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impending on the left, gave Newton more territory to guard than he had troops to cover His slender brigades, eked out never so gingerly, did not furnish one line of men, though holding the most delicate spot in our lines. His troops were shifted from right to left, from left to right, from centre to flanks, and the reverse, to suit the emergency of the moment.

Repeatedly during the morning Newton had received orders to advance to Atlanta, the impression seeming to prevail in high quarters that as the enemy was evidently massing on our left to deliver battle, his lines in front of our right must be vulnerable. But the enemy had reconnoitered our lines with extreme nicety. His movements to our left were a feint; he knew our weak point precisely, and having decided on an attack, he was right in aiming the full force of his formidable blow where it fell. Newton's left covered the bridge across Peach-tree creek, the road on which our trains were gathered, and along which communication was kept up with the heavy masses of our troops on the left. Newton crushed, our trains were open to them, and the army was completely cut in twain, one fragment facing Atlanta on the north, and one on the east. In that case the whole rebel army could be hurled against either fraction, and with Napoleonic vigor Sherman was to be whipped in detail. That part of our army on the north, consisting of Hooker's and Palmer's corps and Newton's division, was to be driven into the river; that done, the left, though too strong perhaps to be overwhelmed, could, nevertheless, be controlled and foiled.

During the morning, as I have already said, Newton received repeated orders to advance, but Hooker had not been able to connect on Newton's right, and the latter, of course, could not safely advance until this was effected. About noon Butterfield's division, commanded by Brigadier-General Ward came up and occupied a ridge on Newton's right. Preparations to advance were made immediately. Newton ordered five regiments to be deployed as skirmishers, and about two P. M., the bugle sounded the "forward." Then broke out the allegro of a lively skirmish. A thousand muskets sputtered, and woke the primeval echoes of the forests to the siren song of battle. Up the ridge our men slowly forced their way, driving at every step a wavering line of rebel sharpshooters, turning at bay determinedly one moment, but changing their minds the next, and stealthily gliding further to the rear. In half an hour our skirmishers had forced them from the ridge entirely, with small loss to themselves. With the ruling passion of the campaign, as soon as Kimball's and Blake's brigades occupied the ridge just carried, the men fell to building a barricade of rails and earth. A fresh line of skirmishers was adjusted and ordered forward to relieve the panting heroes who had just taken a military feesimple of the crest.

This advance gave Newton still more territory to cover, which it was simply impossible for him

to do, with his inadequate force. He however made the hasty dispositions in his power to command it, and repel an attack, which, if made, might be disastrous, if not fatal. In taking advantage of the ridges, Newton's lines assumed a singular shape that of the capital letter T. Bradley's brigade was placed in trenches along the main Atlanta road, forming the perpendicu lar line of the letter, and facing to the left; Wagner's brigade, commanded by Colonel Blake, of the Fortieth Indiana, was the left half of the horizontal top line; General Kimball's brigade the right half, facing outward. A section of artillery was in position at the bottom of the letter.

Blake's and Kimball's brigades were, it will be remembered, building a rail barricade on the crest just carried-the men with knapsacks unslung, and many of them some distance from their arms, conveying rails and logs to the rising parapet. The fresh skirmish line was just going forward when a growl came from the front. At the same moment a cheer arose—a wild, tumultuous, shrill cry, from thousands of throatsfalling on the ear like a sudden and unsuspected clap of thunder. Our skirmishers commenced firing and falling back at the same moment. With lightning-like celerity heavy columns of rebels appeared in front of, or rather tumbled out of the forests, their columns seeming to be endless, and carrying themselves with a certain indescribable verve in the onset which made every one who beheld it from our lines tremble. How will that fearful wave be broken?" was the piercing fear that filled every bosom, which was not allayed by seeing our lines in apparent confusion-the confusion of men grasping their muskets, taking the touch of the elbow and facing to the front. Words cannot describe the crushing suspense of the first five minutes of the charge. Newton's lines were so thin they looked,

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some places, like skirmish deployments. They opened, and the section of artillery in position opened, but the momentum of the dustcolored phalanxes was hatefully steady. Their colors snapped saucily and streamed on steadily. Soon every musket in Newton's division was blazing; for at the instant Walker's rebel divisior attacked Blake's and Kimball's brigades, Bate's rebel division appeared on the flank and confronted Bradley's brigade, aiming for the bridge on Peach-tree creek. They seemed to spring from the ground, and to continue springing.

A stream of non-combatants commenced flowing across the bridge. Pack-mules, imprudently taken close to our lines by fortuitous darkies, came scampering back, the latter turned tawnybrown with fright and reeking with perspiration. Ambulances tumbled over the bridge in demoralized columns. A few armed stragglers stalked. sheepishly along, the consciousness that everybody who met them would fathom their meanness imprinted on their faces and in their movements. The curtain of pickets guarding the interval in our lines came rushing along,

bedaubed with mud and bedraggled with water, having barely escaped the rebel rush with their liberty. Orderlies dashed up the road yelling for ammunition-trains, and teamsters climbed trees for lookouts and reported that the Johnnies were charging by the acre; that our troops were in confusion; and finally summed up the first aspect of the situation, announcing it as confounded scaly,

triumph, and his horse laboring for breath. Up and down his division he had ridden during the fight, just as Phil. Sheridan used to ride when be marshalled the same battalions. Whatever of regret there may be in that division for the loss of the little corporal, now at the head of our cavaliers, and whatever of coldness a new cominander experiences after replacing a universal favorite, both were dissipated that day by Genoral Newton. Such courage as he displayed is a carte blanche to the affections of his command. He may have won it by other means. Не bought it that day in good, sterling, martial coin. For once stragglers were put to some use, and distinguished themselves. General Newton caused all he could find to be placed with his batteries as a support. As such, they contributed materially to break the rebel line when it dashed nearest the guns.

tured, and could hardly credit his senses when he found the brogan on the other foot.

It is superfluous to say that General Kimball gave fresh instances of his heroism; that Colonel Bradley was cool, inflexible and intrepid, or that Colonel Blake added another leaf to his laurels as a gallant man and a competent leader. Their brigades did not yield an inch; no higher eulogy can be pronounced than that.

There are some things happen in battles which go to show that Providence does not always favor the largest battalions. Napoleon's own military career disproved his favorite maxim. It falls to the lot of some men to do the lucky things at the lucky moment; and when Captain Goodspeed, Newton's chief of artillery, twenty minutes before the charge, ordered ten guns from the north to the south bank of Peach-tree creek, he probably little thought that he was to contribute so much toward crushing the rebellion- It was in Newton's front that General Stevens, to the repulse of what many think the most commanding a brigade in Walker's division, reckless charge the enemy has made during the Hardee's corps, fell. For every casualty in war. It was the work of a moment to burl the Newton's division, two dead rebels were picked ten guns, already near the destination, to the up in his front the next morning; and it is safe proper point on Newton's flank, the work of to say that the loss in the two rebel divisions another to unlimber. As the enemy reached a that assaulted his position cannot be less than point within seventy-five yards of our lines one thousand five hundred. Among his prisonthese ten guns open. What exquisite music ers is a rebel surgeon, who unsuspectingly drove was in their crash! How joyous was the whirl into General Kimball's lines with an ambulance of the blue glamour from their throats. How and a brace of splendid mules. He asked the fiercely flew swab and rammer. How cease-first Yankee he encountered where he was caplessly the lanyards were jerked. How hotly the cartridge-bearers shot back and forth from their caissons, and how, notwithstanding, the lookeron felt like goading them to efforts still more desperate. There was something satisfying and reassuring in the ear-splitting din. We could tell from the peculiar.whistle that our gunners were firing canister, and we breathlessly waited for the smoke to lift for a moment, that we might see its effect. The moment came. With a ragged front line the rebel column had halted, and were firing wild, but tremendous volleys. Colors disappeared and alignments were lost. Colonels rallying their men became tangled up with the swaying and disordered lines, and melted out of view like Edgar of Ravenswood. Riderless horses plunged across the field with a puzzled gallop, swaying from side to side, snuffing the terror of the moment and screaming with fright. Four guns of Smith's First Mich- Ward, in command of General Butterfield's igan battery went into action hastily on New-division, had left his trenches, and was advancing ton's right flank, and added theirs to the inter- to close upon Newton's right. He had reached mingling detonations. Portions of the assaulting. the base of a hill along which his column was lines made shivering little efforts to advance, resting, when he received a message from his and the next instant fell to pieces. In twenty skirmish line deployed along the summit of the minutes-no more-the rebel columns were ridge, that the enemy was approaching in trerouted and flying back to the forests from which mendous force. From the crest of the hill the they came forth, with an almost complete loss of country in front is open, though broken, and in organization. It was the last seen of them in all the panoply of war, streaming banners, and that portion of the field, and the stirring cheers even, swift-stepping ranks, came the enemy, that went up from Newton's men were the pouring into the fields, filling them densely as charmed peroration of the history made by the he advanced, It was but the work of a moment unfaltering lads in blue upon that field. for General Ward to form his line. The next his skirmishers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Bloodgood, of the Twenty-second Wiscon

"Wasn't it dusty ?" exclaimed General Newton, as he came riding back, his face aglow with

General Thomas witnessed the heavy fighting under Newton. He warmly commended Captain Goodspeed for the celerity with which he brought his guns into action. Though General Thomas' face is one in which benevolence and majesty contend, those who were with him during the bloody twenty minutes on that portion of the line-under a heavy fire, be it understood -say that the majesty was a little in excess while it lasted.

sin, were hotly engaged, but they stood their ground. No sooner were his brigades in line, than the blunt and warlike old veteran gave the word "Forward."

In superb order his division mounted the hill, and over the crest it swept, taking the skirmishers along. Portions of the hostile lines halted at close quarters and fought for a while, and on the right, so great was the momentum of the counter-charge, several regiments became commingled, the rebels in such cases exhibiting the greatest disorder, and submitting to capture without debate. The rebels opposing Ward, prominent among whom was General Featherston's division, were totally unprepared for the fearful shock which came upon them at the crest of the hill, and to a great extent they were unnerved by it. Our line poured in deadly volleys, and steadily pushed the enemy, now in confusion, across the field. The attack on Ward was virtually over in fifteen minutes, though he had not so much as a piece of artillery to settle the matter with a sharp turn. The rebels came on in double lines originally, but the moment Ward struck them they showed signs of confusion, and both lines became intermingled. Seven battle-flags were wrested from the severelywhipped foe, and are held by Ward as his tangible trophies, He too, had done the lucky thing at the lucky moment; in addition to which his personal bravery during the fight was the theme of enthusiastic comment among his men. In front of this division the slaughter of the rebels was very great. In riding over the ground next morning, I was astonished to see the long winrows of their dead collected for burial. Many of their severely wounded-of whom one hundred and fifty-four fell into Ward's hands were still scattered over the field, though the ambulances were all engaged in carrying them to our hospitals. General Ward's own estimate of the rebel loss in his front is from two thousand to two thousand five hundred. He captured over three hundred prisoners. His victory was the most pronounced of any along the line, and his loss, though severe, is probably much less than it would have been had he not met the enemy half way.

At noon on the twentieth, Geary advanced his tete de pont, and with the assistance of a section of McGill's battery, succeeded in taking a ridge in his front, to which he advanced his division, formed with Colonel Candy's brigade on the left, Colonel Jones' on the right, and Colonel Ireland's in the centre, and proceeded at once to erect barricades. The Thirty-third New Jersey went forward and occupied another hill, some one,hundred yards further south, where they began to erect works. They had just fairly got to work when the fierce shout of the enemy and the confused sound of their myriad tramp struck the startled ear. More than half of Geary's line was in a dense forest filled with underbrush; the remainder faced an open field. Across the latter, it was a brave but terrifying sight. When we remember that the entire rebel attacking column

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reached along the front of but four of our divisions, it can easily be conceived how massive and deep their formations were. In the forest, the thickets fairly wilted and disappeared under their feet, so closely were they packed, and so irresistible their progress. They came on without skirmishers, and as if by instinct, struck Geary's right flank, where a gap existed, that Williams' division was endeavoring to close. The four regiments forming the right brigade were enveloped on their flank and rear in a moment, and cruelly enfiladed. Subjected to half a dozen cross-fires, the brigade fell back hastily to the trenches it had left in the morning. To remain would have been annihilation.

Portions of Colonel Ireland's brigade were also torn to pieces by the withering cross-fires, and fell back after repeated gallant efforts to re-form their line to return the fire on flank and rear. The moment was a desperate one. The enemy were almost within grasp of Lieutenant Bundy's battery on the right, but he wheeled one section from front to right, and by doubleshotting the guns with canister, succeeded in repelling the greedy vermin in dirty gray. His gunners, however, were shot down one after another, until a detail of infantry men from the Sixtieth New York was called for to work them. A sergeant in this battery fell pierced with seven balls. A corporal received nine, seven of which passed through his heart.

So bitter was this enfilading fire to which Geary's position was exposed, that the caissons of the guns that had been taken to the rear for safety were driven back to the front to escape a more deadly fire than was sustained at the ordinary point of danger. But the remainder of Geary's brigade stood firm as a rock. The enemy in vain charged and recharged from front and right flank. Until nightfall the unequal contest was waged, but Geary held his hill inflexibly. The enemy sullenly left his front during the evening, firing spitefully as he retired.

The regiments that had fallen back were reformed and sent into action again on General Williams' left, aiding materially in checking the rebel column that was pouring through the uutoward interval and flooding Geary's rear.

I have seen most of the battle-fields in the South-west, but nowhere have I seen traces of more deadly work than is visible in the dense woods in which Geary's right was formed. Thickets were literally cradled by bullets, and on the large trees, for twenty feet on the trunk, hardly a square inch of bark remained. Many were torn and splintered with shell and roundshot, the enemy in their attack on Geary and Williams using artillery, which they did not bring into action on other portions of the line. Knapp's Pennsylvania battery was engaged from beginning to end on Geary's left flank, and contributed vastly to his success in holding to his position, as it were, with his teeth. Captain Elliott, of Geary's staff, was instantly killed during the action. The General's staff has suf

fered heavily during the campaign, having lost five of its members since the movement against Dallas.

The Thirty-third New Jersey, which was advanced to fortify a hill on the skirmish line, lost more than half its number on the first onset. General Geary was on the hill with it when attacked, and had barely time to reach his main column.

ATTACK ON GENERAL WILLIAMS.

The rebel attack rolled along the left until General Williams' fine division was fully engaged. It had advanced to close up on Geary, General Knipe's brigade in the centre, General Ruger's on the right, and Colonel Robinson's on the left. It fought from four o'clock till long after dark, in a dense forest, without yielding a foot. It was a fair stand up fight, in which Williams' division lost more heavily than any other in the engagement. When they first advanced against Colonel Robinson's brigade, the rebels held up their hands as if to surrender, upon which, seeing our lads hesitate, they instantly poured a volley into them. wretched and cowardly tactics were practised on other portions of the line.

These

The brigade of Colonel Ansel McCook, on Palmer's left, was at one time heavily engaged, the One Hundred and Fourth and Tenth Wis consin losing about fifty men each. The remainder of Palmer's corps was not engaged, and so rapid and conclusive was the fighting

that it was not needed to assist Hooker or Newton.

It is estimated that every man in Hooker's corps expended over a hundred rounds of ammunition. At the beginning of the fight the ammunition trains were on the north bank of the creek, but they were rushed over before the troops had generally emptied their

boxes.

The enemy retired a mile or more during the night, falling back to his works around Atlanta. Hood's inaugural was not very felicitous. The battle of Peach-tree creek must rank with the most brilliant successes of the war. The failure of the rebels to destroy our right wing was owing to the indominable pluck of the men. They couldn't afford to be whipped, and such being the case, General Hood was unhappy in supposing that he could worst ten thousand of our lads with his whole army, even after (to borrow a phrase from the Confederate classics), "getting them just where he wanted them."

the Twentieth corps, and I trust the same may not be unacceptable to your readers.

On the nineteenth instant the army of the Cumberland arrived in position south of the The Chattahoochee, and north of Atlanta. Fourteenth corps occupied the right wing, the Fourth the left, and the Twentieth the centre. The line extended along the north bank of Peach-tree creek, and in a direction perpendicular to the line of rebel works bordering the Chattahoochee. The position thus adopted compelled the enemy to change his front and assume a new line of defence. In the mean time the armies of the Tennessee and the Ohio were expected to shortly sever the Georgia railroad near Stone Mountain, and to march toward Atlanta in a direction threatening the right flank and rear of the rebel army.

On the twentieth instant a general advance in the direction of Atlanta was begun. By ten o'clock A. M. the Twentieth corps had arrived in position on the heights skirting Peach-tree creek on its south bank. The First division joined the Fourteenth corps on the right, the Second division held the centre, and the Third joined Newton's division of the Fourth corps on the extreme left. A heavy picket was thrown out, and was considered a sufficient precaution against any hostile demonstration of the enemy, since nothing was thought of but an advance against his position. The troops were permitted to rest quietly in the shade, and were not troubled with building the usual breastworks deemed necessary at each change of the line of battle. Temporary barricades of rails were thought a sufficient strengthening of the line for all necessary purposes.

Thus the day wore away until two o'clock P. M. Comparatively little firing hal followed the movements of the troops-just enough to reveal the presence and position of the enemy. The developments anxiously hoped-for in the movements of McPherson and Schofield seemed to be awaited as the signal for active demonstrations by the Army of the Cumberland. But the enemy, appreciating the desperate condition to which he was being rapidly brought, bethought himself to make one bold, dashing, determined effort to thwart our designs. Accordingly, early in the afternoon a fierce, rapid fire broke out along our picket lines, which quickly grew into a volleying roll of musketry in front of Ward's and Geary's divisions. The storm soon extended along the line toward the right where Williams' division lay grouped along the crest of a rather high and denselywooded hill. Between Williams' and Geary's divisions lay a deep hollow, down which, ·} masked by the timber, the enemy was now advancing in heavy masses. General Williams, On yesterday occurred one of the most san- with that sudden inspiration which characterguinary and brilliant conflicts which have be-izes true military genius, saw at a glance the fallen this army upon the soil of Georgia. I shall endeavor to write an account of that portion of it engaged in by the First division of

AN OFFICER'S ACCOUNT.

FOUR AND A QUARTER MILES NORTH OF ATLANTA,
GEORGIA, July 21.

arrangement of his troops which, according to the nature of the ground and the unexpected exigencies of the moment, was best adapted

REBELLION RECORD, 1862-65.

to meet this unlooked-for demonstration of the enemy. He hurried his brigades into position on the double-quick, and though they moved with all possible celerity, was unable to get them in their proper places ere they received a terrific fire from the enemy. gade hastened along the crest of the hill, then Robinson's brifacing by the left flank, marched down the slope to receive the swarming masses of the overconfident and defiant foe. enemy was so murderous, and his advance so The fire of the impetuous, that it seemed for a time as if Rob inson's line must surely yield. It was an awful moment. The combatants were mingled with each other, and fighting hand to hand. The safety of the corps, and indeed the entire army seemed to depend upon the courage and determination of those devoted men. Should they give way, the enemy would get possession of the hill, command the rear, break the centre, capture hundreds of prisoners, all our artillery, and drive the remnant of our troops back to the creek, and perhaps to the Chattahoochee. But not one inch would those intrepid veterans yield. Though their ranks were fearfully thinned, and the tangled forest became strewn with bleeding forms as with autumn leaves, yet they determinedly maintained their position, and compelled the enemy to withdraw, leaving his dead and wounded mingled with the brave heroes who had fought and fallen beneath the starry folds of the flag of the Union.

While Robinson's brigade was thus contending against fearful odds, Knipe's (First) brigade had formed a line of battle stretching along the crest of the hill, in continuation of Robinson's line, and forming connection with the Fourteenth corps. Knipe had no sooner got into position than the enemy poured down upon him in an onslaught no less fierce and desperate than that made against Robinson. The awful picture of the battle as it raged at this monent no pencil can paint, no pen describe. The noonday air became dark and heavy with the powder-smoke, which hung like a gloomy canopy over the pale, bloody corpses of the slain. Wounded men were borne to the rear by scores, the blood streaming from their lacerated flesh, and presenting a sight which at any other time would sicken the heart with horror. instant some patriot heart, some noble form, the Each treasure and the light of some distant household, fell prone upon the earth and added a new martyr to freedom, a new victim to the causeless crime of southern traitors. The rattling roll of the musketry sounded like the continuous war of a cataract, and was joined by the thunderous chime of the deep-throated cannon, which spouted unceasing volumes of flames and iron into the faces of the foe. But amid all this carnage and confusion, Williams' veteran heroes wavered not, and the red star (the badge of the First division, Twentieth corps) of the First division never gleamed more valiantly than it did in the hour of that dreadful conflict. Too much cannot be said in praise of men who

would thus so nobly do and dare for the cause of country, God, and truth.

line or drive it from the hill, suddenly withThe enemy, finding it impossible to break the drew a short distance into the woods; but the rebels would surge forward again to the charge, fight did not end here. Ever and anon the as if goaded by some spirit of madness or fired by a desperate resolution which would not of Chickamauga was repeated, but with different listen to failure. The sanguinary recklessness results. Every effort of the enemy was foiled, every attack repulsed. Evening came on apace, and the battle subsided into the irregular firing of the pickets. The last beams of the declining sun, though they gleamed upon a sad and revolting spectacle, yet seemed to set the bloody field aglow with the almost unearthly light of complete triumph and glorious victory.

First division has participated during this camThus terminated the fifth battle in which the paign. last, the enemy has been thoroughly beaten, and In each previous instance, as in this in no case has he gained the slightest advantage of General Williams' veterans. Twice at Resaca, once at Dallas, once at Kenesaw, and finally, once, at least, in the great struggle before Atlanta, the enemy has been compelled to eat the bitter fruit of defeat and disaster by this splendid division. Yet comparatively little has been credit of much that it has done has been unsaid of its exploits in the public prints, and the fairly awarded to other commands. Its intrepid and skilful leader, who has the most unlimited confidence of his entire command, seems to have been also overlooked, both by the public and the Government, and those cheap rewards, so justly due to long and faithful services, seem to have been withheld from him to be bestowed upon others who were less of soldiers and more of politicians. It is well that the Republic can yet boast of men to whom the voice of duty speaks more potently than the insinuations of public ingratitude and personal injustice. History will forever honor the men who have done the real work of this war, while she will utterly ignore the political scramblers who by wireworking have obtained lofty promotion, and on of fire-fly reputation. very small capital have managed to obtain a sort

ceived a damaging blow, from which he cannot In the repulse of yesterday, the enemy refully recover. It is almost to be hoped, that he will continue to spend his strength in such crazy attempts to destroy this army. By no other means can he more surely bring himself to that just retribution which is the proper reward of his crime against his country and the civilization of the age. Let the rebel legions continue to precipitate themselves against the iron lines that press them toward the Gulf. It may ultimately give relief to their insane hate, and bring them, by the dreadful argument of blood, to the conviction that they are wrong and we are right.

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