Chapter 87

CHAPTER LXXXVII

While the fighting was going on in our front General Geary came up to where we were engaged, and told us if we would hold our line until night Atlanta would be captured, as part of the army under the immediate command of General Sherman had made a detour on the left and were threatening the rear of the Johnnies.  Altho’ at the time we did not believe the General, the events of the next two days proved the statement to have been correct.

The members of our company as well the regiment, suffered severely, owing to the concussion caused by the discharge of the 12 pieces of artillery placed in the regiment.  After the battle the men could scarcely speak to each other, and when they did, it was at the top of their voices.

In the night the enemy came back and gathered up the dead and wounded, and as our skirmishers supposed that the advance was to be general, they opened fire upon them, and the men rushed excitedly into the line, expecting the renewal of hostilities.  It was soon ascertained what the enemy was up to and we retired to our beds after remaining about an hour in line.

As this engagement was really the last regularly pitched battle in which our company and regiment participated, we have concluded to publish the following extract from “Moore’s Rebellion Record, Vol. XI, Page 252.”

 “At noon of the 20^th,” says an eye witness of the scene, “Geary advanced to his ‘tete de point,’ and with the assistance of a section of Magill’s Battery succeeded in taking a ridge in his front to which he advanced his Division, formed with Colonel Candy’s Brigade on the left, Colonel Jones on the right, and Colonel Ireland’s in the center, and proceeded at once to erect barricades.  They had just got fairly to work when the fierce shout of the enemy and the confused sound of their mydiad tramp struck the startled ear.  More than half of Geary’s line was in a dense forest filled with underbrush, the remainder faced an open field.  Across the latter it was a brave and terrifying sight.  When we remember that the entire rebel attacking column reached along the front of  but four of our Divisions, it can easily be conceived how massive and deep their formations were.  In the forest the thickets fairly wilted and disappeared under their feet, so closely were they packed and so irresistible their progress.  They came on without skirmishers and as if by instinct, struck Geary’s right flank, where a gap existed, that William’s Division was endeavoring to close.  The four regiments forming the right Brigade were enveloped on their flank and rear in a moment, and cruelly enfiladed.  Subjected to half dozen cross fires, the brigade fell back hastily to the trenches it had left in the morning.  To remain would have been annihilation.  Portions of Colonel Ireland’s Brigade were also torn to pieces by the withering cross-fires, and fell back after repeated gallant efforts to re-form their line to return the fire on flank and rear.  The moment was a desperate one.  The enemy was almost within the grasp of Lieutenant Bundy’s Battery on the right but he suddenly wheeled one section from front to right, and by double-shotting the guns with canister, succeeded in repelling the greedy vermin in dirty gray.  *   *   *   *   So bitter was this enfilading fire to which Geary’s position was exposed, that the caissons of the guns that had been taken to the rear for safety were driven back to the front to escape a more disastrous fire that was sustained at the ordinary point of danger.  But the remainder of General Geary’s Division (the Brigade to which the 147^th was attached) stood as firm as a rock.  The enemy in vain charged and re-charged from front and right flank.  Until nightfall the unequal contest was waged, but Geary held his hill inflexibly.  The enemy sullenly left his front during the evening, firing spitefully as he retired. *   *   *   *   I have seen most of the battle fields in the department of the South-west, but nowhere have I seen traces of more deadly work, than was visible in the dense woods in which Geary’s right was formed.”

Owing to the protection which our works gave us, and the fact that the enemy attempted to break through our regimental line at the point of the bayonet, charging repeatedly down on us, our loss was trifling compared with the injury inflicted upon the enemy in our immediate front, being only 2 killed and 5 wounded.

On the morning of July 22^nd, the enemy having fallen back, we started in pursuit and passed thro’ their deserted works, which we found to be very formidable, erected on the most approved plan of modern engineering, and as we gazed upon them, now so completely unable to do the Yankee army any harm, we certainly felt very well satisfied that the rebels had allowed us to take undisputed possession of them.

While we were leisurely making our way undisputed towards Atlanta, the Rebel Commander, J. B. Hood, was massing his army to strike a decisive blow to our left wing, under command of General James B. M’Pherson, and if possible to destroy the same.

About noon of the 22^nd, we reached a slight rise and found ourselves uncomfortably near the outer line of the rebel defenses of the city of Atlanta, and for which we had been steadily pressing forward during the past three months.

We were halted here and soon placed in line of battle.  We were ordered to put up works.  As soon as we had our arms stacked, we unslung knapsacks and speedily proceeded to put up works, and as we did not know but that the enemy might attempt to renew the experiment of the 20^th, we worked with a will, and soon had the satisfaction of having a tolerable line of works erected.

During this time we could hear that a heavy engagement was being carried on to our left and which proved to be the rebels attacking M’Pherson’s army by the rebel General Hardee and in which the gallant General James B. M’Pherson lost his life, and which attack if made at the time that it had been ordered by General Hood, co’d scarcely have failed of its desired object, the demoralization of our left wing.  The rebel commander reas­onably supposed that by making a desperate assault on M’Pherson’s Command that General Sherman would weaken his right wing in order to support the hard pressed left, and thus at the proper time throw the mass of his Army upon the weakened right wing of the Union Army, and thus crush it at one blow.

The plan was a feasible one, and only failed on account of Hood’s Generals failing to carry out his instructions as to the time of commencing the attack.  After we completed our works, we attacked the blackberries which grew around our works in great plenty and which we soon cleaned out, since it wo’d take rather a large patch of berries to supply enough for a corps of men for any length of time.

In the evening the enemy opened on our works with a number of guns and for three hours they sent the shot and shell into our works quite lively.  As a matter of course our batteries were not quiet, and a magnificent display of fire-works was produced, but had it not been for the danger which attended the display, it would have been much more enjoyable.

The line of works which we occupied were exposed to an enfilading fire from the enemies batteries, our engineers at once proceeded to lay out a new line of works.  Considerable discussion arose in the company concerning the new works; all, with the exception of Corporal Ulrich, holding that the new works would  subject us to a much more severe enfilading fire.  We moved into them in the afternoon of the 26^th, and what was our surprise when the first shot was fired, when in place of coming in on our flank, it flew squarely over us.  Then Freddy had the last laugh on us, and it was sometime before we heard the last of it.

The rebels annoyed us considerably by throwing 64 pound shells at us. The battery threw a shell at us every twenty minutes.  A guard was placed on the works, and whenever the time was almost up, he would call out “time,” and then such a scrambling for the breast-works would take place as was laughable in the extreme, and then silently awaited the report of gun.