Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/401

 400 Southern Historical Society Papers.

battery, gained the cover of a fence north of the clearing, poured into it a few volleys, charged and captured the battery. This was well and gallantly done, and Lieutenant-Colonel Snowden, with the officers and men under his command, deserve especial consideration for the manner in which the movement was accomplished. The remainder of the brigade, save about one-third of the right regiment, now crossed the road. The Seventeenth Tennessee, the left regi- ment, had moved about two hundred yards beyond it, and the Third and Forty-first Tennessee regiments, of Gregg's brigade, which had continued to move with Johnson's brigade, had advanced somewhat farther, when the enemy, marching by the flank, suddenly appeared on the left and rear of the last two regiments. Colonel Walker, of the Third Tennessee regiment, on discovering this movement, faced his regiment by the rear rank and moved back across the road, while Colonel Tillman hastened to communicate the knowledge of the move- ment to Colonel Fulton, commanding Johnson's brigade. The move- ment of the enemy down the Chattanooga road was so prompt, that they penetrated our line on the left of Johnson's brigade, filed off to the left and fired a volley into its rear.

This brigade now moved by one impulse to the right and fell back to the east of the road from Chattanooga to Lee & Gordon's mill, leaving eleven officers (including Major Davis, of the Seventeenth Tennessee regiment), sixty men, and the captured battery, in the hands of the enemy. In the meantime the Third and Forty-first regiments, Tennessee volunteers, which were falling to the rear, were placed in position by Captain W. T. Blackemore, my Aide-de-Camp, who was on duty in that part of the field, and discovered this move- ment of the enemy, and, by his instruction, charged the column which had so suddenly appeared in our rear, and drove it back. Colonel Walker now placed these regiments diagonally across the road, the right advanced, facing the enemy, in which position I ordered him to remain for a time. I have no doubt that we had encountered a portion of McCook's corps of the Federal army, moving to support their left. Our scouts thrown out in front of our skirmishers, and my brigade inspector, Lieutenant Black, after a personal reconnois- ance, had previously reported the enemy moving artillery and in- fantry in that direction. With the heavy force of the enemy still in the vicinity of Lee & Gordon's mill, and this advance of my division, unsupported by any movement on my left, was pushed quite as far as was judicious.

Finding my line now, about sunset, quite irregular in its formation,