USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 40
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General Thomas formed his lines in front of the centre, prepared to move out when Hooker should have advanced across the stream and valley of Chattanooga to the heights near Rossville, and when Sherman should have drawn to his front the larger portion of the enemy's forces.
The Rebels fled down Lookout in such haste that they left twenty thousand rations and the camp equipage of three brigades; but they took time to burn the bridge over Chatta- nooga creek, consequently Hooker was detained four hours. After he was across the stream he pushed on irresistibly.
Beyond the deep, narrow valley in Sherman's front, rose two lofty hills, steep, rugged, chiefly forest-covered and sur- mounted by fortifications, the further hill the higher, the more strongly fortified, and the more heavily defended. The point was of the utmost importance to the Rebels, as it cov- ered the railroad, their line of supply and retreat. General Hardee was in command. At the blast of the bugle, Corse's brigade moved out from Sherman's right centre, with wings supporting,-Morgan L. Smith on his left, Colonel Loomis on his right. Three brigades, Cockrell's, Alexander's and Lightburn's, remained on the hill, which had been fortified in the night, and which Sherman considered his key-point. The Forty-Eighth Indiana, which had held the picket line
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
during the night, now supported a battery on a commanding point at the right of Howard's corps, which stretched away from this position down to Chickamauga creek. The Ninety- Ninth was also in reserve, with the exception of fifty men under Lieutenant Myers in the skirmish line. The Twelfth and one Hundredth regiments were on the right of the ad- vance, the Twelfth on the extreme right. The Ninety- Seventh and Eighty-Third were also in the line.
Corse went down into the valley and up the frightful slope in the face of musketry and artillery, and constantly increas- ing numbers, until he was eighty yards from the intrench- ments on the top. His was the centre of the fire, but the wings, Loomis and Smith, were also hotly engaged. Hours passed, Hardee hurling column after column on his sturdy assailants, and posting gun after gun on the hills and spurs which commanded their movements, Sherman now sweeping up the second hill, now falling back to the first, but refusing reinforcements because he had not space for additional troops and could make no change in his fiery front.
Meantime Hooker pursued his way along the Missionary hills toward Chattanooga. At Rossville he divided his lines in three, Osterhaus on the east, Geary on the west, and Cruft on the top of the ridge, which was so broken that the last was soon forced to move in two lines. Cruft, with his staff, preceded his column, and met the enemy's skirmishers. Immediately the Ninth and Thirty-Sixth Indiana sprang for- ward, ran into line under fire, and charged upon the skirm- ishers, while the residue of Cruft's force formed line, the Fifty-First Ohio and Thirty-Fifth Indiana in advance, Grose's brigade following, and in the rear the other regiments of Whitaker. The enemy was drawn up behind works built by Thomas' troops the last day of Chickamauga, but so swiftly was he overrun that his first line, and then his second line, fled down the hills into the arms of Osterhaus and Geary, or back toward Thomas, who was now moving up. The Ninth Indiana had the pleasure of recovering its own breastworks.
At twenty minutes of four, in the afternoon, six signal guns in Thomas' fortifications opened the bellowing mouths
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THE CENTRE SCALES THE MOUNTAIN.
of all the cannon in the lines about Chattanooga, and set Baird's, Woods', Sheridan's and Johnson's divisions in si- multaneous motion. In their front was a wooded valley. Beyond, rising steeply eight hundred feet above the plain, was Missionary ridge, its crest bristling with breastworks and batteries, its base lined with rifle-pits. With silent guns and with voices hushed in stern expectation, with the awful tread of a rushing, mighty host, and the terrible glitter of a inass of bayonets, they swiftly followed their double lines of skirmishers through the woods and up to the foot of the hills. Here they were expected to stop and turn with bold skill the enemy's breastworks to their own defence. But the order had not been given, and how should they know the expecta- tion of their commanders? So they dashed over and into the pits, while out the Rebels swarmed like bees from a hive. They captured a thousand at a word, and, sending them to the rear, halted to reform their lines. Then they began the bold ascent, which was now gray with the scrambling en- emy. Under canister, shell and whistling bullet, and, until they neared the top, without returning the fire of a single gun, they strained upward. The strong outran the weak, and, in each regiment, with the color-bearers, and the com- manders, formed the apex of a triangular column. Sheeted fire and rolling smoke wrapped them from sight. "I fear they will never reach the top," said Thomas to Grant, as they stood side by side on Orchard Knob. "Give 'em time. Give 'em time," returned the other quietly.
In the centre of the central division, on the steepest and ruggedest part of the mountain, was Beatty's brigade, in ad- vance of all others, and in the front were our Seventy-Ninth and Eighty-Sixth, both under the command of Colonel Knef- ler, whose horse had been shot in the valley. "The steep- ness of the mountain," said Knefler, narrating afterwards the events of the assault, "was in our favor, because the enemy's artillery went over our heads. We soon got elose to the top. The uproar was astounding. The Rebels were yelling and cursing and raving, hurling down stones, firing the rammers out of their guns, shooting their muskets without aim, offi- cers even, we could see the big yellow braid on their arms,
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
pointing their revolvers over their works, while they kept their heads down,-and we, roaring as madly. Captain Howe put his mouth to my ear and said: 'Colonel Knefler, do you know that we are alone?' I looked round. We were alone. We had climbed up and pushed on, never look- ing to the right nor left, nor behind, just minding our own business, which is as much as anybody can do in battle, and we had outrun not only all other brigades, but all the other regiments of our brigade. I am not ashamed to say it, I was scared to death! My hair ought to be gray now for that fright. Halt! I cried. The men sought cover, but their blood was up, and they still cheered and fired. I waited a lifetime it seemed to me, though it was not many minutes, then I saw a shining India-rubber coat which an eccentric officer, whom I well knew always wore, and then troops everywhere toiling up. Charge! I ordered. The bugler at my side blew a blast which might have raised the dead!"
In fifty minutes from the first movement, the stars and stripes were waving on the top. A few regiments pursued the flying enemy. A number turned to the left to gain the rear of Sherman's opponents. The majority remained on the summit, partly from fatigue, partly because forbidden by cautious officers to move on.
When, in the still cloudless sky, so serene and pure through- out the day that even the sulphurous smoke vanished into thin and impalpable air, the sun sank behind the hoary mountains in the west, the thunders of battle died away. Cheer answered cheer. Such shouts never before swept over Chattanooga, and never will again as long as the world stands. The delight of the victors was beyond expression. They shook hands. They smiled in each others' faces. They fondly patted the captured guns, nearly forty in number, peering into their mouths and examining their carriages. More than one general, it is reported, said: "Soldiers, you ought to be court-martialed, you were ordered to take the rifle-pits below, and you scaled the mountain!"
The narrow escapes were almost incredible. "Look here!" cried a German, "a pullet hit de preach of mine gun, a pul- let in mine pocket-book, a pullet in mine coat tail! Dey
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THE ENEMY RETREATS.
shoots me fife time and mine skin is not scratch!" In one little tree were twenty-eight bullets.
They who fell in the assault died proudly, knowing the victory was theirs. The grave diggers of the next day say there was a look of lofty satisfaction on the faces of the dead, such as they never before saw.
" A day, an hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name."
While the battle was raging, a portion of the cavalry which had crossed the Tennessee and the Chickamauga on Sher- man's pontoon bridges, moved out toward Cleveland, went round by Tyner's station and destroyed trains and stores within seven miles of Ringgold. The force did not return until the twenty-seventh. It included twenty-five picked men from each company of the Seventeenth Indiana.
Sherman and Hooker started in pursuit at daylight, the first along the railroad, the other on the Rossville road to- ward Ringgold. Palmer, who was included in Hooker's command, and who had his advance, overtook the Rebel rear, and captured three guns before reaching the Chickamauga. The next day, at a gap in Taylor's ridge, which Cleburne held with guns well posted, Hooker engaged in a serious en- counter. The troops were so eager for battle that they were irrestrainable. They were several times repulsed, before, by the arrival of guns, which had been detained at the crossing of the Chickamauga, and by a flanking movement they were able to push Cleburne out. Four hundred and thirty-two of the pursuers were killed and wounded, while the enemy was so well posted that he lost but one hundred and thirty. Hooker continued the pursuit nearly to Tunnel Hill, twenty miles. Grose's brigade, on its return, halted on the field of Chickamauga, and buried the bones of comrades who had fallen more than two months before. Geary and Cruft re- turned to Lookout valley. Osterhaus encamped in Chatta- nooga valley. Palmer went back to Chattanooga.
In Sherman's march, Jeff. C. Davis' division, which had been the reserve during the battle, became the advance, cross- ing the pontoon bridge near the mouth of the Chickamauga, and reaching the Rebel depot at eleven in the morning of
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the twenty-sixth. Davis drove the enemy from two neigh- boring hills, on which he was partially intrenched, and pushed on, coming sharply in contact with him toward evening. At Greysville, on the twenty-seventh, Sherman came up with Palmer, who was now detached from Hooker, and on his left. He sent Howard to destroy the railroad between Dal- ton and Cleveland, in order to cut communication between Bragg and Longstreet, and sent Davis to assist Hooker. But Bragg was now out of Tennessee, and the pursuit was not continued.
Sending his artillery wagons and all impediments directly to Chattanooga, Sherman made a circuit toward the north as far as the Hiawassee, which he reached on the thirtieth. Having brought his troops from their camps on the other side of the Tennessee seven days before, with two days rations, without a change of clothing, stripped for the fight, with but a single blanket, or coat per man,-from himself to the pri- vate, included,-and the weather having become, meantime, bitter cold, he was scarcely in a condition to prolong his march. But he heard here that Burnside, eighty-four miles distant, with twelve thousand men, was beleaguered in Knox- ville, and must have relief within three days; and at the same time he received orders to take command of Granger, who had left Chattanooga with reluctance and complaint, and to proceed forthwith to the succor of their comrades.
With these orders the Chattanooga campaign closed.
It had been a great campaign, and was the occasion of immense satisfaction. The letters which our soldiers wrote describing it are full of pride.
"The scaling of Missionary ridge," writes Captain Ed- ward P. Williams, "was the most brilliant feat of arms in the whole war, and did not require more than an hour and a half for its accomplishment. They call Grant a 'lucky General!' Can luck always follow a General? It is not all luck, I as- sure you. Our brigade, Turchin's, was on top of the hill among the first, and captured ten pieces of artillery."
Adjutant Thomas writes in detail:
"Six terrible shots were fired over our heads from the 'knob' at the enemy as a signal for us to charge and take the
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THE EIGHTY-SIXTH.
works at the foot. quick with a shout.
The whole line went forward double As soon as we came within easy range, the ridge seemed to blaze with cannon, and the bursting shell filled the valley.
We had to pass over a rocky rise in the ground, about a quarter of a mile from the works. Upon these works the balls and shells fell, and glanced, and ex- ploded. It was like a hail storm when the hail, the rain, the thunder, and lightning, and clouds all come down together. We dashed through and reached the breastworks at the foot, which were filled with the enemy, afraid to move, even to raise their heads. Here the line halted, excepting our regi- ment and the Seventy-Ninth, which dashed ahead up the side of the ridge without stopping until the flags were planted within a few yards of the works on the top!
" Captain Southard, with too much bravery, stood up in front of the enemy's works, calling to the men below to come forward. He was shot through the heart and fell only a few feet from the enemy's guns. (He said the day before that he had a presentiment that he would be killed in the battle.)
"Sergeant Stephen Cronkhite, with bravery unsurpassed, bore the flag of the Eighty-Sixth within a few feet of the works in advance of every other man, and then kept it with nothing but a small stump between him and death. This daring act, and the danger the colors were in, drew the men forward one by one, until quite a number were near him pro- tected somewhat by stones, stumps and a little log. They fired with great precision, and succeeded in shooting enough of the Rebels' heads off to inspire them with some fear. A great many ran away, while others lay flat in the ditches shaking their old hats in token of surrender. Many of those who had courage enough left to shoot, forgot to take the rammers from their guns, and sent them flying and whistling down the hill at us.
"Cronkhite was disabled by a ball hitting him in the fore- head. Cooper, a color-guard, next took the flag. He was soon mortally wounded. Sergeant Graves seized it in the last desperate dashi which brought the bayonets into execu- tion, bore it in triumph, the first flag on the ridge. The flag of the Thirty-Fifth Illinois was almost in ahead of ours, but
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its gallant bearer fell, shot through the head, a few feet from the works.
"Colonel Dick displayed great courage in his efforts to get the men forward in sufficient numbers to hold the danger- ous position the regiment had taken.
" I never expect to see a grander sight than was presented when we reached the top of the mountain,-the flying Rebels, frightened, wounded horses running down the mountain with artillery, pursued by shouting Yankees, the roar of Sherman's musketry advancing and doubling back the enemy's lines upon us, our boys bringing back the artillery to the crest, and turning it upon the enemy with almost deafening sound as they ran for life far down in the valley, the sun just going down behind Raccoon mountain, the full moon, that I had seen the night before almost totally eclipsed, as if disgusted with Hooker for making so much noise during her peaceful trip across the sky, showing her serene face again above the Smoky mountains that divide this State from North Carolina. Between these mountains and the ridge where we were is a vast country of smaller mountains, over which the smoke of battle, of burning bridges and trains, settled down with the darkness of the night. The mountainous country extends far to the east and north and south, through which the en- emy fled, setting fire to every bridge, wagon train, every stack and crib of forage that came in his way. The depot and all their store-houses from which the Rebels had supplied their army were burned at Chickamauga station, and by midnight the country was full of fires of every shape, from the long winding train to the little railroad bridge. It was a cold night, and many of us took such colds after the ex- haustion of coming up the mountain, that we could hardly speak for several days. We remained on the mountain all the next day with our torn flag hanging upon our gun stacks.
" It was visited by hundreds of persons from different parts of the army, who had anxiously watched it the day before. It had eighty-eight bullet holes put through it, and the staff was shot in two.
" Before midnight we received orders to march back to our camps, which we were very willing to do, for we were almost
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THE FORTIETH.
sick with colds and fatigue. As we reached the entrance to the fortifications the band met us, and played ' Hail Colum- bia.'
" We slept as only tired soldiers can sleep, although our corps had orders to march for Knoxville at four in the morn- ing. We felt refreshed after our night's rest, and looked upon Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain with the great- est satisfaction."
Two days after the battle Major Leaming, of the Fortieth, gives a spirited description of the race up the mountain:
"I do not know that I could interest you by attempting a description of the battle of last Wednesday, but some of its incidents will never by me be forgotten. Stone river was a skirmish, as far as our regiment was concerned, to this affair. In fact the Fortieth, being in the front line, formed, with the regiments on its flanks, the forlorn hope of the storming party. Now, if you will reflect that we had to advance more than a mile, without cover of any sort, over a dead level, com- manded at all points by the enemy's batteries, and for the last quarter of a mile under the fire of the infantry, you will wonder with me that any ever succeeded in reaching the foot of the ridge, to say nothing of the ascent afterwards. I could see our brave boys dropping all around me as we moved for- ward, some killed, others desperately wounded, but the ad- vance was not even checked. It moved on as if each man felt himself invulnerable. As I lost my horse before we were half way across the plain, I had to take it on foot, and after running more than a half mile, had the mountain to climb. It is about as steep and about twice as high as the hill just back of Camp Tippecanoe, at Lafayette, perhaps higher. After running so far, of course I was about gone up before I got to the mountain foot, and from there to the top was just the biggest job of climbing I ever undertook, not to speak of the rascals on the top, who objected to our going up.
"I never have seen anything so vicious as the artillery fire from the ridge. Grape, canister and shell flew through and over our ranks like a flock of birds. I was blinded time and again by the dirt thrown in my face by some of the missiles striking the ground in front of me. The flight of canister
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
much resembles the noise of a covey of quails just springing from the ground. I heard a soldier say, as a charge of can- ister rushed along, 'Here goes your quails!'
"As we lay behind the rifle-pits a few moments, taking breath for the next rush, the firing from the artillery was most accurate and rapid. The bank we were behind was not more than three feet high, and as the Rebels were so much above us, they plumped their shell right down on us. Once I remember, as I lay close up on my side to the para- pet, with my legs behind me, a twenty-four shell struck not three inches from my feet, and glancing, exploded about fifty feet in the rear. You can easily imagine that I drew in my legs as far as possible toward my chin. I mention these things of my own experience that you may form a better idea of how hot the place was for us all. As we were going up the mountain side, directly at the battery, we could feel the hot smoke puff right into our faces. The pieces were de- pressed so much as actually to blow off huge masses of earth from the edge of the hill on the top.
"The prisoners say that our attempt to scale the height was laughed at by them as absurd and impossible. They thought us insane to undertake it. After the thing was over, and I could see just what had been done, I came to pretty much the same conclusion. Of course we did, but why we should succeed I cannot see. No artillery could be used by us. All depended on the bull-dog perseverance of the in- fantry. In fact we mobbed the Rebels out of their position, every fellow fighting on his own hook. A man behind a stump would move forward to another just vacated in ad- vance of him, and thus make room for another behind him. Thus the whole thing was gradually rushed up the hill, and when we got to the top the Rebels were mostly at the bot- tom on the other side. 'Twas a clean thrashing they got, all the advantages on their side, all the success on ours.
"After we drove the Rebels from the ridge, we could see them running without any sort of order, each man for him- self, throwing away everything,-guns, cartridge-boxes, blan- kets, and even pulling off their coats and throwing them away. We found numbers of cartridge-boxes with the belts
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MORE FRIGHTENED THAN HURT.
cut, the owners not having taken time to unbuckle them. While this was going on a part of our men were gathered together, and moved down the road after the crowd of Reb- els. We struck them posted on a high hill, over which the road ran, and which, being crescent-shaped, with the horns encircling the road, commanded it most effectually. We got to the foot of the hill, but as we had only a remnant of our regiment, with a few of the Ninety-Seventh Ohio, our force was plainly not sufficient to storm it. So we stopped and commenced firing. We held our own an hour and a quarter, with a fire poured into us from both flanks, as well as front. Finally a regiment was sent along the ridge to our left, and the Rebels, fearing a movement upon their flank, fled at once. We got here three pieces of artillery, a wagon loaded with rifle ammunition, another loaded with new rifles, and a third with commissary stores.
"I was standing in the road watching the firing, when I felt a pain shoot from my toes to my shoulders. I knew that I was struck about the knee, and I thought to myself, 'Now for a wooden leg;' but I did not put my hand down to see what was done for ten minutes. I was afraid to, expecting to find the bone shattered. So I lay down-I couldn't stand, and after a while became curious to see the damage. Sure enough the shot had struck plump on the bone, but my heavy overcoat had stopped its force somewhat, and this, with the distance it had come, prevented it from making anything more than an ugly contusion. If it had come with the slightest additional force, my leg would have been a goner. For a long time it was as useless for walking pur- poses as a stick.
"This fight was a mile beyond the ridge we scaled. We marched on till four in the morning, then lay on the ground, white with frost. I got a cold that racks every bone in my body.
"The Fortieth took two hundred prisoners, and eight pieces of artillery. The guns were of the famous Washing- ton battery, one that did our regiment much harm at Stone river. One of the pieces was marked Lady Bragg, another Lady Buckner. These were two hundred and forty smooth
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bore, two rifled Parrotts one hundred, the others brass how- itzers. Bragg himself was on the ridge not ten minutes be- fore we got there, and with Breckinridge made his escape in good time to save his skin.
" We found that every preparation for winter quarters had been made by the Rebels. Cabins without number were scattered through the woods for miles, many built of large logs, and well chinked and daubed. This freezing weather will prove a great hardship to them without any shelter at all.
"I told you that the Army of the Cumberland was not whipped at Chickamauga, and when we went for them again we would prove it. Whatever may have been the cause of the check there, the men were not, in any sense, whipped. This will, I think, be plain enough now. The back-bone of the Rebellion was broken last Wednesday. No tinkering can restore it. The patient may linger, but death is certain, and cannot long be delayed.
" I have written to poor Mrs. Cooper, Jimmy Dick's sister. It was indeed a painful thing to do, and I confess my heart was sad enough. Never was there a better fellow than he. I was, as all others were, attached most closely to him. A brave and noble gentleman.
" The day of the fight was my birthday. The armies were celebrating it. Less noise would have suited me as well."
General Grant reported the losses in the three days battle of Chattanooga at seven hundred and fifty-seven killed, four thousand five hundred and twenty-nine wounded, and three hundred and thirty missing,-total, five thousand six hund- red and sixteen.
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