ine that the whole Union army was before them. Pontoon bridges were placed ready for use, where the scouts of the enemy would be sure to see them. So completely were the foe thus baffled, that apparently they had no conception of the real movement intended, until General Rosecrans had crossed the river unopposed, below the town, and the divisions of McCook and Thomas showed themselves on Lookout Mountain.

The bombardment which General Waggoner opened upon the town continued for twenty days. It proved quite damaging to property, though it hardly affected the strength of the place. Early in September the patriot troops crossed the river by a bridge and rafts which they had constructed at Bridgeport. On the 7th the rebels commenced evacuating Chattanooga. On the 9th a portion of the Ninety-seventh Ohio entered a deserted rebel battery on Bell Mountain. The same day General Wood's Division drove the rebels from Lookout Point and entered the city in triumph.

This truly was a great feat. In twenty-three days the Army of the Cumberland, marching three hundred miles from their base of supplies, carrying forty-five days' rations, had passed over three ranges of mountains, varying from fifteen hundred to twenty-four hundred feet in height, had crossed a river a quarter of a mile wide, and captured one of the most powerful natural strongholds in the United States. All this they had accomplished with the loss of but six men. The death of four of these was caused by an accident. For the rebels to allow the patriot army to retain permanent possession of Chattanooga was equivalent to the surrender of Tennessee and Georgia. The authorities at Richmond were much alarmed. Two divisions were promptly sent from their Army of the Potomac, and also large forces from Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile, to aid General Bragg to recover his lost position. Indeed, some of these troops were on their way before the place fell, but they did not arrive in season to prevent the evacuation.

General Rosecrans cautiously, that he might avoid a trap, pursued the retreating foe. An old negro teamster came into the camp, and, inquiring for the Yankee general, gave information of great importance respecting the position of the rebel forces. For several days there was manœuvring between the hostile armies, each striving for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow. On Friday, the 18th of September, the patriot army was pretty well concentrated on the western banks of the West Chickamauga River. They were at a spot about fourteen miles from Chattanooga, midway between that place and Lafayette. The rebels, familiar with every foot of the ground, moved up the east side of the river. A series of skir mishes ensued with long-range artillery firing, while each party was preparing for a decisive battle. Thus the day passed.

Saturday morning dawned, cold and chilly, enveloping both armies in a heavy river fog. Muffled in overcoats, and gathered around huge campfires, the patriots were preparing for the terrible work before them. They were not aware how strong a force had been accumulating for their destruction.

About ten o'clock in the morning the battle was opened by a brigade of patriot troops falling impetuously upon a rebel force stationed at Read's

Ford. The rebels were driven back, and the patriots plunged into the river to fill their canteens, for water was very scarce among the hills where they had been obliged to mass themselves. But in a few moments the rebels advanced in accumulated force, and the patriots were crowded back, losing three pieces of artillery. The position the army now occupied was nearly that of a straight line. The corps of General Thomas was on the left, that of General Crittenden in the centre, and General McCook's on the right.

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It was the rebel General Longstreet's Division, probably twenty thou sand in number, which came rushing across the shallow streamlet, whose waters afforded but little impediment to their advance. In a cool, stately, deliberate charge, General Thomas advanced to meet them. Rebel cannon, worked with deadly precision, cut great gaps in the advancing line, but the veteran warriors closed calmly up and pressed on undaunted. From double lines of rebel infantry musket-balls fell thickly upon them. By the resistless onward sweep several batteries of the foe were taken. Volunteers and regulars vied with each other in deeds of bravery. For nearly a mile the rebels were driven back, rallying only to disperse; rerallying only to dissolve. Two captured batteries were turned upon the retreating foe, and the victory seemed to be decisive.

But while success thus crowned the patriot arms on the left, very different scenes were witnessed on the right and centre. The rebel Generals Polk and Hill, massing their veteran legions, dashed upon Palmer and Van Cleve on the extreme right. Rushing upon their weaker adversaries, they overpowered them by the weight of numbers, and, piercing their line, cut them into two fragments. Van Cleve's Division seemed to be hopelessly routed, when General Davis arrived, and, by desperate energy, for a time restored the fortune of the day. It was, however, with the rebels, a matter of necessity to effect a diversion in favor of Longstreet, whose troops were so badly routed. If Longstreet were driven much farther, General Thomas, with his exultant troops, could fall upon the flank of Hill's and Polk's Divisions, and thus the rebel army would meet with a disastrous defeat. The only way to prevent this was now to overwhelm the troops of McCook and Crittenden.

Every available rebel was consequently brought up. The column was goaded forward by every energy which could be brought to bear upon it. They were driving furiously and destructively on, when General Thomas reluctantly abandoned his pursuit of Longstreet, and turned back to the aid of his sorely-pressed comrades. It is not our purpose to attempt a detail of all the eddies and currents of the battle. It is impossible to make such a narrative interesting, and scarcely possible to make it intelligible, to the general reader. It is our only design to give those grand and decisive features of the conflict in which all are interested and which all can understand. This reënforcement checked the progress of the exultant foe.

Soon, however, they formed another battle-line, and again moved forward in the determined charge. Again they were checked and driven back by the solid phalanx which opposed them. It was four o'clock in

the afternoon. The wearied and bleeding troops were alike glad on both sides for the few hours of repose which ensued. Still, just before sunset, a heavy artillery fire was concentrated by the rebels on a portion of our lines. This was followed by a furious charge upon the point which it was supposed the cannonade had weakened.

Among the incidents of this day's battle, the repulse of Longstreet's men on our left by Colonel Wilder deserves special mention. Wilder's men were in the edge of a forest, through which a ditch ran, five or six feet deep, to carry off the water of an adjacent swamp. As the rebels entered the open field in front of the forest, in masses fully exposed, the mounted infantry, with their seven-shooting rifles, poured in upon them a continuous blast of lead, which swept down with frightful slaughter. At the same time, Colonel Lilly, with his Indiana battery of rifled ten-pounders, hurled through their ranks double-shotted canister, at less than three .hundred yards. Every shot seemed to tell. Before this awful fire, the head of the column melted away. It broke, fled, was again rallied, and pushed forward through a terrific fire into the ditch, where they crowded together for shelter, in a long, straight line, like swarming bees.

Instantly Colonel Lilly wheeled around two of his guns into such a position that he could pour through the whole length of the ditch his horrible double canister. The slaughter was frightful-scarcely a man. escaped.

"At this point," says Colonel Wilder, "it actually seemed a pity to kill men so. They fell in heaps; and I had it in my heart to order the firing to cease, to end the awful sight."

But mercy's voice was lost in war's loud thunders. The seven-shooters and the rifled cannon poured into the struggling mass their deadly charges, crushing and mangling, until the ditch was filled with gory bodies. "When the firing ceased, one could have walked two hundred yards down that ditch on dead rebels, without touching the ground." Not less than two thousand were struck down by this terrible fire. Thus terminated the first day's battle of Chickamauga.

Night came, with gloom and sad apprehensions. It was evident that the patriots were outnumbered. Bragg's whole army was there, and half of Johnston's army. Buckner's Division from East Tennessee, a large part of Longstreet's veteran corps from Virginia, and twelve thousand fresh troops from Georgia, had also been concentrated to crush the patriots. This force could not be less, probably, than eighty thousand men, while many estimated the number as high as one hundred thousand. Reënforcements to swell the rebel ranks were also continually arriving. Our troops were far away from their base of supplies, and in the very heart of the rebel country. They consisted of General Rosecrans's Stone River army, with Brannon's and Reynolds's Divisions added. In all, they amounted to about fifty-five thousand men. They could not hope for any reënforcements before the conflict was ended. These were fearful odds, when the results of a serious defeat were considered.

There were two roads running to Rossville, about two miles apart. One passed through a gap on the right of Missionary Ridge, and the other

on the left. After passing through the gap, the country between these roads is nearly level, covered with dense forests of oak and pine, with small clearings scattered about. Here, between these two roads, the greater part of our forces were assembled. The army was, as before, in three divisions. General Thomas was on the right, General Crittenden in the centre, and General McCook on the left. Thus arranged, with here and there a few breastworks hastily thrown up, they anxiously awaited the morrow. In consequence of the dense woods all around, artillery could not be much used. A few exposed points were open to the range of the guns, but mainly the issues of the battle depended upon musketry and the bayonet. The early light of Sunday morning, September 20th, struggled gloomy and chill through heavy banks of fog. Gradually, however, the vapor was dispersed, and the sun burst forth in all its splendor, illumining a scene of wonderful beauty, which was soon to be deformed by the lurid fires. and the billowy smoke of battle. General Rosecrans rode along the lines with words of cheer, to nerve the men for the stern struggle which he well knew awaited them.

The rebel lines were formed much as on the day before. Longstreet's men, who had recovered from their panic, were on the right, Hill in the centre, and Polk on the left. About ten o'clock the battle commenced, with almost the suddenness of a thunder-clap. The rebels made a rush upon our right wing, nearly enveloping the patriot troops of Negley, Johnson, Baird, and Palmer with their overwhelming numbers. Magnificently for two hours the patriots met the shock, standing as immovable` as the earth beneath their feet. The rebels then massed their forces for a resistless charge in three strong columns, one following the other. The first was staggered; it recoiled, and fled before the storm of lead hurled pitilessly into their faces. The second column, in still stronger numbers, sprang from the ground, where they had been lying flat upon their faces, and with yells which made the forest ring, rushed forward, pouring in volley after volley as they ran.

When within a hundred yards of the Union lines they were met with such a terrific fire that they, too, were brought to a sudden stand. A tremor seemed, for a moment, to pass through the whole line, as if struck by a galvanic shock. Then suddenly the line disappeared, and was resolved into a shapeless mass of fugitives, rushing from the field with scarcely a semblance of organization. The third column now came forward, not to attempt a charge, but only to cover the retreat of their companions, and to arrest the pursuit which the patriot troops instinctively commenced.

This direct attack having failed, the next movement of the rebels was an attempt to flank Thomas's left, gain possession of the Rossville road, and drive the corps into the mountains, where it could easily be captured by the overwhelming numbers of the rebels. This anticipated movement was promptly detected by General Thomas, and he prepared as well as possible to meet it. Charge after charge was successfully repelled. Thus, until noon, all things went well, Providence seeming to smile upon the patriot arms. Our men, who had met the brunt of the attack, were greatly exhausted. It was necessary to relieve them, as it was certain that fresh