The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-06-06
CHICKAMAttGA.
Captain McCaslan's Account OF His Re-
cent Trip to the Bloody Battle Field.

Editor Press and Banner! Please
allow me space in your paper to give a
brief description Of our trip to the
Chickaniauga battlefield.
Our commission were all in readi-
ness on the 10Th, and pleasantly seat
ed on the G., G. & N. railroad, when
we left Greenwood at 2.34 p. m.
After pleasant ride we were land
ed in Atlanta in due time, when we
all enjoyed good supper at the Kim
ball, the pride of Atlanta. Soon we
boarded the train for Chattanooga,
and arrived at one o'clock and took
shelter in the Red House, just across
the street from the depot.
Early the next morning Gen. j. S.
Fullerton of the National Committee
called and informed US that Gen. II.
V. Boynton would call for us with car
riages and take US to the battlefield.
about eight miles from Chattanooga.
After pleasant ride over the finest
pike road I ever saw, we landed,
where, just thirty-one years ago, the
two great armies contended for the
mastery. Many sad thoughts filled
us as We called over in our memories
the names Of the brave men who
fought their last battle just where we
were standing, and whose spilled blood
and mouldering bodies made the soil
sacred to us and hallowed in the hearts
of all Southerners. What changes
time has wrought Instead of meeting
foes, We were met by the Identical
men who fought us, and the liberality
and courtesy shown US helped in a
measure to dispel the gloom which
had settled upon our band of eleven
who had participated in the awful
struggle which has given that battle
field such conspicuous place in the
history of our nation.
All the old land marks are preserv-
ed with great care. Not a tree that
stood there then can be cut, and not a
house can be removed or changed.
The government has bought the bat
tlefeld, containing over six thousand
acres. All Of the little country roads
that existed then have given way to
splendid pixies. Our army drove the
enemy all day Saturday, and on Sun
day morning we were in possession of
all the field of Saturday with its
countless dead and wounded. The
two armies were posted fronting each
other on opposite sides of the Lafay
cite and Chattanooga road, with our
army little nearer the road. Large
tablets with the names of the corps,
divisions and brigades, are posted just
where each line was standing, and a
turnpike road running down in rear Of
each army, so that there is no trouble
in finding just where all the different
commands were posted when the fight
opened. All you are required to do is
to locate the march or charge and
where you struck the enemy.
The enemy had decidedly the ad-
vantage in position, as the foot hills,
or, as we would call them in South
Carolina, mountains, reaching down
and in some places making part of
their line. They had also, when it
could be done, formed breast works of
such materials as they could collectin
the night. As to what occurred along
the entire line I am unable to speak,
but will confne myself to the part ia
ken by the 10th and 18th S. G. ", in
tat memorable fight.
We were ordered forward with Deas'
brigade on our right, and Anderson's s
as our support. Manigault's brigade
was the extreme left of our line.
Forward we went through the woods,
when suddenly we burst into an open
field of some ten or fifteen acres grow
ing in corn, with house on the oppo-
site side, and a battery placed some
seventy-fve yards in front of the
house. That house is known as
"widow Glenn's house." We crossed
that field at a right oblique, and en-
tered into a very heavy wooded
ground, where We suffered very severe.
ly from an enfilade fire on the left Of
our regiment. The troops in our front
belonged to Gen. Sheridan division,
and gave way before our charge. Gen.
Wilder, who was posted about three
hundred yards in rear of General
Sheridan, said to us that when those
guns in front of the Glenn house ceas-
ed to roar he looked, and seeing Gen.
Sheridan's men running he immedi-
ately double-quicked his battery and
brigade of five regiments Of infantry,
armed with seven shooting rifles,
down to the Glenn house and gave US
the enflade fire just as our two regi-
ments swept by in the woods. The
18th S. G. is credited with capturing
the three pieces Of artillery posted
upon the hill. On we went until we
crossed the Craw6sh road, which was
half mile beyond that point. Then
we halted and Gen. Manigault
brought up the three Alabama regi-
ments and we reformed and moved by
the right up that road along which
Gen. Rosecrans had his army tele-
graph line, until we reached the Vi
dette house, in little field just at the
foot of the Snodgrass hills.
Here We were placed in position
with Dents battery just on our right,
and which battery we supported all
Sunday evening. Dan Hagan was
killed up on the hill just in rear Of
the 34th Alabama, and his body was
placed in the little house just in the
little field in our rear. Long and
stubborn was the fight at that point,
and Gen. Bushrod Johnston succeed
ed in getting in the rear of the enemy
after dark by going round the steep
hills and attacking him in the rear
when three Illinois regiments were
captured, thus ending the. fight so far
as our command was concerned.
TO make this so very interesting we
met the identical men we fought.
About half dozen of General Will
der's men who vouched for our state
ment of the Glenn house, and an
equal number from Ohio who met us at
Snodgrass in the evening fight. The
men from Gen. Kershaw's brigade