Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-01-09
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.
The Veterans of the Rebellion Tell OF
WhistIing Bullets, Bright Bayonets,
Bursting Bombs, Bloody Battles,
Camp Fire, Festive Bugs, Etc, Etc.

One story" said the Georgia Ser
geant, calls up another In all this
talk about Kenesaw no one has re-
ferred TO what took place within the
Confederate lines at the moment when
The Union troops seemed on the point
of breaking over the breastworkS at
The dead angle, on Cheatam's hill Just
as McCook'S brigade received the heay-
lest fire of the Confederate line in their
immediate front the Confederates to
the right of the angle broke and the
men We're moving TO the rear when Ma
Jor Smart OF Il Georgia regiment, com
ing up with re-enforcements, checked
the panic. The men faced again TO the
front and took their places again be-
hind the breastworkS. where they re-
manned
The story was told that day that
some Of the men of NIaneyS brigade
heard that the FedcralS had tiunked the
Confederate position OH The left This
word was passed along the line. and
there was, for few minutes. some
thing like "A panic AS Major Smart
came up the retreatmg men were as-
snred that the Confederate cavalry had
checked the thanking movement. and
The line was steady again. Thought
Of this when l read of the fight over
the works, the men coming So close
that a Union officer caught an AK from
one of our men ana carried il hack
with him Suppose the Union col
umn that pressed up close 20 the works
had struck the point where the Confed-
crates broke, what would have hap
pened?
There was minute at the crisis Of
that battle when the Union troops.
climbing the Confederate works. might
have gone over on TO the back of
the minute. however. and the Union
troops at that very point We're the next
minute met by a murderons fire. The
incident illustrates the fear our men
had of Sherman's flanking operations.
They had been tianked SO many times
that they We're looking for flank AT
tack that day, instead of the furious
assault in front. .
General Joe Johnson" said the Col
onel always insisted that the story
that SheTmau's asSaulting columns
reached the rebel works and held their
ground within few yards of the rebel
trenches was not true. He admitted,
on one occasion, that a party of Fed
efal soldiers, favored by the ground
sevenfy-hYe yards in front of Cheat
ans line, built a parapet and stayed
there. The General must have meant
seventy-five feet, because the lines
were for several days closer than that.
as may Confederate officers have de-
clared- The closenesS Of the lines in
front of Cheatam's division is not a
matter of Yankee boasting; it Is a fact
TO show that the aSsaulting col
unms did force their way TO the rebel
works, | quote this paragraph from
letter just received from nm officer or
Cheatam's division: II is strange that
none of your men. who held the front
below us cat the dead angler and threw
mp the works that day. did not see the
dead body OF The chestnut horse re.
ferred TO by Major Eakin. ON the
night of July 3 | placed vedette be-
hind that horse. When we left the
works on the morning OF July 4. the
stencil was unbearahle 10 us. and
should have affected your men equally
with ours.
This refers 10 the man on horse.
fAn g.ls - Il
Cooks right. If the horse was shot
close enough TO the rebel works to be
used us shield for II yedette. that
officer rode into the zone of heaviest
fire, and was endorsed AT the foot of
the rebel breastworhs The horse lay
pet constructed by some Of McCook's
men, and yet not one Of our men can
identify the gallant officer who rode
him or tell what became of him"
That does not surprise me-" said
the Captain. Il was in tho regular
brigade at Stone River and my mind
has been ever since ID n state of con
fusion az 10 certain things that hap
pened in ralmer's front on the 3lst
of December, 1862 There was no
trouble about our own line. Wherever
the regular brigade went it stood. Ike
a rock. At one point we had been
formed TO check the rebel charge that
had shattered two or three fighting
brigades representing rs many d!vls.
ions.
We were posted 50 as to have
view Of the ground fought over aud
the scene was exciting and confusing.
We saw one o. Palmer's brigade hurl.
ed against The reue.s in such fury as
10 break the rebel line. We saw ono
Of the charging regiments, isolated.
spread It's thin line 10 check heavy
column Of rebels charging toward us
at regmentaI FROM; The Colonel com
the isolated regiment wore
heavy flowing beard aud he and the
other field officers were good riders
and were wei mounted But when the