Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/361

Rh But General Hood shows that the forces of Thomas on the ground were fifty thousand strong (187). General Sherman shows that Thomas had, on the 19th, crossed Peach-tree creek in line of battle, building bridges for nearly every division as deployed, and was now in position with at least two of his corps entrenched (Sherman's Memoirs, volume II, pages 72-73), and I can recall no instance in that campaign where either side succeeded in carrying and holding any extensive line of well manned works, except as accomplished by Hardee's corps on the 22d of July, two days later. Hence there was nothing in the fact of such a repulse to warrant reflection upon the troops or their commander.

The situation was now as follows: Bate's division, finding no enemy in its immediate front, on account of the circular formation of the enemy's lines, had been sent forward through dense timber to find and turn his flank; Walker's division, temporarily disabled in the first assault, was shifted and ordered forward to co-operate with Bate's flanking movement; Cleburne's division, hitherto in reserve, was brought up, and with his two available divisions, Cleburne's and Maney's, Hardee prepared to renew the attack in front; and the final orders had been given to the division commanders to move to the assault, when the order, above referred to, was received from General Hood, directing that a division be withdrawn and sent to the extreme right of the army. This necessitated a countermand of the assault as it was on the point of execution, and Cleburne's division was withdrawn and dispatched as directed.

Against such forces and works as were in Hardee's front it would have been folly to throw troops in detail and without concert; and before the new dispositions thus made necessary could be perfected, General Hood countermanded the movement and ordered the troops to be withdrawn to their former positions (321, 350).

The same emergency which had necessitated the shifting of Cheatham's corps to the right, a few hours earlier in the day, and occasioned the delay in the first attack, had now, in the opinion of General Hood, required the withdrawal of a division from Hardee at this critical moment, and prevented the renewal of the attack.

Of this, and the situation at the point to which Cleburne's division was thus sent, Captain Irving A. Buck, then Cleburne's Adjutant-General, and now residing in Baltimore, writes as follows: