Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-01-14
Renaissance OF cHIcAMAueA.


Cdlly tue IOGEOIub VI lllt tbcDellIOIls'
Up to this time thirty volumes have
been published and received, and !
suppose have done what few have
read them all. Some have been
dry and profitless and Others pro
foundly interesting. The last three
volumes were devoted entirely to the
Chickamauga campaign, the reports
and correspondence from each side,
without change or comment, and as
written at the time Having been a
participant in all the dangers and
hardships of this dreadful conflict,
and the antecedent days of march,
maneuver and hunger, my interest
was intense and its incidents came
back fresh and vivid as il the time
was even now.
| belonged to Forests division of
cavalry, and for two weeks before
the battle this splendid division had
been engaged every day with the
nemy. 1t was the custom every
day, as soon as light came, for the
command to move forward I'M
til the tnemy's forces Were
found and then skirmish all
day until night closed in. The
country was poor, hiIly and broken
and had been exhausted Of all its
supplies by the continued inroads Of
friend and foe until absolutely moth
ing was left but a stunted growth Of
corn, then in the roasting ear state,
when it'had any ear at all, 1t is no
eXaggeratiOn to say that we lived on
this corn and had nothing else. No
attempt whatever was made to issue
the cavalry any ratiUns. The fact is,
there never was any regularity in
this line during the whole war. 1t
seems as if it was the intention and
hope of those in authority that the
cavalry should steal whatever it had
to eat, and il is but far to say thai
any reasonable expectations of this
sort were not disappointed. We ate
this corn until it was a standing joke
that we could anything a horse could
eat. We had a long, tall, gangIing
soldier in our company, by name
Milt Seward, a wag if the good Lord
ever made one, and l remember his
getting up solemnly one night and
saying: "Well, l have eaten nine
ears of corn and if | had two bundles
of fodder could finish my supper"
Bragg was maneuvering to draw
Rosencranz from the hills, and Rosen
cranz believing that Bragg was in re
treat upon Rome, was Fastening to
intercept his flight, and the cavalry
had to bear al the brunt Of the pre-
liminary conflict. The serpent was
coiled and re dy for the deadly blow
and the Federal commander had
gathered the true intent of the Con
lederate gene al and massed his forces
for the conflict. rhe night of the
18th the lines confronted only Few
hundred yards apart, and an incident
occurred this night which has never
been embalmed in song, but ought to
be. No one would possibly ever sup,
pose that mine host of the Franklin
House, Will Briughurst, when he
looks upon the numerous and hand
some family he has around him, was
It one time a barefoot Confederate
soldier, but he was aye, more, and
with shoes on or off, no bet
ter or Drawer ever wore the gray, as
every comrade 50 well knows. On
this particular night Bill and | stood
on guard together. We were in the
woods ; the Federal line so close that
we could hear the sound Of their work
the murmur of their voices. 1t was
cold and Bill had no shoes, so |
scooped a hole in the ground; he got
i'm ii and ! covered his feet with dirt
ami so he stood until the hour OF
came and with ii the relief
guard. Next day the battle opened
early, and among the first to fall
was my bed-mute, Alex. Bacon. !
saw him when he was shot and then
he was borne away and l never saw
him more. Late in the evening of that
lay Forests division was ordered
from the LETT to the right of hearny.
We went in swift gallOp across the
field and as we passed by the Federal
batteries ut Lee and Gord0u's mill |
they opened on us, and the shells |
and round shot plOWed through our
columns and tore up the eartn around |
Is. Arriving on the right, we found
division of infantry, with .
liked bayontts stretching in Il long
inc before us. The command was
,iven to draw sabers when the di-
vision had been massed in double
ines in the rear of Cleburne and then
he whole moved forward while the
arth shook beneath the tread!
The sun had just sunk to rest, on a
lear day, and the sky was
'et crimson from his dying eful-
.ence. Away to the left the battle
lowly progressed, with Intermittent