The National tribune., 1881-09-03
THREE NOVEMBER DAYS.
THIRD DAY-MISSION RIDGE.
j. F. TAYLOR.
From Little ClasSics.

From Little Classics.
The stars and stripes floated from Lookout on
Wednesday at sunrise. At twelve on that day,
something with the cry of loon making its
wav up the river. Screaming through the noun
tains it emerged at last into Chattanooga, and its
looks were a match for its lungs,-an ugly little
craft more Ike backwOodS cabin adrift than a
steamer, it was the sweetest-yoiced and prettiest
piece of naval architecture that ever foated upon
the Tennessee. The flag on the crest and the
boat on the stream parts OF the same story:
first. the fight on the mountain: then, the boat
on the river. Never did result crowd more closely
on the heels OF action. When the thunder began
TO roll around Lookout the boys in line before
Mission Ridge cried out: d" Old Hooker is opening
the cracker line!" And when the next noon they
heard the shrek of the steamer. they laughingly
said, The cracker line is opened" and went
straight into the fight with will. They have
direct way of putting things" in the Army.
do not think that, going about Chattanooga
last "Wednesday morning, You would have dis
cerned an impending battle. The current of
regular business was not checked; the play of
mems little passions was as lively as ever Jest
and laughter eddied round the street corners, and
sunny places. But there were signs Of heavy
weather. The doors of the ordnance depOts
swung open. the sentinels stood aside. and am
munition was passing out. You could see can
vas-backed" wagons working their way out OF
town TO the eastward, apparently but little in
Them and vet labOring beneath their freight.
Grape and canister and shot and shell make
heavy loads as well as heavy hearts 4 build
ing here and there is cleared and strangely fur
nshed with long rows of pallets Ambulanccs set
forth, one after another: they are all going
way; they are bound for the valley of Mission
Ridge And if all this should fail to set YOU
thinking, Vet there are things that may. perhaps.
disturb the steady stroke OF an eaSy-gOing heart
Sitting with me- last Tuesday night, You would
have heard such talk as this. A chief of staff is
speaking: Jenny, here is a package Of money
I'll leave with YOU till | come back" Lend me
your watch said dashng young major to a
comrade, and here's a hundred dollars if should
forget TO return it tomorrow night, you know"
And the officer swallowed little memory of
something and went out. You part the folds of
tent after tent: writing letters here burning let
tiers there, getting ready for the longest of all
Journeys that can vet be made in minute.
Well said an officer that night. Il shall be in
the hottest place in the field tomorrow; but do
you know ?-the bullet is not run that will kill
me-" And the gallant fellow dropped Oft into a
childlike sleep. while | lay awake and was
troubled And he told the trutll-the bullet was
not mOulded-fOr little after four the next after
noon a bursting shell carried away the pound
of flesh that Shylock craved; and again he fell
asleep
IN THE ARMS OF THE ALL-FATHER. GOOD NIGHT!
If seeing for ones self is an art, seeing for
another is a mystery, requiring, | mstrust, a
better pair of eyes than mine. But if my readers
Will accept a straightforward, simple story Of
what one man saw OF Wednesdays work as bare
of establishment as the bayonets that glittered
TO the charge here ii is: You are standing again
on Orchard Knob, the centre OF our line of ad-
vance: Mission Ridge is before: Fort Wood be-
hind: the shining eihow ot the Tennessee to the
left; Lookout to the right. Never was theatre
more magnificent; never was drama worthier of
such surroundings.
The same grand heroic line of battle but
little longer and stronger silently stretches AWAY
either hand. Breaking it up into sylIablcs
and reading from left to right YOU have Howard's
Eleventh Corps: Bairds division of the Four
teenth Corps with the brigades Of Turchin
Vandevere, and CroXton: Woods division of the
Fourth Corps, with the brisades Of Bcattie
Willich, and Hazen: Sherdans division, with
the brigades of Wagner, Sherman, and Harker
Kings brigade Of Regulars, and johnson's diyi-
sion of the Fourteenth Corps. And then, at the
tip of the wings, on flrthest lett ana right, are
Sherman and Hooker,
Imagine chain of Federal forts, built in be
tween with walls Of living men, the line flung
northward out Of sight ard southwark beyond
Lookout. Imagine Il chain OF mountains crowned
with batteries and manned with hostile troops
through a siX-mile sweep. set over against us IN
plain sight, and you have the two fronts the
blue, the gray. Imagine the centre of our line
pushed out mile and half towards Mission
hdge,-the boss. a full mile broad, of a mighty
shleid,-and You have the situation as il was on
wednesday morning al sunrise.
The IRON heart of Shcrmans column began to
be audible, like the fall OF great trees in the
depth OF the forest, as it beat beyond the woods
on the extreme left Over roads ndescribabe and
cOnquering lines of difficulties that met him all