Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/195

Rh to them and drove them from their cover. I cannot speak in terms too exaggerated of the unflinching courage and dashing gallantry of those 500 men who contended, from 7:15 a. m. until 1:45 p. m. against an immensely superior force of the enemy, and finally drove them from their positions and pursued them a mile or more down the mountain. "The losses on this wing were severe in killed and wounded, among both officers and men; it could not be otherwise where such brave fighting was done.

The left of General Johnson's position had been intrenched and there were posted Anderson's and Miller's eight guns and the troops that were first turned out in the morning—the Twelfth Georgia, the Fifty-second Virginia, and Dabney's Pittsylvania cavalry, dismounted, with carbines. About a half hour after the attack on Johnson's right, a heavy column of the enemy, led by a traitor well acquainted with the locality, approached this position by a road running along a leading ridge and toward the left of the trenches. The enemy were evidently surprised to find an intrenchment in their front, as they hesitated in approaching. Captain Anderson, as they came in sight, mistook them for Confederate pickets coming in, and rode forward telling his comrades not to fire. The Federals instantly fired a volley in which this brave soldier of three wars and many battles fell mortally wounded. The Confederates quickly responded, and their galling fire soon drove the enemy back into the brush and fallen timber, from which they kept up a constant fire which was returned with spirit, by both infantry and artillery, especially by the latter, which, stung by the death of their loved leader, poured shot and shell among them, making their position untenable and driving them from the combat, in which they were assisted by the force on the right which General Johnson drew to the left after the enemy had been repulsed from that portion of the field. The enemy fled from this combined assault and retreated down the mountain in great confusion, leaving their dead and wounded and the debacle of their retreat behind them.

Colonel Johnson concluded his official report of this engagement, dated December 19th, by saying: "Although we have reason to be thankful to God for the victory achieved over our enemies on this occasion, we can but