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ing, and the Seventh Iowa. They moved straight up to the ridge from which the rebels opened on us in the advance. The enemy, unsupported by infantry of any number or importance, hurriedly vacated the summit, and carried with them the little howitzers.

Sweeping around the Resacca road, the column moved forward toward the gap, through which leads the wagon road to the town. Just to the left of the road stands a bald knob, from which the rebel artillery again opened, but which the industry and skill of our sharpshooters compelled the enemy to leave. The knob was then possessed, and the enemy, with a few pieces from the forts near the town, thundered away until nightfall.

General Dodge did not regard his flanks as sufficiently protected to warrant an attempt to possess the town, or even to remain and hold the heights, and he retired under cover of the night to the main force at Snake Creek Gap, where, by this time, Logan's Fifteenth corps was rapidly arriving.

To whose account must be credited a woful failure I shall not determine. That some one is censurable for our failure to cut the railroad at and hold Resacca there seems to me to be no manner of doubt.

Operations on the twelfth.

In obedience to orders from the General commanding, this morning, cool and pleasant, with excellent roads, the Fourteenth corps moves from Buzzard Roost, and following the Twentieth, hurries forward to Snake Creek Gap.

While this concentration of the armies is going on, Kilpatrick determines to reconnoitre in the direction of Dalton, which is now almost eighteen miles north of us.

Leaving the Third Kentucky, under command of Major Wolfley, to picket and hold the Resacca road, the General, with Colonel Murray's brigade, leaves our outer barricade, and bears towards the enemy. He is soon engaged, but lightly, however, and the Ninety-third Illinois, Colonel Atkins' mounted infantry, drives the rebels rapidly before it. The losses were light on both sides, and the boys professed themselves highly disappointed.

Operations on the thirteenth.

At six o'clock the cavalry left camp, and took the advance toward Resacca, General Kilpatrick leading the van. Skirmishers were deployed at the picket line, and, though the enemy fought stubbornly, he was pushed persistently back. The country here on either hand is very hilly, rough, and broken, and is covered with pine jungles and brush thickets, through which it is almost impossible to penetrate on horseback. Through this dense undergrowth, however, our cavalry pushed the enemy foot by foot, Kilpatrick busily riding the lines, superintending the work, and cheering the boys.

I admire, and so does the world, the man who,

fearless when duty calls, steps forward to his place, and holds ever a dauntless front to his enemy. But in all candor, and that candor springs from my esteem and admiration for the man, I cannot see the good to be accomplished by General Kilpatrick's constantly galloping up and down the skirmish line in full view of the enemy, who want nothing better than an opportunity now and then to send a bullet through one of our general officers. His commands might just as readily be carried front in the usual manner, and he remain somewhat retired. However, in my regret for the General's fall, I find myself turning critic.

General Kilpatrick, accompanied by his faithful staff officer, Captain H. E. Stansbury, was endeavoring to find through the pine thickets the direction of his skirmish line, when they came suddenly upon a party of rebels lying in wait for him. So near were the rebels that, in rising, one of them struck Captain Stansbury's horse with his gun. The escape of the couple with their lives is certainly miraculous.

General Logan, with Osterhaus and Harrow, of the Fifteenth, is seen arriving, and soon begins to form his line just at the intersection of the Dalton and Resacca roads.

Troops are manoeuvred with great difficulty in a densely wooded and rolling country, and hence we leave the infantry to form its line of battle.

Colonel Murray assumed command of the third Illinois, devolved the command of Colonel division, and upon Colonel Atkins, of the NinetyMurray's brigade. A force of cavalry is at once ordered out on the main Dalton road, and our outpost is at Holcomb's, three miles from

Resacca.

At 2:30 P. M. General Osterhaus is ordered forward toward Resacca. General M. L. Smith's

division climbs to the summit of the ridge in front, and Harrow is held in reserve on the left.

The skirmishers of General Osterhaus' division are soon engaged, but the line scarcely halts. The firing is desultory along the entire front, and with but very little difficulty we gain the curve of the road, just where it sweeps around the point of the ridge and passes through the gap. To the left of the road on the bald knob taken by Dodge, on the eleventh, the enemy had two guns, and opened viciously as our skirmishers, moving from the cover of the ridge, exposed themselves in the open fields.

The line was halted, and a few minutes after three o'clock Griffith's First Iowa battery was answering the iron compliments of our malicious brothers in kind. The artillery "mill" continues for a half hour, when the bugle sounds the advance for the skirmishers, and the line steadily, coolly, bravely goes forward.

The Twenty-seventh Missouri, Colonel Curly, of General Wood's brigade, rises the bald knob, and drags up its declivitous sides the First Indiana battery. Scarcely have the guns been placed in position when a terrible concentrated fire of artillery from the forts near the town

sweeps the hill. Never, during all my experience, have I witnessed such a storm of shell and shot of every character as on that day tore the earth and shivered the trees on the little knob held by the Twenty-seventh Missouri. No musician extant could allot to its proper place in any diapason known the perfectly incredible and inconceivable variations in sound that on that day floated through the valleys of Oostanaula. Ear never before heard, I am sure, such a perfectly hideous transfusion and jumble of noises, such a perfect salmagundi of screeches, hisses, howls, rolls, yells, thugs, and even whispers, as was heard on that occasion.

Shortly after three o'clock Colonel Williams' brigade of Harrison's division emerges from the wooded hill to the left of the road, and swinging round to the left of the bald knob, enters the fight. His right is in an open field, but his left is somewhat sheltered by the forest. From the time the brigade entered into action until five o'clock in the evening it battles and bleeds, and at nightfall bearing with it five wounded officers, one killed, eighty-two wounded soldiers, and fourteen killed.

The figures speak for the gallantry of the brigade, and every regiment of which fought with all the bravery and tenacity that the occasion demanded. To this brigade the famous Irish regiment (the Ninetieth Illinois) belongs. It is indeed a proud spectacle to see America's adopted sons from the Emerald Isle baring their breasts in battle with the colors of the Union and the green flag of Ireland floating side by side. As I looked upon the bronzed and bloody faces of the heroes borne upon litters from the field, I could not but regret that the monuments that Irish bravery had reared on every soil the sun of heaven shines upon should not be planted on their native soil, among a people united in heart and hand as when Erin's bards sang of Ireland's independence, and told in song the story of brave deeds wrought by her brave

sons.

Supporting the First Indiana, lay along the foot of the hill General Ward's brigade of Harrison's division. Colonel Walcott, of the Fortysixth Ohio, with his brigade, relieved Colonel Williams. A gap between General Johnson and the Fifteenth corps was supplied for the night by throwing into it General Daniel Butterfield's division of the Twentieth corps, and so let us look into the operations on the fourteenth.

Johnson's left was too far out of line, and he determined to swing around and align with Butterfield, pushing up further towards the brink of the ridge, which at this point is very precipitous. The line was early in motion, and the progress, though disputed, was steady.

Before I refer to the charge made by Judah, and gloriously supported by Turchin, of Baird's division, let us, after the shifting and manoeuvrings of the few past hours, look again at the line, and notice the position of the forces.

We have already seen that Johnson was successful in rectifying or straightening his line. His left, then held by King, touched Baird's right, held by Van Derveer. Turchin, on Baird's left, joined Hascall, the right of General Judah's line, and Este, of Baird's division, lay in reserve.

Take, for instance, the letter L. Let the longer stroke represent a ridge about five miles in length, the shorter one the ridge occupied by the Fifteenth army corps, and running a distance of two and a half or three miles, to the Oostanaula. Place the letter so that the longer ridge inclines a little to the northwest. Now grasp the shortest stroke and pull it back so as to add to the angle it makes with the longer at least fifteen degrees. Now imagine enough of the ridges at the angle cut away to measure two hundred yards, and you have our line of battle at Resacca. In this open space of the angle is where Colonel Williams' brigade fought so long and lost so heavily.

The rebel line of works run along the summit of a ridge of almost equal altitude, and as Evening came on; thousands of camp-fires nearly parallel to the one occupied by the Fedshot their bright beams through the darkness eral forces as two ridges ever were. They are from every knoll and depression in the plain; separated by a narrow valley not more than six long, thin, spiral columns creep upward through hundred yards in width, measuring from base to the twilight, and all around, far as the eye can base. Two water courses traverse the valley. reach, busy thousands, just returned from bat- One hugs the base of the Union ridge, venturtle, are preparing their frugal meals; wagonsing out only now and then, and then only apparand artillery and horses and men are moving over the plain, their voices and noises commingling to make one continuous din. What a change!

"But yester eve, so motionless around,

So mute was this wide plain, that not a sound
But the far torrent, or the forest bird,
Hunting among the thickets, could be heard."

The line to-night was as follows: General M. L. Smith held the ridge to the right of the road. Two pieces of the Fourth Ohio battery occupied the hill immediately next in order to Bald Knob, on the opposite side of the road, and the First Indiana still held Bald Knob.

ently to water some little willow copse. The other is a serpentine little stream, winding about in more contortions than a reptile could display in a lifetime, and finally joins the other at the farther extremity of the valley.

The rebel ridge is unbroken save at the extreme right, where a gap admits the Dalton road. Ours is broken in two places, at the angle and about half way down the line. Just where the ridge is broken in the centre, terminated Baird's line on the terminus of the part next the angle. Judah's line began just on the point of the continuation. The opening here is perhaps two hundred yards in width.

Standing in an open wheat field near the cut in the ridge, and looking towards the long white serrated parapets on the heights opposite, screened by a thicket of young pines and a clump of tall forest trees, is a battery, which, from the conformation of the hill, has an enfilading fire on a portion of our rifle-pits, and on any force attempting to charge across the valley. It was determined, therefore, to assault, and, if possible, carry this work.

At 1:30 P. M. General Judah was directed to lead a column against the heights, and Turchin descending the precipice in his front was to form in line and move to his support. At the same time, by way of diversion, Johnson was to quit his line and charge the heights immediately opposite.

The forces advanced under a terrific hail of bullets, shells, grape, and deathly missiles of every character, in the following order:

Hascall, of Judah's line, lapped Turchin's left in front. The right of Turchin and the left of Judah were somewhat screened, while the flanks lapping were exposed to a seething fire. There was no lagging. The colors of every regiment went right along to the base of the stronghold, and until the men were sheltered by the front from the artillery, which could not be sufficiently depressed to do them harm. Now from every angle along the line within range of the stormers poured down the merciless sleet of bullets. Artillery opens on both sides, and the whole valley is filled with the dun, sulphurous smoke, through which the steady assailants move more like churchyard ghouls or gnomes than human beings, braving the terrors of our modern Mars.

floats off on the breeze, and clear and bright above the line that sways first to the right then to the left, now advances, now retires, but still bleeds on, floats, and flaps our flag so plainly that I half imagine I can hear the rustle of its silken folds.

For one long hour this contest raged, and these sturdy heroes that would not waver labored and struggled to gain the top. The odds was too great, however, and the column, torn and mangled, fell back to our works on the ridge.

A party of officers, among whom were General Schofield, Palmer, Thomas, Elliott, and Whipple, were standing in the open field to which I have referred, just in front of the gap in the ridge; a rebel gunner discovering the group trained his gun and sent a round shot whizzing within a few feet of the knarled and knotty old war horse, on whose countenance and gray hairs I never look but in reverence, for there is sound, tried, genuine military ability. The effect of the shot after deigning first to spare the head of Captain Snodgrass, that it actually endangered, was to cause what the boys call a "scatterment."

Captain Ingalls, who was serving on General Schofield's staff, was torn to pieces by a shell, a short distance from the spot just referred to.

Stanley, who is being hard pressed, sends hastily for aid, declaring that the enemy is massing with the aim of turning our left. Hooker is called on, and prompt and eager as though not half the years that his gray locks denote had passed over him, he is in the saddle and shortly leads reinforcements to the left.

Anxious to witness the struggle, should any come, I accompanied Lieutenant Shaw, of General Elliott's staff, towards the left. On the way we meet General Stanley and staff, their horses all afoam, galloping toward the left to bring up the reinforcements. He soon meets Hooker and his troops, and proposes to lead them down a dark and narrow gorge, by a nearer route, to join and assist the left.

A half hour later, and the quick, sharp volleys, further to the right, announce that Johnson is on the move. He, too, with banners flying, and covered by the plunging shell and canister, is fighting his way across the valley with the object of assaulting the enemy's works. As the line left the slope on the perilous charge, Captain Irvine McDowell, of the Fifteenth Kentucky, than whom, for bravery and The mingled sound of cheers and musketry exemplary qualities of heart, no man in the is distinctly heard, darkness is fast approachdivision was more highly esteemed, dropped ing, and, descending the slope as rapidly as the from the line a bloody corpse. Here, too, in this nature of the ground would permit, we are soon charge, memorable ever as connected with that in an open field. This field contains about ten bloody assault of Judah and Turchin, fell Cap-acres, is rectangular in shape, and in the centre, tain Fotrel and Lieutenant Higby, the latter of the Thirty-third Ohio.

on a knoll, Major Simonson has planted the Fifth Indiana battery, better known as the "Old Simonson battery." In front, after passing over the open ground, runs a succession of very high hills. One of these is called "Round Hill." Stanley pushed his division up this and occupied it all the afternoon. The enemy, finding

Johnson, unable to scale the hill, retires, and the enemy, pouring over his works, form in line to charge him. Facing about the thrilling "forward rings again along the line, and Johnson's men have again scattered, as the wind scatters the straws before it, the presump-our left weak, determined to mass against it, tuous graycoats that thought to follow him.

Let us return again to the assailants under Judah and Turchin. Still persistently the column clings to the slope, and seems determined to have the fort if fighting will suffice to capture it. Now and then the sulphur cloak that obscures and at times hides them from view

and, if possible, crush it before nightfall.

Their onslaught had been boldly met and once or twice repulsed. Numbers, however, will at times prevail over tenacity and courage, and so it was with Stanley. The forces that were broken were defeated by force of numbers, and once disordered, that portion of

it was impossible to rally to effective resist

ance.

The condition was indeed critical. Our troops came out of the woods in confusion and poured Over the barricade and towards the guns. The enemy's skirmishers appeared at the edge of the forest and then the batteries' thunders spoke. Shell and shot whistled so keenly about the rebels' ears that they did not care to expose themselves in the open field. Marching by right flank Stewart led his forces under cover of the ridge, the rebels' lines started and reformed in line of battle, and determinedly pushed forward to take the battery. The rebel command to charge rang out on the evening air; as I anticipated, the remnants of the flight that were gathered behind the barricade to support the guns, fled without firing a gun. Fled did I say ? No; there was one who did not flee, and his name should be treasured in the reports among those of the hero boys who at times of sorest need have shown by their unflinching firmness, amid dangers that appal the hearts of men, that they are worthy the honors that men

wear.

Jonas Perkins, Company D, of the One Hundred and Eighth Ohio, performed an act of heroism on that occasion that entitles him to an acknowledgment from the General commanding, and to whatever mark of confidence and esteem he in the exercise of his influence can secure for him.

Huddled, not aligned behind the rails near the battery, were at least a hundred men who had been driven there by the officers on duty after having been demoralized in fight. When the rebel line a second time started on a charge -this time to take a battery and destroy the last hope for holding the left—they gave way and ran.

Jonas Perkins, a boy about seventeen years of age in appearance, but a full-grown man in action, stood alone and at his post. The cannoneer at post No. 3 was struck by a Minié ball and disabled. Young Perkins leaned his gun against the barricade, and there amid the thunders of six guns when stout hearts were failing and all seemed lost, when that little cove dark ened by the smoke of battle was ringing with the lusty cheers of the enemy, he stepped up and asked the Captain if he might take the post of the fallen man, and throughout the action bore himself as nobly as the noblest. Simonson, the very embodiment of bravery, stood firmly at his guns and hurled across the plain his double-shotted canister. A cheer is heard at last, and down the gorge comes Robinson's brigade of Williams' division, who, on hurrying to the barricade, soon thrust back the eager assailants and closed the contest.

At five and a half o'clock in the evening, General M. L. Smith, with one brigade on the right, and General Osterhaus, with Wood's brigade on the left, descended from the hills, and charging across the undulating country in his front, carried the first line of the enemy's

rifle-pits between us and his main works around Resacca. The rebels retiring to their main line, are reinforced, and returning with cheers, charge up to the very ditch, but are repulsed. At nightfall, finding that the enemy's guns, from a fort to the left of the town, enfiladed the lines, it was determined to add to the depth of the pits and throw up traverses.

So determined had been the charge of the rebel line to retake their works, that one fell with his head actually hanging over the edge of the ditch. In deepening them the dirt thrown up buried him, save his feet, and to-day his shoes may be seen sticking from the breastworks, in attempting to storm which he became a part.

About ten o'clock at night French's rebel division stole stealthily towards our line, and advancing by column, attempted to turn our left. A fresh brigade from the heights was hurried across the rolling ground below, and succeeded after a desperate conflict in driving the enemy back.

The struggle seen from the hills was grand beyond description. Lifted above a line of battle the musketry seems like hammers, and the sea of sparks that fall from the flame as it leaps from the muzzle like so many sparks from an anvil. To see a whole line firing, not by volley, but as rapidly as the men may load, and at night the line of flame looks like glowing chain-work that artisans are welding at the forge. Listen to it attentively and one would say that there are anvils employed of different weights. Some have a tinkling treble, and others have a hoarse dull bass. Mingle with this now the bellowings of the artillery, and the chime makes real music.

With the object of throwing Garrard's cavalry across the Oostanaula, the second division of the Sixteenth was ordered down to lay pontoons. The enemy was found on the opposite bank, and a sharp fight ensued. Artillery was brought up, the enemy was dispersed, and at four o'clock the pontoons were down, and the cavalry was crossing.

The cavalry once across, General Sweeney crossed with his infantry, and threw up good works to protect the boats.

Thus closed the fighting on the sixteenth.

As I pass around the camp, even among those who have come out from the fiery ordeal unsinged, are not a few making the hours speed in hilarity as though Momus were indeed holding court instead of Mars.

Operations on the fifteenth.

Musketry begins at daylight again. I hear it last when I go to sleep and first when I waken. There is a haze floating through the atmosphere, and the sun this morning is the blood-red orb that rose on Chickamauga. May its setting leave to rest and night our troops victorious, was said more than once that morning, for we all knew there would be fightinghard, bloody fighting, done that day.

Where? Was the question every one asked and no one replied, except to guess. No troops were stirring. It was a quiet morning indeed. General Sherman was seen going to the left, and General Thomas, the staid old adviser of Rosecrans, and who is the most intimate and respected adviser of General Sherman, was seen jogging quietly in the same direction. It was determined at last by General Sherman that a high knob, the slope of which was covered with a dense growth of underbrush, should be carried by assault.

back only to return and wave from the very spot where its former bearer fell.

The boys were determined not to let the guns slip from their grasp, and about three hundred huddled under cover of the redoubt, and picked off every enemy that made an effort to take them out. Was ever battery in such an anomalous position? Within grasp almost of two parties, and yet it would be almost death to either to attempt their seizure. There with straining eyes lay the disputants hour after hour, killing and maiming each other, and yet both determinedly clinging to the trophy After dark the rebels made a charge for the battery, but the staunch three hundred drove them back and retained possession.

About eleven o'clock at night the three hundred men were released by a detail, which with spades widened the embrasures and dragged out the guns.

The loss of the brigade in this brilliant affair was almost four hundred men.

General Harrison, grandson of the old President, in whose veins courses the same patriotic ardor that so distinguished his grandfather, made application in conjunction with General Ward for permission to charge the enemy's main line in rear of the redoubt, but the General regarded the sacrifice as unnecessary, and the request was not granted.

Brigadier-General Ward, the rough, stern old Kentuckian, who commands a brigade in Butterfield's division, was chosen to perform the work, and it delighted him. The assaulting force was formed in column of battalion, the Seventieth Indiana taking the lead, followed in turn by the other regiments of the brigade. General Coburn's brigade was to have been held in reserve, but afterwards participated. Colonel Wood's brigade participated also in the grand assault. General Ward moved his brigade, which he had formed under cover of the woods, out into the open field, and prepared to move towards the knob. On the very summit of this almost inaccessible knob the enemy had constructed a redoubt for four guns. No sooner had Ward's troops emerged into the open ground beyond the works, when the little redoubt belched forth a torrent of missiles that Colonels Coburn and Wood, each of whom overshot the column and failed to injure a man. fought brigrades on the left of Ward, suffered From the rebel rifle-pits on the right flank, how-heavy losses, and reaped honors that will not ever, and from the rebel infantry on the knoll, soon fade. came a sleet of bullets, in which it seemed almost, if not quite miraculous that anything could live. Through all this the column pressed, the Seventieth Indiana rising the slope, entering the thicket, and pushing towards the redoubt. The artillerists apply their matches to no effect; up go the men; they enter embrasures, shoot the gunners at their work, and the flag floats from the parapet.

General Ward is severely wounded in the charge, and upon the young and gallant Harrison devolves the command of the brigade.

Just in rear of the redoubt runs a splendid line of rifle-pits, rising from behind, from which the rebels pour in such withering volleys that we were forced to retire from the work. Through the interstices, now and then, as the breeze carries off the sulphur cloud, the flag is seen waved by the faithful color-bearer.

Finding that the brigade was not strong enough to carry the rifle-pits, Colonel Harrison determined to withdraw the troops under cover of the fort and hill.

As we were leaving, the rebels, thinking we had been repulsed, cheered lustily. This stung the gallant color-bearer Hess, of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Illinois, and springing back to the embrasure again stood and floated the colors defiantly at the enemy. Brave fellow, his death atoned his rashness. A rebel, levelling his musket, shot him through his heart. There were other hands to grasp the flag, and it came

General Geary, who attacked the enemy, was in turn attacked further to the left, also suffered heavy losses, but he has the satisfaction of knowing by the best evidence in the world, the bodies of the slain that were strewn over the ground in the morning, that he wreaked terrible vengeance for the blood he lost.

Of all the fearful things in the world a night attack, I truly believe, is most dreaded by the soldier. Between eleven and twelve o'clock tonight our whole line was roused to arms by volleys of musketry and the deafening cheers of the charging enemy. The most exciting and most demoralizing rumors imaginable took wing at once, and the uproar was indescribably bewildering. Were you ever thrown under the influences of a night assault? Well, if you were not you don't know what a "skeer" is, then, at all. Did you ever put on boots, vest, coat, and hat, wrap up your blankets, run a mile in a circle in search of your horse, find him, strap on the saddle, and mount in less than four minutes and a half? Well, I think I did on the night of the grand sham assault. All night the rebels worked like beavers, chopping and swearing (especially the latter), and apparently rolling logs.

The morning of the sixteenth my ears were greeted by the same sounds of musketry, but they were from our skirmishers who were endeavoring "to wake the Johnnies up," as they expressed it. The Johnnies were all gone, however, safe over the Oostanaula. They had

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