Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/379

Rh It has not been within the scope of this paper to refer to the operations of Cheatham's corps, which were directed from the Atlanta side, for the most part, as I understand it, against the entrenched position of the Fifteenth corps.

How well the troops fought, and how gallantly they were led, is also manifest by the record of losses. General Hardee, in a letter written on the 24th of July, two days later, with the returns no doubt before him, states the loss in his corps alone at thirty-two hundred and ninety-nine (3,299) in killed, wounded and missing. This included Major-General W. H. T. Walker killed, and Brigadier-Generals Gist and Smith and other acting brigade commanders wounded. Cleburne's division lost about fifteen hundred officers and men out of a total of about thirty-five hundred carried into action (I get these figures from his Adjutant-General, Captain Buck); and one of his brigades in a single desperate charge lost about one-half of the entire number engaged in it (Lowry's official report). The loss in officers, especially field officers, was unparalleled}} and irreparable. It aggregated over sixty field and acting field officers in the corps; and thirty general field and acting field officers in Cleburne's division alone. Hardee was obliged next day to break up one of his divisions.

The manner in which the troops were led is thus referred to by General Strong, in the paper above mentioned (page 106), in speaking of the second attack of Walker and Bate on the Sixteenth corps:

And referring to other portions of the field later in the day, he says:

And the author of the book entitled "Iowa and the Rebellion" (pages 259-261), in describing the fighting of Iowa troops, where Cleburne's and Maney's divisions were engaged, quotes from General Giles A. Smith's official report, as follows: