The National tribune., 1909-06-03

| to capture them. The men were bayo-
neted, their skulls crushed by gun bar
rels, and they were run thru by officers
swords. Col. w. w. Belknap, of the
18th Iowa. actually reached across the
| works, caught Col. Lampley, of the 18th
Ala, by the coat collar. and pulled him
over the works, with the Alabamians
firing savagely at him to save their
Colonel.
The colors of the 18th Ala. were also
snatched down by some of our daring
men and captured. This fighting lasted
for three-quarters of an hour before
the enemy finally gave up and went
back again. to the cover of the woods.
No sooner was this attack over than
| another one began from still another
direction, preceded by heavy fire of
canister at close range, accompanied by
musketry. rJ
| While all were fiercely engaged. 1t
seems that the 11th Iowa and the 18th
Wis. had rather the heaviest part of
the fight. There were at one time four
stands of colors planted on the works
around the colors of the 11th Iowa. OF
these Private George B. Haworth, Co.
B, 11th Iowa, captured one Confederate
| flag, and Edward Siberts, Co G, 18th
Iowa, captured the battle flag of the
45th Ala. This flag was. however,
claimed by the. 18th Iowa. because Pri-
vate Crowder, Co. C, of that regiment,
mad shot and killed the man who bore
| 1t. At the same time the brigade cap
tured 257 prisoners. including one Col
onel, one Lieutepant-Colonel, one Ma
| ljor, two Captains and three Lieuten-
ants. saTr 4.-e.r
The fight, lat this point lasted until
the welcome darkness, when the greater
part of thesConfederates retired to the
shelter of the woods, but they left a
line, obstinately holding the opposite
side of the works, so as to enable them
to carry Off their wounded during the
night. The morDing light showed the
ground thickly strewn with the dead in
gray and bptternut uniforms. r.
The Fight on Leggctt's Division, q
Gen. Leggett says that the enemy
poured thru the gap between his and
Giles A. Sfiiith's Divisions, SO that at
once he had to; put his men on the other
side of the he.@orks. with their backs to
Atlanta, to rifieet the assault. The reb-
els came on with loud yells and in
heavy masses, 1Stit were met by cool,
deliberate, weH-airied fire, which they
endured but a few minutes before they
retired in evident confusion. They
were quickly rallied, and returned to
the attack to meet the same fate. This
time they appeared to go back for good.
and there was a luli of about 20 min
utes, when an attack developed on the
other side toward Atlanta, and Leggetts
men sprang over their works to face
Atlanta and the new danger. There
was the same result as before. Shell
tered by the works, Leggett's men aimed
coolly and deliberately, and soon rent
and tore the assailants until they could
stand the punishment no longer, and
fell back to rally and return to the
charge. to be again repulsed
No sooner was this over than Leggett
was compelled to change front again
to meet an attack coming from an en-
tiraly different direction, and this
change was made under a fearful fire
of canister. In spite of the fact that
his troops had now been fighting five
hours, and were outside of their works
without protection of any kind they
did not yield an inch, althO the foe
came so close that swords, bayonets and |
musket barrels had to take the place |
of powder and lead. The slaughter was
terrific on both sides, but the enemy |
was repulsed, and Leggett's men held |
the key to the whole position in the hill |
which the Confederates had made sucn |
desperate efforts to regain Leggett re-
ported that he captured about 400 pris- |
oners, and on less than two-thirds of |
the ground fought over by his division |
buried and delivered to the enemy be-
tween 900 and 1000 dead bodies. He
was confident that his division killed
and wounded more than it had men
engaged.