The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1905-10-26
VOL. XXV-NO. 4-WHOLE NO. 1862.

fortunate changes in affairs. crack
ler-line" had been opened by running
little bargeS past the enemy on Look
out and Raccoon Mountains. The SOL
diers and horses had something to eat;
better positions had been gained by
fighting for them. Great events were
now about TO happen. Grant. half in
agony, was waiting the coming OF Sher-
| man. Once, on Nov. Z, he had even
thought to strike Bragg without wait
ing. On that day he peremptorily or
dered Thomas to attack the enemys
| right. But for reasons of his own
| Thomas paid no attention TO the order.
II is almost pathetic to hear Grant tell
how he could do nothing then but wait
| for Sherman
A Great Spectacular Battle.
| Now, Sherman and his soldiers were
on the ground. 1t is not for a subor-
dinate officer to go into the plans Of
the great commanders who led at Chat
tanooga. / will only recall the bare
| names OF some of the military stars.
| Logan was there. and Howard, and
Sheridan, and Hooker. and Thomas,
Grant. and Sherman. President Lin
coin himself was there, i'm sense, for
he had telegraph wire stretched from
the battlefield into the White House. a
thousand miles away. These leaders
themselves have left descriptions as
simple and as great as the commen-
taries of Julius Cesar. But it is not the
big captains, standing on hill-tops and
| looking through field glasses, who see
the worst Of war. 1t is the subordinate
officers leading the men with the mus
kets. and the privates themselves, who
experience the real thing-the men who
come out of it with their bones broken
| and their faces smeared with blood and
| gunpowder.
The most spectacular battle that
ever took place on this continent was
twenty-five thousand soldiers were
about to close in a deadly grip in the
mountains of Tennessee. Nature had
done everything to make the scene
sublime. The beautiful Tennessee River,
rapid and in flood, wound its way past
lifted it's head 5000 feet above the sea;
Missionary Ridge, abrupt and rocky,
and 500 feet above the valley, stretched
off for many miles, mighty fortress,
seemingly impregnable to any human
assault Yet an assault was the very
thing we were about to undertake. Had
Missionary Ridge and Lookout Noun
tain not had a victorious and confident
army intrenched in their tops and sides,
they would still have seemed inaccess-
ible. l doubt IL there was a private
soldier in Grants army who did not feaI
every chance was against u.s.
Grant and Sherman both came over
to where our regiment lay the evening
Of the 23d of November. They came to
look at some mysterious pontoons, or
fiatboats, that were secreted in a creek
near to us. There We're 116 of these
boats. and at quiet signal i'm the night
Sherman's soldiers were to get into
them and cross the river for the as
sault.
Just before dark I went down to the
river and walked along the bank. On
the opposite side / saw the pickets OF
nd
close by the water. They were dressed
in brown or butternut, not gray, uni
forms. One of them called something
to me. and heard them chatting with
our own pickets near me. Not a shot
was fired by anyone, yet we could have
killed each other with common pistols.
This refraining from picket-firing was
not uncommon. We had acted so at
Vicksburg, when our trenches were SO
close that we sometimes passed coffee
and crackers to oneanother.
AS to my own regiment, we still had
short rations, and my horses were try
ing to get little supper from the leaf
less bushes where they were tied. I
had great pity for these helpless ami
mails Near US were hundreds of other
animals dead.
Taking Orchard Knob.
On this day, while our division 10
hiding here in the woods, nervously
waiting for what is about to happen,
We hear terrific firing to our right. The
center of the army is making a charge
in front of Fort Wood. Several divi-
sions have paraded there in the open
with bands playing, drums beating and
flags flying The enemy. from their
breastworks in the valley in front, looks
on in wonder at the beautiful specta-
Gle. Suddenly Grant fires a cannon, and
10000 of the beautiful paraders dash
toward the enmy's works with a yell.
hn1 mil fal
fore them and a new position nearer
the Ridge is gained for Grants center.
The charge lasted but a few minutes,
but it cost Grant LOO men. Now he
was nearer the enemy. He could stand
on top of Orchard Knob and look at the
whole battlefield. With his glass he
could see Bragg's headquarters on top
of Mission Ridge. He could see Bragg
himself, walking about among his
staff. Bragg and he had been school
boys together at West Point. They had
once been members of the same regi-
ment in the Regular Army. Fate had
done strange things for them. There
they stood on the heights gazing in
each others faces. AT their feet, in
the valley, lay 100000 men hurrying
to slaughter one another. Grant and
Bragg. They were making history.
Crossing the River.
Darkness came on early that night
before the battle, and my wet and shiv-
ering regiment lay down in their soaked
blankets on the ground to sleep.
1t must have been o'clock in the
when the sound of rowlocka
on the water wakened us. The pom
toons were coming. They had been
brought out of the creek and in the
darkness and silence 80 soldiers
climbed into each boat. Sherman him
SELF in a long waterproof, was near the
mssa |