modesty prevented him from claiming and his superiors failed to recognize as it deserved. Its bearing upon the result of the battle and its immediate effect upon the enemy were such that it led directly to the disaster which soon befell the Federal army. When the Confederate line had recoiled from Thomas' breastworks, the assault was renewed by fresh lines, and this, together with the threatened danger to Thomas' rear by Breckinridge's movement, led to the transfer of heavy reinforcements from the Federal right and center, leaving a gap in front of General Hood, who threw his division forward promptly and broke their line, inflicting heavy loss upon the enemy and being himself desperately wounded. The movement was taken up in line by Stewart's division of Buckner's corps and later by Preston's division, which drove all before them with great slaughter, until it became in the nature of a right wheel on the left center; and the greater part of the left wing advanced across the Chattanooga road, assuming a line almost at right angles to its former position. Thus with his right broken up and bent back, and with renewed charges upon Thomas' breastworks and a fresh advance of Breckinridge, the entire Federal right was beaten back toward the foothills of Missionary Ridge in the rear. Lately published reminiscences of Charles A. Dana, assistant secretary of war, who was on the field, fully confirm this view. He says Rosecrans' defeat was [180] a veritable Bull Run. There remained but one point of Federal resistance besides that of Thomas, and this was the wooded hills near McFarland's Gap and the key to the Federal position. General Preston, who had as a guide Dyer, whose house stood on the battlefield near by, and from whom he learned the nature of the topography in the front, followed after Hindman's and McLaws' divisions, which had met a heavy repulse, and moving up a ravine beyond Snodgrass' house, charged the flank of Granger and Steedman, posted with artillery on commanding ridges. It was bloody but effective work, resulting in the complete rout of the enemy and the capture of the Eighty-ninth Ohio, the Twenty-second Michigan, and part of the Twenty-first Ohio regiments. This bold and decisive stroke, which closed the battle as the sun set, was one of the most gallant affairs of the war, and like that of Breckinridge on the right was made upon General Preston's own judgment, as he was ordered originally merely to support Hindman. A British officer present compared Preston to Dessaix and said his charge was one of the greatest in history. The Fifth Kentucky, Colonel Hawkins, was conspicuous for gallantry in this fight. In the confusion resulting from the change of lines, the smoke of battle, and approach of night, it was difficult to comprehend the full extent of this Confederate victory. The enemy, beaten at every point, availing himself of the favorable conditions, retreated in the direction of Chattanooga, and the Confederate army, worn down by long and arduous labors, with all commands mingled in promiscuous confusion, went to sleep on the battlefield, each where he found himself. The further details of what followed, the fatality which, arising partly from the want of sufficient force, but chiefly from the lack of Stonewall Jackson persistence, lost the full fruits of victory, belong to general history. It has been the aim in this narrative to sketch briefly only so much of the battle as will show [181] to their countrymen the part performed by the Confederate soldiers from Kentucky and their gallant officers. For small, yet effective, as were the number of muskets, no troops fought more bravely, and no State was more ably represented than Kentucky in her trio of generals, —noble men all, who were never separated in friendship by faction or jealousy, and who illustrated in their character and deeds the elements which make men great and have made their State famous. Each, by the unanimous verdict of the army, earned an advancement in grade; but Kentucky was already top-heavy in rank proportionate to her troops in the service, and other States clamored for recognition of their sons. Later in the war General Buckner was made a lieutenant-general, and just before its close General Preston a major-general. [182]
