The privations of a private. The campaign under Gen. R. E. Lee

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER V. The Chickamauga Campaign 56

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER V. The Chickamauga Campaign.

THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN.

THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN.

THE CHICKAMAUGA CAMPAIGN. 59

have an opportunity of striking again for our homes and firesides, and to acquit ourselves like men worthy of the old Volunteer State." Soon the firing of pickets gave notice that the battle of Chickamauga was about to begin. As the First Tennessee Regiment moved in line through a thick wood of oak and pine, we struck the enemy, who were posted on a hill much higher than our position. General Cheatham rode in advance of the line with hat in hand, and said: "Come on, boys." The First Tennessee charged gallantly amidst a ter- rible cannonade. A shell exploded in front of us, a piece striking the shoulder of Lieut. W. H. Webster, of the Maury Grays, from which he soon bled to death. The enemy's infantry retired before our charge, and we reached the crest of a ridge and were ordered to "lie down." While in this position En- sign Joe Campbell raised up on his arm, and a shot from the enemy pierced his brain, and he was instant- ly killed. The next day we were moved to the right of our army, and held in reserve nearly the entire day, and participated late in the evening in making the final charge over the enemy's breastworks of black- jack logs, and Chickamauga was ours, and the enemy on retreat to Chattanooga, ten miles distant. General Bragg has been much criticised because he did not capture General Rosecrans's army before he was safe- ly ensconced in the forts upon which we had ex- pended so much labor. If General Bragg had had a sufficient force of fresh cavalry, the feat might have been accomplished ; but it must be borne in mind that we had been on the move some five days and nights, with little sleep and short rations, and when the final

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER VIII. The Wilderness Campaign 72

CHAPTER VIII.

The Wilderness Campaign.

THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN. 75

of General Grant across the Rapidan; in fact, all our pickets had been withdrawn when General Grant first reached and obtained possession of the Brock road. He thought that General Lee was retiring toward Richmond, but we were hid in the Wilderness for the time being. His scouts reported our whereabouts after nightfall of May 4. On the morning of May 5 we were forming our lines; and as General Grant's numbers outflanked us, we had to stretch out the thin gray line, and on my part of the line we did not have a rear rank, and the front rank files were so far apart that they could not touch elbows. There was so little cleared land in the wilderness that the old fields were named for their owners. My line of battle was in a pine thicket on the edge of Palmer's field, a clearing of some two hundred feet in width and some five hun- dred feet in length. On General Grant's side of the field the pine and underbrush was as thick as on our side. Just in the rear of our line, and running par- allel with us, was a newly cut road on which wagons had recently been hauling out timber. Into this road we ran a battery of nine pieces charged with grape and canister. This was our position when, about 3 p.m., the picket lines commenced firing, and our pickets, who were across the old field, ran to and joined our ranks. Soon a line of blue appeared on the opposite side of the thicket, and opened a brisk fire, and continued to advance on us, and the battle of the Wilderness had begun. The One Hundred and Forty-Sixth New York Zouaves were in our imme- diate front, and their commander was Major Gilbert. They were as fine-looking a body of men as I ever saw.

THE PRIVATIONS OF A CITIZEN. 137

I took a plunge, and went down, I suppose, some twelve feet; and when I struck the bottom, I shot up like a rocket, and struck out for the shore, which I soon reached. But I got very cold when a few feet up the bank, and could go no farther. I had on noth- ing but my underclothes, and but for a flatboatman who carried me on his back some two hundred yards to the burning America I believe I would have suc- cumbed to the cold. On my berth that night was my Baltimore overcoat, which I had worn in General Lee's army and had sent to relatives in Virginia before the Wilderness campaign. My relatives had forwarded it to me at Nashville in the fall of 1865, and it was lost in that terrible holocaust ; but I was glad to get out.