Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/50

 38 Southern Historical Society Papers.

exan:ined the field after carefully reading all the official reports of the officers engaged in the fight, and had been unable to fix the ground held by his brigade. Although I had not visited the field since the battle on the 14th of September. 1862. I had such a distinct recollection of it that I made a somewhat rude sketch of the ground as I remembered it, marking the position held by the brigade about half way down the east side of the mountain on both sides of the Hagerstown pike, as above stated, and sent this sketch to General Carman with a note of expla- nation, and in due time I received a letter from him, which I still have in my possession, in v/hich he savs : "Yours of the 7th instant received, and we thank you for the information therein contained. There have been many changes in the fence lines on the South Mountain field, but your sketch enables us to locate the one behind which were the 23rd and 28th Georgia."

This gives me assurance that m)' recollection is correct about the location of the brigade, and that it was not moved back by General Hill to the top of the mountain, but remained in the same line where Colonel Colquitt had placed it. A very im- portant place it occupied and though furiously assailed several times during the afternoon by largely superior numbers, it was never driven from it, dnd when we fell back that night we brought off all our wounded.

As soon as General Hill discovered that the enemy were mov- ing in heavy force towards Fox's Gap. on his right, he sent General Garland with his brigade and Bondurant's battery out on the narrow mountain road leading from the Mountain House, to the top of the mountain at Fox's Gap. about three quarters of a mile south of the pike.

At this point the read upon which General Garland marched connects with the Old Sharpsburg road, by which the Federal division of General Cox had reached the mountain top some little time in advance of Garland, and here the fight commenced between 8 and o'clock in the morning. General Garland had little time to put his regiments in position before he was at-