Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/357

 B. F. Cheatham, Major-General C. S. A. 351

sissippi ; rallied our scattered troops at Belmont, attacking the enemy in flank and putting them to flight, and pursuing the fugitives to their gunboats. At the battle of Shiloh he was under fire, with his com- mand, all the first day on the extreme right and, till after two o'clock of the second day, the extreme left. Here he received his well-merited commission as major-general of the Confederate States army, bear- ing date March, 1862. In the Kentucky campaign he led the van of the right wing, and at the battle of Perryville his division bore the brunt of the conflict and won brilliant honors. During the battle he rode along the lines, through an incessant shower of shot and shell, calmly smoking his pipe, and breathing the very soul of chivalry and enthusiasm into his men.

That day he captured three or four batteries. Lieutenant-General Polk, in his report of the battle of Perryville, says: "To Major- Generals Hardee and Cheatham I feel under obligations for the judg- ment and skill manifested in conducting the operations of their respective commands, and for the energy and vigor with which they directed their movements. Few instances are on record where such successes have been obtained against such disparity of numbers."

At Murfreesboro, in the two actions of Chickamauga and Mis- sionary Ridge, and during all of Hood's campaign, and on many a field beside, he exhibited the most perfect self-possession, the utmost disregard of peril, the sublimest enthusiasm of heroic battle ; while in the disposition and management of his forces he united the dis- cernment of the commander to the ardor of the soldier. Wherever he appeared he gave a new zest to the conflict and a new impulse to victory. On Hood's campaign it has been charged that Cheatham failed to give battle when the "enemy was marching along the road almost under the camp-fires of the main body of the army." It is sufficient to say that Cheatham possessed in an eminent degree that indispensable quality of a soldier which enabled him to go wherever duty or necessity demanded his presence. He understood thoroughly that it was better that a leader should lose his life than his honor ; and we may believe his statement that " during my services as a soldier under the flag of my country in Mexico, and as an officer of the Confederate armies, I cannot recall an instance where I failed to obey an order literally, promptly and faithfully." We may accept the statement of Major D. W. Saunders, A. A. G., of French's division. "The assumption that Scofield's army would have been destroyed at Spring Hill, and one of the most brilliant victories of the war achieved had it not been for the misconduct of Cheatham, is