Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/192

 182 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Lookout Mountain!

report of brigadier-general j. c. brown.

Headquarters Brown's Brigade,

November go, i86j.

Major,— \ beg leave to submit a report of the part performed by my command in the battle of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, on the 24th and 25th November, 1863

On Monday night, the 23d November, Major-General Stevenson directed me to take command of his division, then occupying the summit of Lookout Mountain, and defending the approach at the point and on the west slope of the mountain as far as " Nickajack trail," a distance of ten miles. At 12 o'clock that night I was ordered by the Major-General to send Cumming's brigade to the base of the moun- tain to-report to Brigadier- General Jackson, and Haggerty's battery of Parrott guns to report to Brigadier-General Anderson, on the right of the line on Missionary Ridge. Early Tuesday morning, the 24th, the passes of the mountain were re-enforced, and at 12 M., in obedience to an order from the Major-General commanding, I sent Pettus's brigade (except the Twenty-third and Thirtieth Alabama regiments) to report to Brigadier-General Jackson, half way down the mountain, leaving me only my own brigade, the Twenty-third and Thirtieth Alabama regiments, and battery of Napoleons.

The Eighteenth and Twenty-sixth Tennessee regiments were dis- posed at Powell's and Nickajack trails and the contiguous passes. Powell's trail is seven and Nickajack ten miles from the north point of Lookout. The pass at the point and those nearest to it, for two and a half miles on the west side, were held by detachments from the Twenty-third and Thirtieth Alabama regiments, while reserves from the same regiments, under command of Colonel Hundley, officer of the day, were held near the line of defense, south of Summertown, to re-enforce their pickets. One section of the battery, under charge of

, was in position near the point, while the other section was held

in position disposable between the point and the line of defense, on the south. About 12:30 I moved the Thirty-second Tennessee, the largest regiment of my brigade, to re-enforce the point and to sup- port the artillery. At i o'clock P. M. the two Napoleon guns on the point opened fire upon the enemy, then passing near the " Craven House," and continued it incessantlv for two hours. At the same