by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXXII
THE SECOND DAY AT CHICKAMAUGA
"Deck!"
"Artie!"
And the two brothers rushed into each other's arms, while Colonel Lyonstood by, his face full of joy over the return of his son. Artie hadtold the story of Deck's capture, and both he and the colonel had feltalmost positive that they would not see the major again for a long whileto come, and perhaps never again.
"Yes, I've had a very fortunate escape," said Deck, as he shook hisfather's hand. "I wouldn't be here at all were it not for TomDerwiddie."
"Tom Derwiddie?" queried Artie.
"Yes. Don't you remember him--the Confederate soldier I assisted at theburning cotton mill?"
"And you met him?" put in Colonel Lyon.
"I did. I was placed in his charge for a few minutes, and he veryaccommodatingly gave me his pistol, freed my hands, and let me knockhim down," continued the major, with a laugh, and then told his tale indetail.
"Well, you are more than lucky," said Artie, when he had finished."Finding Ceph was worth a good deal, eh?"
"It was worth as much as escaping," answered Deck, and he stroked thenoble steed affectionately. "I wish you could tell your story, too, oldboy!" And Ceph gave him a poke with that nose of his. It seemed as ifthe steed did most of his talking with that nose.
Others had gathered around, Captain Life Knox, Sandy Lyon, and UncleTitus, and Deck's story had to be retold to them. In the meantime he wasserved with a hot supper, and later on, given the means to change hiswet clothing for dry.
"You ought to have something to tell the general," said Titus Lyon tohim. "Of course you kept your eyes and ears open while you were overthere."
"No, Uncle Titus, I didn't. I promised the fellow who assisted me to saynothing, and I intend to keep my promise. But I wish I could havecollared that Captain Brentford, and brought him along."
The Riverlawns were encamped at the foot of a hill not far from CrawfishSprings. It was a fine place for a camp, and many of the privates werealready sleeping soundly. Soon Deck and his relatives and friendsretired, only the pickets being kept awake. In spite of his adventures,the major slumbered soundly, and did not arise until the Sabbath dawnwas well advanced.
It was felt by both sides that the morrow would tell the tale of defeator victory, and all night long Generals Rosecrans and Bragg were busyarranging their plans. The former could get no reenforcements worthmentioning; but to the Army of Tennessee were now added reenforcementsunder General Longstreet, who arrived shortly before midnight, to assumepersonal charge of the corps temporarily commanded by Hood. A roughestimate of the troops on both sides at this time places the number ofUnionists at fifty-five thousand, as against nearly seventy thousandConfederates. But what they lacked in numbers, the Army of theCumberland made up in position, for they occupied higher ground thantheir opponents--something of great strategic importance, as we willsoon see.
It must be confessed that General Rosecrans's troops were all butexhausted. Every soldier, excepting two divisions, had been thrown intothe fight on Saturday, and every division had marched and countermarcheduntil some of the infantry hardly knew whether they had feet or not. Onthe other hand, Bragg had three divisions and three brigades who had notparticipated in the battle, and who were thus fresh in every sense ofthe word.
The battle was again to be for the Lafayette road and the mountain gapsnear it--the gateway to Chattanooga and the East. The centre of thefield was the farm owned by a man named Kelley. The battle front of theUnionists ran around the northeast corner of the farm, across theLafayette road and to the southwestward. The firing line was morecompact than on Saturday, two brigades of each division being placed infront, with the third brigade behind, in reserve. At the left of theline was Baird, with Johnson, Palmer, and Reynolds following, insomething of a semicircle. South of this semicircle lay Brennan andNegley, with Davis and Sheridan guarding the vicinity of the WidowGlenn's--still Rosecrans's headquarters. As before, the cavalry wasstationed at both ends of the line, although the larger portion remainedbetween the Chickamauga and Crawfish Springs, to do regular duty andalso help guard the field hospital previously mentioned.
Bragg's forces overlapped those of Rosecrans's both on the right and theleft. Opposite to Baird was Breckinridge, who had just come up, withArmstrong, Pegram, and Forrest overlapping the Unionists' left wing.Next to Breckinridge came Cleburn, Steward, Johnson, and Hindman'sbattery. Behind Johnson lay Law and Kershaw, with Cheatham and Walkerstill further back, on the right; while Gracie, Kelly, and Preston wereto the rear on the left.
During the night the Army of the Cumberland was not idle, even though amajority of the soldiers slept soundly. The pioneers were out in force,with the Engineering Corps, and many barricades of trees, logs, andbrush were piled up, along with sods and loose rocks. The Confederatesheard the ringing of axes and the crashing of timber as it came down,but could do nothing toward stopping the construction of these defences.
Sunday morning dawned with a heavy fog filling the valleys--a fog sodense that the mountains were shut out, giving the battle-ground, fromevery point of view, the appearance of a ghostly plain. This fog did notbegin to lift until nine or ten o'clock. Bragg had given Polk orders tobegin the battle, but minute after minute passed and the Confederateleader sat impatiently astride of his horse, waiting in vain for thesounds of the conflict.
"What is the matter with Polk,--why in common sense doesn't he dosomething?" General Bragg is reported to have said, and started off forthe right wing personally. He found Polk absent from the field and nopreparations being made to attack Baird. As the fog lifted, he saw howhis right overlapped the Union left, and how the Rossville road was thusleft open, and Breckinridge and Cleburn were given orders to advancewithout delay.
In the meantime Thomas had ordered Negley to reenforce Baird. But onlyone division could be spared, which was rushed to the scene with allpossible speed, and that was all the support the left flank received.
At half past nine the battle was on, Breckinridge and Cleburn comingswiftly onward with a ringing yell, to meet a sturdy resistance fromBaird and Beatty's division of Negley's brigade. The contest was fiercefrom the very opening, and for a while it looked as if the left flankwould be completely annihilated and Baird's command made prisoners. Butregiments and divisions under Johnson, Stanley, and Vandever werehurried to the scene, and, suffering heavily, Breckinridge was thrownback, with two generals killed and his chief of artillery mortallywounded.
By this time the battle had extended down the line, and now Cleburn,Walker, Cheatham, and others became involved. The artillery on bothsides were pouring forth shot, shell, and canister at a fearful rate,and whole lines of brave infantry were mowed down like blades of grass.
With the repulse of the Confederates' right the hopes of the Unionistsran high, but when victory seemed almost assured, a grave blunder atthe Union centre brought fearful disaster to the Army of the Cumberland.Receiving an order to close up to Reynolds, Wood took it to mean that hewas to fall back in support, and he left the Union centre to do this.The gap was quickly filled by Longstreet, and thus the right and leftwings of the Army of the Cumberland became separated, and henceforth twobattles ensued instead of one, on ground from a half a mile to one mileapart. To the east of Kelley's Farm and the Lafayette road were Baird,Johnson, Palmer, and Reynolds, still in their old semicircle, while tothe westward of the road was a jagged, but unbroken, line composed ofnearly all the other troops. The Confederate forces lay scattered inseveral directions, but principally in front of both of the positionsmentioned.
The disaster to the centre, followed by a determined attack on theright, was more than the Union troops could bear, and they were forcedto give up ground, until another stand was taken, as described above. Inthe meantime, Thomas was in ignorance of the state of affairs on theright, yet he soon discovered that he was fighting more than his shareof the enemy on the left. He had massed his artillery on the slopes ofMissionary Ridge, and now he withd
rew from his breastworks of trees anddirt, and took up a position here. To get to the ridge was no easy work,and the slaughter counted up into the thousands upon both sides.
A pause in the tide of battle followed. Like two giants the armies facedeach other, getting their "second wind," and speculating on how toproceed next. Thomas held the ridge and the Confederates were bound todrive him from it and shatter his forces. It was two o'clock and assaultafter assault was made, lasting until sundown. At times the Confederateswould gain a slope or a minor ridge, but a Union division or a brigadewould rush upon them and dislodge them, or a battery would literally cutthem to pieces. The charges were truly magnificent, but Thomas and hisforces stood like so many rocks, and could not be dislodged. At sundownthe attacks ceased, and it was well that this was so, for many of theUnion troops were short of ammunition. In some cases the latter attackswere repulsed solely with bayonets and clubbed muskets.
With the coming of night, it was deemed advisable to have Thomas'sforces withdraw in the direction of Chattanooga, and this plan wascarried out, although not without additional fighting, in which a fewmen were lost and a large number of infantry were made prisoners. Bythis movement the Army of the Cumberland was again reunited, and stoodonce more as a wall between General Bragg and Chattanooga.
When Major Deck Lyon awoke in the morning he found the encampment of theRiverlawns submerged in mist so thick it almost appeared as if it wasraining. Major Tom Belthorpe and Captain Artie Lyon were already astir,and the three gathered together, to talk over the situation.
They were not, however, left alone long. Colonel Lyon had already beenmoving around, surveying the "lay of the land," and had made thediscovery that a large portion of the enemy had crossed the Chickamauga.While an early breakfast was being eaten, orders came to march theregiment up to a position midway between the creek and the hospital onthe field.
The road ran for some distance parallel with the creek, with shortbrush on one side and a sparse growth of trees on the other. It wasuneven and the cavalry had torn it up considerably.
The first battalion was well in advance, when, without warning, aregiment of the enemy poured down on them from the woods. The firstintimation of the proximity of the Confederates was a round from fourcompanies, which tore through the ranks of Captain Artie Lyon's command,killing three and wounding twice as many more.
Without waiting for orders from the colonel, who was riding in the rear,watching Major Truman's battalion, Major Deck Lyon called a halt, andswung the first and second companies into position. "Take aim--fire!"was the command, and the bullets clipped hither and thither through thetrees. One Confederate was thus taken unawares and the whole regimentbrought to a halt.
But though repulsed, the enemy did not halt long. In less than a minutethe Confederate colonel gave the command for nearly his whole regimentto advance, and the leading companies came out of the timber on thedouble-quick. A portion of them fired again at the first battalion ofthe Riverlawns while the remainder reserved their ammunition for TomBelthorpe's four companies.
Colonel Lyon now galloped up and looked inquiringly at his son. "Deck,what does this mean?"
"We are caught, father, that is what it means," answered the major. "Ifyou will allow me to say so, I think we had best re-form behind yonderbrush."
"I will take your advice, for you have felt the enemy," said ColonelLyon, and lost not an instant in giving the necessary orders. By thetime the shelter of the brush was gained, the firing line of theConfederates was fairly well defined, and the colonel placed his ownmen, four companies abreast, and two companies deep, with the secondhalf of the second battalion and the second half of the third battalionin reserve. Ten sharpshooters from Captain Life Knox's command and anequal number from Captain Ripley's company were detached, to make adetour and learn the true fighting force of the body thus suddenlyencountered.
The Confederates had advanced as far as the edge of the woods. Betweenthis and the road lay a small patch of grass, so that the cleared spacebetween the brush and the first row of timber was a little over ahundred feet. The brush was heavy along the road, and the first row ofthe Riverlawns, dismounted, were as close up to this natural defence aspossible.
The open space disturbed the Confederate colonel and he hardly knewwhether to trust a rush across it or not. But, finally, he gave theorder, and four of his companies came on, spread out in a skirmish line.They fired as they came, and received a sharp fire in return. At thebrush they hesitated, and while doing this, received a volley from theRiverlawns behind.
"This is going to be warm work!" observed Major Belthorpe to Deck, as hegalloped up on his black charger. "That fellow must have a good reserveforce somewhere back there."
"Ripley and Knox have found them, that's certain," answered Deck, as arattle of guns came from the sides of the enemy. "We'll soon get theirreport."
At that instant Colonel Lyon dashed up.
"There are but eleven companies of them," he said. "I think by a rapiddash to the north we can turn their flank and either make them retreator surrender."
"Let us make the move then," said Belthorpe, and Colonel Lyon gave theorders. Soon the Riverlawns were in rapid motion, to the Confederates'surprise, and likewise their bewilderment.