Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-08-29
MAeNIFLcENr FIoHTINe.
General BOyton's Description of Southern
Halor At Chickamaura

| battle OF Chickamauga he must, at
every step, become more and more i'm
| pressed with the magnificence of the
Confederate fighting. Since the first
assertion that Chickamauga was for both
| sides the bloodiest battle of the war, in
proportion 10 numbers and the time of
the engagement, and that it far out
ranked in the percentage of killed and
| wounded any of the battles of modern
! Europe. there has been an industrious
j searching of records. both of our own
war and of recent famous foreign cam
! paigns, TO test the accuracy of the
| claims made for Chickamauga. But the
further the investigation has proceeded,
and is now sufficiently completed to al
| low general results to be stated with
certainty. the more Clearly the truth of
/ the first assertion has been made to ap-
/ pear. 1t is pot strange, therefore, that
! the discussions OF the past year, which
has served to dispel so many OF the mis-
! apprehensions which clouded the public
mind in regard to this battle, and
! dwarfed it in the history of the country,
should have created such widespread in
terest in its real history, and raised it at
once to the very front rank of the most
notable engagements of our war.
The marvel of German fighting in the
| great battles of Mars la Tour was per-
| formed by the Third Westphalian regi-
ment- 1t suffered the heaviest loss in
| the German army during the Franco
Prussian war. 1t went into the battle
5000 strong, and its loss was 49.4 per
cent There was nothing in the cam
| paigns of which this formed part which
exceeded these figures, and they became
| famous throughout the German army.
| And yet in our war there were over six
! ty regiments whose losses exceeded this.
Seventeen of them lost above 60 per
cent, and quite number ranged from
! 20 to so. There were over a score of
regiments on each side at Chickamauga
whose loss exceeded that of the West
phalian regiment.
But the object Of this letter is more
particularly to set forth the character
of the splendid fighting performed by
every portion of Bragg's army on this
noted field in Georgia.
The battle of Saturday opened in front
of General Brannan, on the extreme
Confederate right, and here brigade of
Forests cavalry, dismounted, assisted
almost Immediately by Confederate in
fantry, assaulted the Union lines. AS
they were driven back by an Overwhelm-
ing fire they were continuously rein
forced for nearly four hours. The bat
! tie was continuous and constantly at
short range. In fact, it was distin-
! guished feature of the whole two days
battle that most of the fighting was at
close range, much of it hand to hand.
with the bayonet and dubbed muSketS.
Forests men in front of Brannan as
saulted time and again, marching up
| into the very faces of the Union in
| fantry, and in their final effort came on
| four lines deep, with their hats drawn
down over their faces, and bending for
| ward against the storm of lead as men
| face the elements. The rapid fire of
| long and well-trained infantry seemed
/ to have no effect upon these veter-
ans, and it was not until they had
marched up into the line of fire of bat
| teries, which, with double-shotted can
| lister, enflladed their ranks at q murder
/ Gus range, that their advance was check
| ed. Even here they stood and fought
with desperation. Ector and Wilson, of
! Walkers division, and Walthall and
| Govan, of Liddell's, all marching to the
| assistance of those contending in this
hell of battle, became, in turn, as hotly
! engaged themselves in front of Baird.
| and for hours on this portion of the field
| the scene just described on the extreme
/ Confederate right was repeated for all of
| these brigades. At the first onset
| Walthall and Govan drove their lines
over the flank of the regular brigade
and captured its battery, only to be
themselves pushed back again almost at
the point of the baYOnet, and so shat
tered from their own courageous ex-
posture at short range as to be practi-
| oo1lry IF tho 6rh for carora1
hours. Nothing could exceed the valor
of these troops. There was nothing in
the way of desperate fighting either of
infantry or artillery which they were
not called upon to face. And they did
face it with courage seldom equaled,
and which it was impossible to sur
pass.
Thus the lines of the two armies,
marching toward the sound of this furi-
GUS battle, closed in toward the positions
of Brannan and Forrest, each striking
| the other, as they came into position
and within reach, with as ponderous and
murderouS blows as are everdelivered in
war. Cheatham, moving to the support
of Walker. turned on Johnson with ire
sistible force and drove him well back
ward toward the Lafayette road, when
Palmer arriving on JohnsOn's right,
these two divisions, acting in concert,
drove Cheatham back mile, and badly
shattered his entire command. Next
came Hood with Law and Bushrod
Johnson's divisions and one brigade of
Preston's, and these grappled with Davis
and Wood and Sheridan along lines of
battle that at times were scarcely two
musket lengths apart, and thus till sun
down this contest ragged in the thick
woods between the Lafayette road and
the Chickamauga, each line bending
backward as the other delivered its
| heaviest blows, and as if gathering
strength by the recoil, in almost every
instance, rushing forward again to sway
the opposite side backward in turn.
There was no general stampede on
either side at any point of the first days
battle, but weight of lines and weight of
metal and the momentum of blows Wig
orously delivered controlled the result
at every point
Late in the evening of Saturday, when
the fighting on the TANKS had well nigh
ceased. came Stewards division of Bates
and Clayton's and Browns brigades,
pounding its way past the TANKS of two
| Union divisions, and, doubling back the
flank of third, they penetrated be-
yond the Lafayette road. Before its
/ brave career was checked it had we'll
nigh divided the Union line. 1t is easy
to see that over all this extended area
of bitter and continuous fighting the
loss must have been terrific. The fig
ures to be presented below will make
the character of this fighting, to which
reference has thus been made in most
inadequate terms, more clearly under
stood. But stubborn and terrific and
deadly as was the Confederate fighting
of Saturday. it became but ordinary per-