Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/375

 General M. P. Lowrey. 369

boro, my regiment was detached for special service, and did not engage in the first day's fight, but took an active part in the skirmishing that followed it, and I was left to bring off the brigade in the retreat from that place.

Early in 1863. at Tullahoma, the Forty-fifth Mississippi regiment was consolidated with mine, and I was placed in command of the con- solidated regiments. Up to this time I had but little opportunity to drill my regiment, but at Tullahoma, in the spring of 1863, we drilled for several months, and my regiment became very proficient in drill. In an inspection by General Hardee of each regiment of Wood's brigade, drilling separately, my regiment was pronounced by him the best drilled regiment in the brigade, and the regiment was compli- mented in a general order. In the small fights and skirmishes that preceded the retreat from middle Tennessee in July, 1863, my regi- ment took an active part.

The next regular battle in which I was engaged was that of Chicka- mauga. In that, after a gallant charge, made by Cleburne's division on the evening of the first day, in which we drove the enemy from a strong position, and in which my regiment charged gallantly through an open field on the most exposed part of the line, General Cleburne complimented me personally ; but the gallantry displayed was not mine, but that of my men. In the engagement the next morning, when we charged the enemy's works and were repulsed with heavy loss, my regiment was, I think, in the most exposed part of the line, but held its position until all the troops had retreated, both on the right and left, and then was the first regiment to rally and form for another onset. I was again complimented by General Cle- burne, and I and my command were favorably noticed in his official report, as you are aware. My promotion immediately followed this engagement, with the circumstances of which you are well acquainted. My appointment as brigadier-general was on the 4th of October, 1863. I had then served as colonel eighteen months besides my sixty days' service with State troops. I count from the time of my election ; but under authority of the war department I had raised and organized the regiment, acting in the capacity and with the rank of colonel. You remember that after my promotion to brigadier-general I was assigned to the command of the old brigade with which I had served from the beginning, and which I had often commanded. From the foregoing you will observe, also, that I had never commanded less than a brigade.

I know you remember all about the part I took in the battle of