Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 09.djvu/77

68, at canister range, to my artillery in the mouth of the gap. Five or six rapid discharges broke the right of this line to pieces and caused them to run for shelter under the railroad embankment. Farther to his left, however, he continued to advance, and made a heavy attack on the right hand ridge. He continued to advance in the face of a deadly fire from Major Taylor's regiment, with the determination to turn the right flank of the Texas brigade. Major Taylor deployed skirmishers up the hill at right angles to his line of battle and held him in check while he informed Colonel Granbury of the state of affairs. Colonel Granbury sent two companies of his left regiment to reinforce his right. With three companies of his own regiment Major Taylor charged down the hill upon the force attempting to turn him and routed it, capturing between sixty and one hundred prisoners and the colors of the Twenty-ninth Missouri regiment. In the meantime I had ascertained that the enemy was moving another line of battle some distance beyond my present fight, with a view of ascending the ridge in that quarter. I instantly notified Brigadier-General Polk, stationed in the rear of the gap, to ascend the ridge and meet this attempt of the enemy.

Luckily General Polk had already heard of this movement from a breathless straggler of our army, who was flying before the enemy, and, anticipating my order, sent the First Arkansas up the hill, and met the enemy's skirmishers within a few yards of the top. With the assistance of the Seventh Texas, after an obstinate fight, the enemy was driven down the hill. By this time large bodies of the enemy had crowed the Chickamauga, and it was evident that the main attack was about to be made upon the right. I ordered General Lowry to move his command up the hill and assist General Polk in defending that position. Moving rapidly ahead of his command, General Lowry found the First Arkansas again heavily engaged, but heroically holding its ground against great odds. Assuring the regiment that support was at hand, he brought up the Thirty-second and Forty-fifth Mississippi in double time, and threw them into the fight at the critical moment. The enemy gave way, and went down the ridge in great confusion. Lowry now brought up the two remaining regiments of his brigade, and Polk the two other regiments of his command. The enemy, constantly reinforcing, made another powerful effort to crown the ridge still further to the right. A peculiarity of Taylor's Ridge is the wavy conformation of its north side. The enemy, moving up in a long line of battle, suddenly concentrated opposite one of the depressions in this wavy surface, and rushed up it in heavy column. General Polk, with the assistance