Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-08-07
ground gained and lost, saliant taken
and retaken, lines broken and riehted


and retaken, lines broken and righted
up again; with gaps filed here and
fianks covered there; movements
checked, flags captured and recap.
tured, guns taken and retaken, stars
and bars and stars and stripes vieing
with each other for place thus did
the masterful strife continue. Lines
advanced and recoiled again and
again amidst the din of battle. The
doubtful issue was prolonged, each
party holding the lines with dogged
tenacity, making the second more
deadly day than the first. 4
Longstreet holding the left wing,
Polk the right. The Federal left
had been driven back, but was re.
sisting and holding the crown of
Snodgrass Hill. The Federal center
had been pushed from their strong
hold near the Glenn house. Cheat
hams division was holding its own
against great odds, but the Federal
right was firmly holding its lines
behind it's works.
Then near five O'Clock the order
came to the Confederates to charge
all along the line. The scales were
still trembling in the hand of fate,
but slowly balancing to the Confede-
rate side. That September sun,
poising on the verge of equinox, that
had looked with burning eyes all
day on this carnival ot blood and
was nearly setting, seen through the
smoke of battle, seemed to be en-
larged and softened into an apparent
ball of blood. That soft sunlight
falling upon the begrimed, dust. COW
cred and powder-burned faces, be-
meath the old slouched hats, stand
ing thus in line of battle, every man
in his place, silence, such as pre-
cedes the storm, brooded over all
until those fatal words: "Fix bayo-
nets! Forwafd!" rang down the
line as if borne on electric waves.
The whole line oheyed; moved at
first with o slow and measured tread,
then with quiokened steps as they
neared the blazing guns, when, with
the wild rebel yell and the resistless
charge, the opposing lines, after a
desperate resistance, suddenly gave
way and the battle was won. The
left wing swept forward and the
right sprang to the broad Chatta-
nooga highway. Like magic the
Federal army had melted away in
our presence. A few hundred pris-
oners were picked up by both wings
as they met, to burst their throat in
loud huzzas.
The army of Tennessee knew how
to enjoy its first grand victory. The
dim twilight hung heavy about the
trees as if to keep down the voice of
victory, but as the two wings swung
around and met there went up a
Simultaneous shout from the Con.
federate lines announcing our sue.
cess complete. Before greetings and
congratulations had passed it was
night, and the quartering moon be-
gan to throw it's mellow light ovee
the dead and wounded that lay 80
thick along this bloody plain.
The Confederate army made its
bivouac on the ground it had gained
in the first pronounced victory in the
West and one of the most stubbornly
contested battles of the war. Long
streets command in less than two
hours lost nearly forty-four per cent
of it's strength. The strength of the
Confederates was 1891 men. The
Federal forces 64,392.
The Confederates captured in this
battle over eight thousand prisoners,
fifty-one pieces of artillery, fifteen
thousand stands of small arms and
quantities of ammunition, with
wagons, ambulances, teams and
medicines, with hospital stores in
large quantities. Thus ended one of
the bloodiest battles of the war.
On the Goth of September, thirty