The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-07

TIRE army on the other. ii looked as If they
could never get back over those mountains
had the enemy succeeded in crossing the
tennessee river and successfully attacking
tnem: AT noon on the 2lst day of August,
IS6S, Colonel Lfllys guns opened on the Con-
federate stronghold of Chattanooga, right
in the face of the whole of Bragg's army.
tIo 70 tne eonsIernaton ana surprise OF
tnat great general himself, as the hasty re-
moval of headquarters afterward testified.
II was JeH Davis fast day, and the citi-
zens were all at church when the loud
booming Of Lilly's guns disturbed their
surroundings, and they hastily left their
churches without ceremony. No shells were
commander was devoted to sinking two
steamboats,, the Dunbar and the Pantrock,
which were lying by the shore. This was
successfully done after d half hours firing.
and the men of the brigade breathed easier
as they saw the boats sink The combined
forces. consisting of nineteen guns in all.
directed fire upon the Lilly battery from
noon until dark, but their range and aim
was so imperfect that the battery escaped
with the loss of only one man and four
horses all killed by the same she'll
LILLY AT CHICKAMAUGA.
1.-The next morning miry-looking man
appeared before Colonel Lilly He said he
had just swan the Tennessee river, that
bis name was Bill Critchfield, and he owned
the Critchtield House, over in Chattanooga,
that General Bragg was using for head
quarters, and he wanted to see Colonel
Lilly knock nell out of his house. The
gentleman was soon accommodated, and
from his perch in a tree near one of the
guns he had the satisfaction of seeing sew
eral shells go through his own house and
explode on the inside and the hasty exit of
all the occupants. In the battle of Chick
amauga, which began about noon Friday,
Sept Is, at AleXander's bridge, Colonel
Lilly's battery fired the first shell on the
advancing army of Bragg, which was really
the opening of the great battle known in
history as Chickamauga: On the Saturday
of the great battle Wilder's brigade and
Colonel Lilly's battery formed part of the
main line of battle on the right of the Four
teenth Corps. About 8 o clock in the after
noon of that awful day Colonel Lilly
place in the history of the army of
the Cumberland. In front of a part of
lines of the two contending armies ran a
ditch parallel to the line of battle. The
rebels would charge our lines, get far
as this ditch and then drop into it out of
dislodge them. Just after very heavy fire
of the enemyS line and while this ditch was
full of rebel soldiers Colonel Lilly limbered
two guns of his battery, galloped out to a
point at the head of the ditch, where the
guns could rake it from end to end, and
opened out with triple charges of grape and
canister down that ditch dealing death
and carnage with every shot. There stands
to-day on the battlefield of Chickamauga,
on the identical spot occupied by this brave
man. two cannon placed in position to
commemorate this act of bravery on that
eventful day. During some of the terrific
charges made on our lines by LongStreet )
men Colonel Lilly rode on his horse from his
Caissons to his guns, bringing up armloads
of canister and grape to hurl at the enemy.
During the pursuit of Wheeler Immediately
after the battle of Chckamauga, when for
twenty-One days our cavalry and mounted
troops kept up fight with this Confederate
general, Colonel Lilly constantly pushed his
command on the skirmish line, and when
ever the rebels made stand his guns were
always in position. and the boom Of his
1fgrn
charge So much faith did the troops have
in the effectiveness of his battery that when
the horses of the guns would give out by the
roadside the troopers of the brigade would
dismount from their own horses and give
them up for the use of the artillery in order
to have the battery along with them.
BROUGHT THE GUN BACK.
"At the battle of Massey Creek, Dec. %,
1868. our forces were driven back. When the
order to fall back was received all the horses
belonging to one of Lily's guns had been
killed, and one gun was left on the hill as
the troops fell back. Colonel Lilly went to
General McCook, commanding the Union
cavalry, and begged of him to give him a
company of cavalry to make a charge and
bring off that gun. General McCook said
he had no~troops available except small
body of scouts, but he could take them.
Colonel Lilly, with this small body of men,
led charge up the hill to his gun, driving
the enemy back and brought the piece safely
into the Union lines. All through the winter
of 1868 Colonel Lilly operated with McCook' $
cavalry in East Tennessee During the en-
tire winter the troops drew no rations ex-
hard tack. They lived exclusively off of the
country. He never rested himself until his
men and teams had something to eat. If
there was anything in the country Colonel
Lilly saw that his men had some of it, No
commander looked after his men more con-
scientiously than did Colonel Lilly. He was
always en- the alert for his boys as he al
suffer if there was anything he could posi-
bly, do to prevent it,
During the two and a half years he was
in command of the battery he was forty-one
times under fire and was twice struck by
bullets, but escaped with only slight wounds.
the Cumberland was preparing for the At
lanta campaign. Colonel Lilly came home
on a short leave of absence. when Governor
Morton, recognizing the ability and dash of
the young officer, rendered him the position
Of major of the Ninth Indiana Cavalry. This
commission was accepted and he resigned
his position as captain of the Eighteenth
Indiana Battery and was mustered major
of the Ninth Cavalry April A. 1864. Dec. "a
lieutenant colonel. Colonel Lilly left his bat
terry with profound regret, but under the
then existing organization of the Indiana
batteries, no promotion above a captain
could be made, and he justly deserved a
higher command and made the change on
that account only. The battery reluctantly
devotion to his men had so endeared him
TO their hearts that to this day the love
they then bore him still lives in their mem
cries too deeply to ever die out"
IN THE CAVALRY SERVICE.
Alert, aggressive, courageous, the cavalry
was the service for Colonel Lilly He was
ideal cavalry officer" said Judge Com
stock. of the Appellate Court few days
since, land 1 cannot conceive his superior"
continued the man who was a captain in
the Ninth Cavalry. This is the judgment of
every man the writer has met who served
under Colonel Lilly, whether officer or en-
listed man.
A pamphlet edited by Judge Comstock,
containing papers read at the reunions of
the Ninth Cavalry, contains an account of
the encounter at Elk River bridge, on the
Nashville q Decatur Railroad Sept 90 1864
Major Lilly sent with several com
paneS to protect treStle at that point. The
force was made up of attachments of the
Ninth Cavalry, Third Tennessee and two
companies of colored troops, $50 men in the
aggregate A small fort with two guns,
held by the cOlored companies was intended
to protect the trestle. The killing of one of
the officers who ranked Major Lilly and the
wounding of the other, left him in COM
mand. He was confronted by General For
rest army of ten or twelve thousand men.
Hold the fort at all hazards was the or
der which the major of twenty-six years
received from his superior officers. The
vastly superior force of Forrest seized the
surrounding hills and raked the little earth
work with its artillery. Nevertheless, with
this insignificant force Major Lilly held out
more than six hours, losing heavily. 1t
would have held out longer but its am
munitiOn was exhausted. There was a lull
in the fire on both sides. and a flag of truce