Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/234

 224 Southern Histm'ical Society Papers.

moved at daylight of that morning the victory would have been so much the greater that it might have resulted in the achievement of our independence, as suggested by General Bragg. It is certainly a heavy indictment against the dead Bishop that he by his inaction, disobedience of orders, or whatsoever you may term it, had sacrificed that boon for which the Southern people were contending, and had rendered nugatory and of no avail all their heroic exertions and sac- rifices. It is sometimes best to let the dead past bury its dead ; but in a case of this sort I think it due the memory of such a man that someone or more of General Polk's military family should tell us what he or they know on this subject.

James N. Goggin,

A. A. General, Mc Laws' s Division. Austin, Texas, January 2, 1884.

Report of Brigadier-General E. W. Pettus of Operations at Lookout

Mountain.

Headquarters Pettus's Brigade, Camp near Dalton, Ga., Decembers, 1863.

Sir, — Ax half- past 12 o'clock oii the 24th ultimo I was with my command on the top of Lookout Mountain, and was then ordered by Brigadier-General Brown, commanding Stevenson's division, to report, with three regiments of my command, to Brigadier-General Jackson, commanding at the Craven House. I moved at once with the Twentieth, Thirty-first and Forty-sixth Alabama regiments, and at the head of the column I found Brigadier- General Jackson at the point where the road to the Craven House leaves the road leading down the mountain. Communicating my orders, I was directed to hasten forward and reinforce Brigadier-General Moore at the Craven House.

On the way I met squads of Moore's and Walthall's brigades; and when about three hundred yards from the Craven House I found that that ])oint had been carried by the enemy. The two brigades which had held the point had fallen back. Here I found Brigadier- General Walthall with the remnant of his command formed at right angles with and on the left of the road, gallantly fighting to stay the advance of the enemy. He informed me that he had lost a large