Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/130

 124 Southern Historical Society Papers.

this steep mountain side charged the Northern hosts, and here was fought "The Battle Above the Clouds." The eye ranges over Wal- dron's Ridge and Missionary Ridge, rendered historic by bloody and desperate battles. Twenty-seven years ago the soldiers of Gen- eral Bragg, ranged along the crest of Lookout Mountain and Mis- sionary Ridge, held the Northern army closely invested within the military and fortified camp of Chattanooga, and sustaining upon their bayonets the fortunes of the Southern Confederacy in the West, they resisted the southward flow, of the red tide of war, and for a time protected the mountains, hills and valleys of Georgia from the devastating march of Northern hostile armies.

BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA, GEORGIA.

To the south winds the river of Death along whose densely wooded bank, on the iQth and 2oth of September, 1863, lay thirty thousand dead, dying and wounded Confederate and Federal soldiers.

The battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, is justly regarded, as one of the most bloody conflicts of the war.

General Bragg' s effective force on the first day of the battle, Sep- tember 19, 1863, exclusive of cavalry, was a little over thirty-five thousand men, which was in the afternoon reinforced by five brigades of Longstreet's corps numbering about five thousand effective infan- try, without artillery. The Confederate loss was in proportion to the prolonged and obstinate struggle, and two-fifths of these gallant troops were killed and wounded.

Dr. A. E. Flewellen, the Medical Director of the Army of Ten- nessee, who is with us at this reunion, active and energetic in body and mind, at the age of seventy years, gave the following estimate of the Confederate losses in this bloody battle of Chickamauga :

BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA CONFEDERATE LOSSES.

Corps-. Killed. Wounded. Total.

Polk 440 2,891 3,331

Hill 311 2,354 2,665

Buckner 436 2,844 3.280

Walker 367 2.045 2 >4 12

Longstreet 260 1,656 1,916

Forrest 10 40 50

Grand total 1,824 11,830 13,654