Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/400

388 advancing under cover of a heavy artillery fire. General Walker's opinion was expressed to the effect that at a certain point to which we had walked, which was a narrow pass, artillery should be placed in position, extending to the left for a short distance towards the top of the mountain; that this would prevent any surprise by forces approaching in that direction, and at the same time they would answer the guns from the hills on the opposite side of Lookout creek; also to have artillery near the Cravens house to answer the moccasin-battery guns. By the first arrangement, he said, the artillery could have retreated by the road, and the infantry, which was put there to defend the artillery and pass, would have felt strong, and been better satisfied and better able to hold their position. He said his experience was that infantry care but little for artillery if they have artillery to respond with, and that they are soon demoralized when they have quietly to sit and receive artillery fire without having some of their own to reply with. I ventured to express my own opinion to Lieutenant-General Hardee subsequently, and in it I differed somewhat—not without great presumption, but with great diffidence—from that of so experienced a soldier as General Walker. If we were defeated on the slope, the guns, as I thought, must inevitably be lost from the impossibility of removing them under fire from their position. My plan of defence was to place a gun in every available position on Lookout point, and to sink the wheels or elevate the trails so as to command the slope of the mountain; in addition to which I respectfully suggested that on the point a sharpshooter should be posted where-ever a man could stand, so as to annoy the flank of the enemy. In my judgment there was no place northwest of the Cravens house at which our infantry force could be held on the slope of the mountain; and in consequence of this firm conviction I gave orders to Brigadier-General Walthall, which are hereinafter mentioned. Upon my return to the foot of the mountain on the 9th November, I found Brigadier-General Walthall and his brigade in camp there. Brigadier-General Moore's brigade was then at the Cravens house, where it had been for a time, how long I am not informed. General Walker directed that Brigadier-General Gist, commanding his division, and I with my own and Walthall's brigade of Cheatham's division, should defend the line from Chattanooga creek to the foot of the mountain, and permitted us to divide the line according to our respective strength as we wished. After riding along the line with General Gist, we made the