USA > Texas > A comprehensive history of Texas, 1685-1897 > Part 43
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Between four and five o'clock the entire Federal line gave way and left the field to the Confederates, who were too greatly exhausted to follow up the victory so dearly bought. On Monday night, the 21st, General Bragg moved his army in the direction of Chattanooga, besieging that city on the 23d, but he found the enemy too well fortified to risk an assault or to attempt to take the city by storm, and all the fruits of our victory at Chickamauga were lost. The remainder of Sep- tember, October, and a part of November were spent in the siege, Granbury's brigade occupying a position near the centre of the Confederate army. Guard duty was very hard here, our picket lines being within two hundred yards of the enemy, and within plain view of each other. Notwithstanding the strict orders to keep constant vigilance against surprise attacks, soldiers from both armies would often lay down their arms under a temporary armistice and meet half-way between the two lines and exchange newspapers or Confederate tobacco for Yankee coffee. After a friendly chat and the compliments of the day, these soldiers would return to their respective posts of duty, declare the armistice off, and seize the first oppor- tunity to take a pop at each other, or at any other enemy who might too carelessly expose his person. It was during our stay here that President Davis paid General Bragg's army a visit for the purpose, doubtless, of encouraging the officers and enthusing the soldiers, as well as to see for himself the condition of the army and the position they held. It was during the siege of Chattanooga that the brigade was joined by the Seventh Texas Infantry, Colonel H. B. Granbury commanding ; K. M. Vanzandt, now of Fort Worth, major. The Third and Fifth Confederate Regi- ments, of Memphis, Tennessee, Colonel Cole, of Memphis, commanding, were also added to the brigade, which was now made up of the following regiments, viz. : the Sixth, Tenth, and Fifteenth Texas Regiments, consolidated, commanded by Colonel R. Q. Mills ; the Seventh Texas Infantry, commanded by Colonel H. B. Granbury ; the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth Texas Regiments, consolidated, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John T. Coit, of Dallas, Texas ; and the Third and Fifth Confederate Regiments, commanded by Colonel Cole, of Memphis, Tennessee. The brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General J. A. Smith, of Alabama, with Captain J. T. Hearne assistant adjutant-general, Captain
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
George Jewell brigade ordnance officer, and D. F. Stewart brigade surgeon. During the two months' siege of the city there was no regular engagement between the infantry of the two armies, the fighting being confined to the skirmishers and the cavalry, but the soldiers of both armies were treated to an artillery duel almost daily, and it was a grand sight to look upon, the distance being too great to do much execution. General Grant, having taken command of the Federal forces, began to press our lines on the 23d of November, and on the 24th the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge began. Granbury's brigade, holding the extreme right of Bragg's army, occupied a position on the ridge near the tunnel of the Cleveland and Chattanooga Railroad. On the morning of the 25th the battle began in earnest, leading off with Hooker's attack on Bragg's left, which occupied Lookout Mountain. General Sherman, with his seventeen thousand Western men, entertained General Pat Cleburne's division, Granbury's brigade bearing the brunt of his attacking columns, receiving and repulsing charge after charge of his magnifi- cent lines. Twice during the day, after repulsing the enemy's charge, the brigade sallied out and drove them from the field. The brigade held its position all day and until late at night, thinking the Confederates had gained a complete victory over an enemy vastly superior in numbers and equipment ; and it was not until we heard the loud huzzas away towards Lookout Mountain that it dawned upon the men of Granbury's brigade that Bragg had suffered defeat, and, though they had repulsed ten times their number all day long, they must in history be charged with their share of that defeat. A distinguished Union general has said since the war that Granbury's brigade with eleven thousand men repulsed, drove back, and held at bay seventeen thousand Union soldiers, and that he did not believe another brigade of either army had achieved a like victory, and that he doubted if a like feat had been accomplished in either modern or ancient warfare. General Smith and Colonel Mills both fell wounded, and the com- mand of the brigade fell upon Colonel H. B. Granbury. It was not until about eleven o'clock at night that the command left the position they bad so gallantly and successfully held and defended during the entire battle. The rank and file of the brigade were greatly disappointed at being ordered from their position, which they felt they could have held indefinitely and against any and all odds, and they sullenly left the field, retiring first to Chicka- mauga Station, and then to Chickamauga Creek. where they camped on the night of November 26. Early on the morning of the 27th the command GENERAL 1I. R. GRANBURY. was ordered into line and marched to Ringgold Station. There being no boats or bridges, the troops were compelled to wade the ice-cold Chickamauga, which proved an un- pleasant bath on so cold and frosty a morning. The larger part of Bragg's army was demoralized, and the enemy, flushed with victory, was sorely pressing its
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BOWSER-NOTES ON GRANBURY'S BRIGADE.
rear and flank. Early in the morning General Bragg ordered General Cleburne . to take his position in Ringgold Gap and try and hold the enemy in check until twelve o'clock, in order that he might get the scattered commands of his army together and save at least a part of the wagon-train bearing the commissary and quartermasters' stores. General Cleburne replied that he should have plenty of time to save every wagon and team in the army, and that he need not lose a canteen or frying-pan so far as the Yankees were concerned. General Cleburne formed his line on either side of the road, some two hundred yards up the side of the mountain, in shape of the letter V, with Captain Douglas's Texas battery massed and concealed with pine-tops in a cut at the apex of the V. The Federals came rushing on in four lines marching in flauk, merry as school-boys, shouting after the "Johnnies" to stop, so confident of their victory and superior number that they did not even have out their skirmishers or advance-guard, and were entirely ignorant of their danger until the batteries were unmasked, not more than seventy or eighty yards in front of the head of the four columns, and before they recovered from their surprise every gun in the battery was pouring shot and shell down their lines, utterly demoralizing both rank and file. The infantry immediately advancing poured a merciless fire into either flank. The astonished and panic-stricken men fled in the utmost confusion. The rout was complete and the Federal loss fearful, while the Confederate loss was very light. This determined stand on the part of Cleburne's division saved Bragg's army, and the enemy abandoned the pursuit and went into winter quarters, the Confederates following suit. A vote of thanks was tendered the Texas brigade by the army for their gallantry in this fight, and right well did they earn it, for they enabled Pat Cleburne to keep his promise to Bragg, and not a canteen or frying-pan was lost. It won for Colonel Granbury, their heroic commander, a brigadier's commission. To the regret of Granbury's brigade the Ringgold fight ended the Chattanooga campaign. It can be asserted without boasting that the men of this brigade, as well as of Cleburne's division, were never satisfied with the policy of their commanders from Nashville to Atlanta, and would have rather met the enemy in sanguinary conflict every day than to have yielded one foot of territory. The men who knew the troubles had to be fought out in the end never could understand why it could not as well be done one place as another. They could never understand why Rosecrans and Sherman could flank us all the time and we not flank them. Of course, the men were not West Point graduates, and, therefore, not up on the science of warfare ; but they always be- lieved, and some still think, that if there had been less sparring and more real fight- ing over the territory mentioned fewer Federal soldiers would have lived to draw pensions.
The Confederate army went into winter quarters near Turner Hill. About the Ist of January, 1864, General Joseph E. Johnston was put in command of the army, and the remainder of the winter was largely spent in disciplining the army, im- proving their condition in the way of clothing, rations, etc. About the Ist of May, 1864, General Sherman took up his march to Atlanta, and then to the sca. Our brigade was in fighting trim and ready for the fray. General Johnston had inspired the whole army with confidence, such as had always characterized Cleburne's division in their commanders, and the boys confidently hoped and expected that it would not
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
be long until they could bag Sherman with his entire army, "boots and baggage." It was about the 7th of May when the brigade engaged the enemy near Resaca, Georgia, but no hard fighting was done on this line. On the morning of the 8th we lost a few men, on the 12th the army passed through Kingston, and about the 13th camped near Cartersville. On the 14th the army camped on Pumpkinvine Creek, where it remained about one week. On the 22d the brigade took a position near New Hope Church, and on the 27th occupied the extreme right of the army. About four o'clock r. M. the enemy brought on the fight by a vigorous charge, which was repulsed with heavy loss to them, but they were not satisfied, and they came again and again, line after line, each to be driven back in turn. The slaughter was some- thing terrible. About dark the firing ceased for a short time, when the enemy under cover of the wood and a deep ravine massed a double force immediately in our front only a few yards away, and gave the command, " Run over them, boys." Again they made a desperate effort to dislodge the brigade, but the deadly fire which greeted them soon brought confusion which ended in a total rout, which was followed by a charge of the Texas boys that drove the enemy from the field in confusion and dis- order. It was an open field-fight, no breastworks on either side, most of the time at short range. The attack was vigorous and continued, while the resistance of the brigade was determined and successful. Considering the great numbers against which they had to contend and the time the battle lasted, the small loss sustained by the brigade appeared miraculous. The loss on the side of the Union soldiers was terrible, the enemy's dead literally covering the ground almost the entire length of the brigade. The sight was sickening to look upon. We buried more than five hundred of the enemy's dead on the field. Allowing for the usual mortality of the wounded, it is safe to say that not less than seven hundred and fifty or eight hun- dred brave and patriotic soldier boys in blue sacrificed their lives in the service and on the altar of their country in front of Granbury's brigade in this single engage- ment,-more than half as many men as there were in the brigade at that time. General Johnston and other field officers who viewed the field of carnage the following morning said they had never seen anything to equal it, nor did they believe history recorded anything like it. The commander-in-chief saying to our brigade commander, "This shall no longer be called Granbury's, but shall be known as Johnston's brigade," the Texas boys were very naturally proud of their achievement ; and had every brigade in Johnston's army accomplished as much as Granbury's brigade in this one engagement, not one of Sherman's legions would have reached home to tell the fate of his army, and Sherman's march through Georgia would have been unknown in history. The following day the brigade took their position on Pine Mountain, or what may be better remembered as the Golgotha Church line, which they occupied until about the 17th or 18th of June. It was on this line that General Leonidas Polk lost his life, and in his death the South lost one of its greatest generals, -- one of its bravest and most patriotic soldiers, a bishop in the Episcopal Church, always a Christian, his men loved him dearly. During the manœuvring and fighting the army was exposed to the heaviest and most drenching rains that fell upon them during the war. About twelve o'clock of the night of the ISth the brigade moved their position and formed their line on Kenesaw Mountain. The following morning the enemy again made their appearance, and immediately
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BOWSER-NOTES ON GRANBURY'S BRIGADE.
put the command under heavy fire, both rifle and artillery, which was kept up day and night for more than two weeks. Here a little armistice was frequently had between soldiers on picket, and newspapers, coffee, and tobacco were exchanged. These little social courtesies always took place when no field officer was in sight, about half-way between the two lines and within plain view of the soldiers on picket duty at the time. Messages and letters were often sent to father, mother, brother, or sister, behind the opposing lines, from these little meetings, which always testified to and emphasized the humanity retained by brave men daily engaged in taking the life of their fellow-beings in the service of their country and in the name of duty. After about sixty days of hard and almost continued fighting, on the night of July 3, Bragg's army abandoned their position on the Kenesaw line and slowly took up their march for Atlanta, reaching the Chattahoochee River on the following day, where the brigade was engaged in some heavy skirmishing until the position was abandoned about July 12, and the army crossed the river to the Atlanta side. It was here, on July 18, that General Joseph E. Johnston was relieved of the com- mand of the army, and was succeeded by General John B. Hood, by order of Jef- ferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. The removal of General Johnston caused great dissatisfaction in the army. While General Johnston had within ninety days fallen back from Dalton to Atlanta, yielding to superior numbers, the, army had never under his command become demoralized in the slightest degree. The men had such faith in his capacity as a general and such confidence in his ability to avoid any useless slaughter, that they responded most cheerfully to his every call to meet the enemy, to take or to hold any position assigned them. They did not doubt the patriotism or courage of their new commander, but feared his rashness.
On the following day General Hood had his whole army on the move in response to Sherman's move to flank his right. Cleburne's division took their position east of what was then known as Peachtree Creek Road, about two miles to the east, which position they held overnight until the morning of the 20th, when the command was moved still farther to the right, where they remained until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when they moved in double-quick back to Peachtree Creek Road, across which the division formed at right angles, the centre of Granbury's brigade being near the road, with Gavans's Arkansas brigade on the right. About half-past four the two brigades were ordered to charge the enemy across an old field to their front, which was done under a most galling fire. The enemy was dislodged, but no real advantage gained, and nothing accomplished except the loss of a few brave soldiers on either side. The following night the Confederates took position on the line upon which the many battles in defence of Atlanta were fought. On July 21 the brigade was subjected to the most ter- rific artillery fire experienced by it during the entire war. The position held by them threw their line in shape to be enfiladed by the enemy's cannon, and for hours they lay under a double fire "from flank and front," and it seemed for a while that unless Providence interfered the boys in blue would be able to settle up some old scores. But with the exception of about two companies of our regi- ment, the casualties were not great. Company C and Company E, of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth, consolidated, lost quite heavily. One
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
shell exploding in their ranks killed and wounded nineteen men. The enemy's loss in front of the brigade was much more than our own, their feeble assaults throughout the day being easily resisted. Before daylight of the 21st, General Hood ordered Hardee's corps, consisting of three divisions, commanded by Gen- crals Cheatham, Cleburne, and Walker, to flank the enemy's left. By rapid marches under cover of the darkness and the friendly pine thickets, the Confed- erates succeeded in reaching the Federal rear and taking them by surprise .; Cheatham on the Confederate left and Cleburne's division in the centre forined their lines almost without halting and immediately attacked the enemy, whom they found in three lines of battle, the front as they thought ensconced behind strong breastworks. Their surprise was complete, many of them surrendering without firing a gun and offering no serious resistance, until the third and last line was reached, which shifted to the opposite side of their breastworks, giving the surprise party a warm reception. It was here and immediately in front of Granbury's brigade that the brave and humane Union officer, General McPherson, lost his life. In attempting to pass down his line and trying to rally his men, he rode within thirty yards of the rebel front. He was a magnificent specimen of the American soldier ; with his bright uniform, mounted on his spirited horse, he made a picture beautiful to look upon. The men seemed loath to take the life so easily in their reach, and repeatedly called, "Halt ! halt ! halt !" As if preferring death to a surrender, he paid no attention to the command to surrender, put his horse in a gallop, and in another moment would have reached shelter behind a cluster of trees, when a volley of Minie-balls from twenty or thirty rifles brought rider and horse dead to the ground. When his identity was known, the Confederates looked upon his lifeless form much more in sorrow than exultation. This brave soldier had by his kindness to prisoners of war and his humanity to citizens at his mercy won the respect, admiration, and gratitude of Bragg's and Johnston's armies. Judging this gallant soldier and General Sherman by their treatment of the helpless, they differed as much as angels do from men. Just as General Walker was moving his division into line to protect Cleburne's right, he, like the gallant MePherson, yielded up his life in the service of his country. The officer next in command seemed not to understand the plan of the attack, and the division failed to reach the position assigned them, and soon retired, leaving Cleburne's flank entirely uncovered. Until this moment the entire movement had been successful beyond all reasonable expectation. Until this time the Confederate loss had been very light, while that of the enemy had been heavy, especially in prisoners and loss of artillery, arms, and ammunition. Discovering the unprotected condition of Cleburne's right, the Federals hurriedly massed a heavy force on the flank and to the rear of Granbury's brigade, prosecuting a most vigorous assault, recaptured many of their men who had been taken prisoners, several pieces of their lost artillery, and finally, before the close of the day's fighting, recovered the remains of their dear general. But for the death of General Walker, causing the failure of his command to carry out their part of the plan of battle, the victory at one time so nearly won would have doubt- less been complete, which would in all probability have been followed up and likely ended in the complete rout of Sherman's army. For nearly two months Sherman contented himself with commanding the city of Atlanta. Regardless of the presence
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BOWSER-NOTES ON GRANBURY'S BRIGADE.
of many women and children who were still in the city, more than one innocent non-combatant fell a victim to his relentless shot and shell. The latter part of August he began to extend his right wing and to push the Confederate left until it rested near East Point, six miles south of the city, but the fighting amounted to little more than heavy skirmishing, and no great loss was sustained by either army. Flere the boys on picket would frequently get up a little armistice with the Yankee pickets, and mect out on half-way ground to exchange tobacco, papers, and coffee, and discuss the war. At one of these little social meetings one of the Confederate soldiers submitted a plan to end the war, which was to let Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln meet as representatives of their respective governments and armies and fight it out, and the soldiers and people of either side abide by the result. The Yankee boys took the proposition under advisement, and as no final answer ever came we supposed it did not meet with the approval of " Uncle Abe."
The latter part of September Sherman began preparations to extend his march to the sea, his first move being to throw a corps of his army with a heavy detach- ment of cavalry around to Jonesboro', about twenty-five miles below Atlanta. Hardee's corps was despatched to meet them, and on the 29th of September attacked the enemy and drove them about two miles. During the night they received reinforcements, and early the next morning began a vigorous assault on the Con- federate lines, paying their special compliments to Gavans's Arkansas and Gran- bury's Texas brigades. The attack was begun with infantry, but finding the Con- federates had hurriedly gathered up logs, chunks, rails, etc., providing themselves with partial breastworks which they showed a determination to defend, they with- drew their infantry temporarily, and for several hours subjected the two brigades to the most galling and continuous cannonading. About three o'clock the infantry attack was resumed. Three lines of battle made several attempts to break the Con- federate lines. Failing, they renewed the artillery duelling, concentrating their fire on a battery near the centre of the Arkansas brigade, fairly mowing down the little hill occupied by the Confederate battery and disabling two pieces of their artillery, which was followed by the explosion of a caisson by a Federal shell. Immediately the three lines of Federals renewed their charge, and for the first and only time during the entire war Gavans's gallant boys lost their ground under fire, literally run over and borne down by superior numbers. They were not demoralized, and did not run, but contested every foot of ground in a hand-to-hand fight, using bayonets and clubbing muskets and mixing with the foes until one could not tell the Federals' front or Confederates' rear. This desperate struggle took place to the right and rear of Granbury's brigade, who were powerless to go to the rescue of their comrades. Being assailed by superior numbers in flank and front, it looked for some time as if they must share the same fate. Some of the scenes were thrill- ing in the extreme. Not more than two hundred yards away the writer witnessed a Federal attempt to bayonet a Confederate who had not finished loading his rifle. The Confederate, being too quick, fired and the Federal fell. Another Federal seeing the danger of his comrade, rushed forward with musket clubbed, felled the Confederate, but too late to save the life he was trying to protect. Federal number two had scarecly more than felled his man when he went down from a blow from Confederate number two. The first two combatants were approaching each other
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
with quick-step, the last on a race, each trying to save a comrade, the shot and two blows occurring almost simultaneously. Seldom will a soldier witness anything so exciting and thrilling. All this time Granbury's brigade was occupying the most trying position, three battle lines of the enemy in their front, the entire ridge to the right and in part of their rear literally covered with the enemy, for more than an hour subjected to a murderous fire from three directions. It seemed impossible to hold out longer, but both men and officers were determined to defend and hold their position until ordered away or exhausted in the attempt. At the most critical moment a reserve brigade came to the rescue of Gavans's brigade, and with their assistance drove the enemy back until the rear and flank of Granbury's men were protected. There were no better soldiers enlisted in the late war than those of Gavans's Arkansas brigade, and none ever fought more gallantly than they did at Jonesboro'. Granbury's brigade held its position until about ten o'clock at night, when it was ordered to fall back and take up its march to Lovejoy, about seven miles to the south. During the night we heard the magazines being blown up in Atlanta, which plainly told that Hood was abandoning the city. Many a soldier in the brigade regarded the dismal sounds as the death-knell of the Confederacy, and regarded every soldier lost after that as a life sacrificed in a hopeless contest. To those who fully realized the situation, that night was the saddest and most gloomy since the beginning of hostilities, for it closed the doors to all hope for the cause they loved so well and for which they had sacrificed so much. They realized for the first time that all they had endured and suffered in camp, on the field, in prison, from wounds and sickness, had been in vain, and that whatever they might be called upon to do in the name of duty, patriotism, and love of country, must be done without hope. None but those who have passed through the trying ordeal can have the slightest conception of the heartaches endured by many a brave Confed- erate soldier on that night ; but being ordered to the side of the road to rest, sup- perless and wearied, the poor fellows were soon asleep, unconscious of the two terrible days just passed.
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